From Arequipa to Texas!

What a busy & crazy couple weeks we have just had. It merely explains but doesn't excuse my absence lately. But, if you can forgive and forget come please join me on our adventures the last couple of weeks.

Arequipa to Texas!

A couple of weeks ago John and Virgil went back to Texas to wrap up some last minute things and pack the Tovar's container. We made a map for the boys to help them understand what was going on. We moved the airplane everyday till they came home. Jenn, Ro, Eli and myself stayed behind happy that things were getting taken care of and we were moving more forward and happy that the guys would enjoy the company of those we love, but sad that this was an adventure we were not going to be able to embark on. Sad that we wouldn't get to re-unite with friends and enjoy and evening, or two, at Paloma. Sad that we would miss out on a real cheese burger, salami and artisan cheese. Pregnant, hungry and sad we waved good bye to the husbands.

Determined that we would make the best of the next 8 days without our respective husband we went straight from the airport to the hardware store (total side stop) and then directly to get the most delicious cheese empenada's Arequipa has to offer. It was this day we decided we were going to use our freedom of the car and discover something new about our new city 5 of the 8 days we were on our own. So off we went to begin our discoveries.  On the search for a the kiddo movie "Kung Fu Panda"we started walking around. We happened into our first discovery...A Libreria. Libreria's are everywhere but I didn't really know what it was, so we checked it out. Turns out that is where is you buy school supplies, wrapping paper, gift bags etc. Score! We picked up some colored pencils for Eli (a new found joy for him) and left fulfilled that we understood a little more about our little city and how things work.

Wednesday the guys, after many many long hours of traveling, arrived in Texas...exhausted and ready to go shopping at the outlets....lucky stinkers! We discovered a new shopping area as well....The Yanahura Market. Arequipa is growing quickly. Malls are popping up everywhere. Major grocery store are being built all over the place, but to a Peruvian, nothing will ever replace the Market Places. Markets sell toys, movies, fruits, meats, veggies, etc and cheap!!! They are great and so resourceful! We drive by the Yanahura Market all the time but FINALLY we took the time to shop where many Peruvians shop. For lunch, in honor of our guys being in Texas we enjoyed a yummy barbeque pulled chicken sandwiches. We were always thinking about our husbands!

In honor of our boys! Texas barbeque lunch!

Thursday the boys did some "work" and then enjoyed an evening with Johns ex co-workers are Paloma and/or friends from church. *Sigh* we were sad we couldn't be a part of it but we moved on. Thursday was an emotional day for me. I had a major sonogram for the baby and struggled with having to go without Virgil. What an experience though. We counted all his toe and fingers and spent 20 minutes getting to view my baby boy on a big screen, emotional that my husband was not by my side, but so happy to see my healthy baby boy. We will meet in 3 months! That evening Jenn and I wanted potato skins from TGI Fridays (please don't judge us) but sad and hungry we walked away from Friday's because they don't serve Potato skins yet....still to come next month. We decided we would go get some French Fries in the food court so McDonalds we went...seriously don't judge us! Jenn decided  she was pretty hungry so she opted for a Happy meal chicken nuggets and we discovered the worlds smallest container of fries! It was the funniest thing we have ever seen! From there we discovered Casa & Idea's...the Peruvian version of Crate and Barrel. We were in love right away. With the entire store 30% off we were both shocked and proud of our self restraint in not purchasing everything in the store. We left with a new kitchen towel for Mom Tovar and a list of things we look forward to adding to our new homes....one day.

Friday we after I picked up Jenn from school and before we picked up the boys from their school we went somewhere we have been dying to go to for weeks! We enjoyed a relaxing hour with a good cup of coffee at Mocca Bar, a super cute lunch restaurant and coffee bar that the boys would never want to go to. We enjoyed our coffee and our time a ton! As a couple of coffee conessours and wanna be future barista's we drank, critiqued, relaxed and enjoyed each others coffee and company.  That night we did our regular night time routine with the boys...read the Bible and a book, sing a song, say our prayers and say goodnight...tonight our prayers included a special insert requesting that the boys sleep ALL through the night, specifically in their beds and not ours. Let me be honest....the Lord cares about all the little details and He listens. The previous few days neither Jenn or I slept much with stuffed up or restless boys so we would give anything for a full nights sleep. The Lord did provide and the boys slept ALL night in their bed....which would be awesome except the house alarm went off NINE times that night. So it wasn't the boys that kept us up from 11 pm to 3:30 am...it was the stinking alarm!!!!! Nonetheless, the boys slept and the Lord answered our prayers....

Organic Market

"Farmers" Market

Saturday the guys spent hours with the gracious help of Texas friends and packed the Tovar's container. While they were busy FINALLY doing some work, we helped mom with some of her grocery shopping by going to the market (only up on Saturdays, equivelant to want many in the States know as a farmer market) to pick up our fruit for the week. We first stopped by and Organic "farmer's" market we had been wanting to try. It was small, but had some fantastic ingredients, and thanks to the market we now have to discover a good use for freshly roasted cocoa beans....delicious!!! After going to the market we went to Paris. Unfortunately it wasn't the real Paris, just the newly opened department store Paris. It was pretty nice store with fairly resonable prices. It reminded us of a really upscale Sears....maybe that sounds lame, but it wasn't.  Saturday night, Eli suddenly got sick. My poor son does sick so calmly and graciously. He doesn't cry or even whimper. Its unbelievable. Needing some medical advice so we Skyped John who was happily enjoying an evening at the Casey's eating Cheeto Puffs and a cheese burger.  It took us a couple minutes to wipe the drool off our faces and remember why we even called. We regrouped ourselves and took care of Eli.

Sunday the boys, in Texas, worked more on the container and enjoyed a typical Sunday dinner with the crew. Jenn and I didn't go anywhere but dad brought more some freshly slaughtered Halibut...some of the best fish we have ever had. I love living near the ocean!!!

The guys finally finished with the container!

Monday when I picked up Jenn from Spanish school I was able to meet her teacher. We asked her for some advice on a nice new place for us to check out. She pointed us to Capriccio's...a bakery and cafe. Yum! We enjoyed a great milkshake and coffee. Great find!!!

Jenn and Virgil's Spanish School

The boys finally made it back to us early Wednesday morning. We are so thrilled to have them home. They officially are never allowed to go back without us for that long! We missed them. Without a doubt though, Jenn and I really enjoyed our time together and with our kids. We discovered some new great things and new things about our new home!

The boys are back on the right side of the map...yay!!!

We went, we saw, we conquered!!!

We are home now, back from our very quick excursion to Chile and so far that haven't really kicked us out! Ok so here is how it went:

Eli ready to take a trip on a plane!

Thursday afternoon we took off from Peru for a VERY short trip to Tacna (20 minute flight versus 6 hour bus ride, um YES please sign this pregnant women up!). The flight was good and Eli did well. As soon as we arrived a new friend of ours from the church we are attending happened to be doing some work in Tacna, so he went out of his way to meet us at the the airport! He arranged a driver and his friend to take us to the border of Chile, assist us with lines and paperwork and then take us back to Peru. He also set us up at a very nice hotel/apartment for the evening (but more about that later). We met Edgar (our friend) and he introduced us to the driver and his friend and took our luggage to our hotel so we didn't have to lug it around with us...if he hadn't done that for us we would have had to take our small suitcase and stroller out of the car 4 times...not a big deal but when you have a kid every little thing you DON'T have to think about is incredible. The drive took us about 30 minutes. The climate in Tacna and Arica, Chile is beautiful...palm trees and dust :) We finally got to the border of Chile and the fun began. In and out of the car, paperwork and a restless un-napped child. We crossed thru "quickly" and when we came back into the country, that is when the begging and groveling in nervous Spanish began. At our last stop thru (4th and final stop into the country) we didn't have the right paperwork. After figuring out what we needed to do we filled out our paperwork and then returned to the immigrations agent. Here is where I had to beg. Nervously I fumbled through my Spanish asking for 180 days and trying to explain why. The agent only wanted to grant 90 days at first but I begged. The idea of having to go thru this process in 3 months....me 9 months pregnant and due at anytime, did not sound fun and sounded like we would be spending more money then we really HAD to. So I prayed and begged for more time. Kindly he looked at me and granted us 180 day. Thank you Lord!

Beautiful Peru/Chile sights! :)

Here we go to Chile!

Thanks for coming to Peru! 

Welcome to Chile

Friend of Edgar who helped us HUGE!!

Welcome back to Peru!!!! Whew!

180 day!!! Wahoo!!!

From there I could breath again! 2 hours of the whole ordeal and we are finally headed back into the country and to our hotel. By now we are ALL wiped out from the stress of the day. When we go to the hotel we met up with Edgar again who then took us to get something to eat and then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Eli enjoying lots of room
in our hotel

Eli CRASHED on the flight
home after our long adventure!

Outside of HAVING to take care of our visa's, it was such a blessing to get some time as a family to relax and rest. We didn't do anything special and due to time constraints didn't get to see Tacna, but we rested and ate lots of Trix cereal (or funny bunny as Eli calls it). The hotel was an amazing deal and was 2 rooms, 5 beds, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen! Way more then we ever needed and 20 times bigger then a standard hotel room here in Peru (which are much smaller then you would believe)! Edgar was our super hero! He totally blessed our family and there is no way we could have done this so smoothly with out him. He is our Peruvian example of community. We have so much to learn from people like him and we are blessed to be able to get to know him and his family!

Now we move forward. Virgil and John are on their way to having their business set up and V and Jenn will begin the process for residency on Friday. Paperwork here takes a gazillion times longer then  what we are used to but we expected this and know and trust that the Lord has a plan. 

Please pray for V and John that they can get there business established soon and that the process for residency goes smooth and "quickly" for Jenn and V.

More to come from our lives soon...

Isn't climbing through the window how everyone gets in their room???

Oh the joys of parenting. I LOVE being a parent. I LOVE my son. He is an incredible child, smart and MOST of the time he is obedient.  I know, I know your kids are ALWAYS obedient but mine is not. I haven't quite figured out that "trick" just yet. I'm working on it. When I figure it out and you want to know what it is, I'll sell it to you :)

V Trying to open the door

Today was one of those days that obedience was not on Eli's top list of things to do. About a month ago Eli moved into a "toddler" bed. By toddler bed I mean a fairly thin foam mattress that sits on the floor. We don't have a real bed for him yet but eventually we will get there. Part of moving up to the toddler bed was the lesson on always staying in his bed. When he goes down for nap or bed he is not allowed to get out. After he falls asleep and before he wakes up we always leave a book or toy for him to play with when he wakes up. Regardless, he is never allowed to get out of his "bed" until we come get him. He has this pattern down pat and is very good at doing exactly what he is suppose to. Today that rule was no different, not to us at least. But, to Eli today was different, in his mind the rule had changed. He DID NOT want to take a nap! So we laid him down as usual at his usual time and he proceeded to scream for a few minutes and then the tears ceased. Typically at this point we wait twenty minutes, check on him and finnd him soundly and sweetly snoozing away. Today, 20 minutes later we found him happily ECSTATICALLY playing. He pulled out all his coloring pages and crayons, pulled all my shoes out of the closet and got on a chair and climbed to the desk and grabbed his puzzles (one of his favorite toys). When we walked in to find this mess Eli was in the corner, so proud of all he had accomplished and figured out how to do. We, on the other hand, were not so happy. Don't misunderstand me, I think it was very innovative of him to figure out that if wanted his puzzles he had to climb for it (and put the chair back in its place...how responsible of him!) but we couldn't show him how proud of him were of his "problem solving" skills.  So we proceeded to reprimand him and put him back in bed. So the screaming commenced. Eli was so mad that we put in bed that he ran to the door and tried to open it. Only problem for him is that it has child safety covers on it so he can't open it. So instead, he chose to lock the door. Well, now that's a problem since the only spare key we have to the room is now locked IN the room. Eli proceeds to yell "Stuck" because he knows he is officially stuck in his room and we can't get in (smart and observant little boy). So, we let him be for a moment in hopes that he would go to sleep while we figured out a plan. After checking all the spare keys in the house and realizing NONE of them work we went to plan B...Go through the window.

All those spare keys and none worked :(

So operation rescue the disobedient child begins. Out comes the ladder outside the house. Eli waiting at the window as if he knew that is what we would do. He excitedly yells Mama, Dadda when he sees us out side. "Fortunately" for us he was awake and waiting for us at the window. After Virgil climbs the ladder to the window he coaches Eli into pulling down the wood stick that keeps the window closed (a trick we hoped he never would learn). After Eli does it (again another proud moment...my son displaying good listening skills) we open the window and "rescue" Eli.

Move out of the way..

Coaching Eli on how to get
the stick!

I got the stick Dad!!!

Rescued!

Doomed for the baby
bed for nap time :(

I was laughing so hard at this whole event I thought I might give birth to my second child right there by that ladder. Of course, Eli thought this meant he got to go play outside via exiting the window but to his disappointment that is not what happened next. Of course we told him what he had done was not good and that he was not allowed to do that and as his punishment he now had to nap in his baby bed. Many tears of protest later he conks out and finds himself in the sweet blissful world of sleep. Ah, he is so perfectly behaved when he is sleeping.

Maybe I should be mad at the acts of my son and if he does it again I probably will be...I pray for both of our sakes he doesn't repeat this one. I also hope he "forgets" how to open the window (that does not have a screen on it) but somehow I doubt that will happen. Today's event were hilarious and part of the joys of parenthood. I'm actually not mad at all. I'll put this one in he books as on of his funniest moments yet...just don't tell him :)

We are getting kicked out of the country!!!

Ah, its been so long since I last wrote! Things have been going well and I am guessing you are wondering what the update from my last blog is.....well it's a....Boy??? Maybe. Actually, we don't really know. All is well with the baby. The babe is healthy, good heart beat and has really long legs....like me :) The babe's positioned in such a way that we couldn't actually tell what the gender is but the doctor is guessing based a small glimpse that maybe its a boy. We will try to confirm at our next appointment! I'm 24 weeks now...16 weeks to go. I get those updates via email that tells what size fruit my baby is (I know, its kind of a weird comparison). I currently am carrying a Papaya. Whoever decided that baby at 23/24 weeks is a papaya has clearly never been to Peru! Papaya's are HUGE here. If I have a papaya now, in 16 weeks I will be carrying a 3 foot, 20 lb watermelon!

A Peruvian Papaya...Really I may be big but my kids not this big!!!

Since then I have been continuing on my adventure to adjust to life here and learning MANY lessons along the way. That really probably explains why I haven't updated in a while. Learning lessons is hard and sometimes admitting the lessons is even harder. I'm still processing thru most so as I sort through them I'll fill you in.

We had wonderful Easter "holiday." Peru is a very Catholic country so many businesses close Thursday-Sunday, which meant we all were able to spend time together as a family which was wonderful. Thursday Jenn and I set up make shift pool (a fairly regular occurance here in our home) which included bath toys, a bath tub, a bucket and a laundry bucket. The boys always enjoy it but Dad Tovar thought it wasn't quite enough so we went out the next day and get them a "real" pool with slide and all from the "market". Pool with slide and all was a big hit.  Swimming and fun proved to be a lot for Ro and knocked him right out by lunch. (see video below). It is wonderful spending time with these little guys.

New pool fun!

Early PJ's, "coffee" and a movie!

The boys are adjusting well. They are LOVING school. Today Eli's teacher told me that they are learning the color red and Eli told her that red is rojo (red in spanish). I am so proud of him. He also told me "hola" today. To learn two languages is a lot of work and pressure for a little one but he and Ronan are doing SO well! I couldn't be more proud of them.

Jenn and Virgil are also progressing well in their Spanish classes. Many days Virgil looks like his head might explode when he gets out of class, poor guy. He is progressing quickly and both Jenn and V are learning a lot, whether they realize it or not I can see the improvement in both of them.

Our biggest news (other then the baby) is that we, as in Virgil, Eli and myself, are getting kicked out of the country. WHAT?!?!?!?! It's true, no April Fools joke here.  We leave Thursday to go to Chile. We have to cross the border to renew our tourist visa. Virgil is still in the process of getting all his paperwork processed for his Investors Visa. Once he has that accepted then Eli and I can begin the process of our Visa's. The good news is that the baby will be Peruvian and hold dual citizenship, so we won't have to go thru this crazy process with it every year (as Eli and I will). That is a blessing! Please be praying for us these next couple of days. We leave Thursday and come back to Peru Friday. We specifically can use prayers for favor for an extra long tourist visa, we are hoping for 6 months. Pray that we will enjoy our day away. Not know where we are going, how we will cross the border and the language barrier...all with a toddler in full bloom of his "Trying Two" season of life, can make for a crazy couple of days.

I'll let you know how our trip goes. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!