Pucallpa Pictures

Our friends, the Cintrons, holding the famous 200lb Anaconda in a local zoo in Pucallpa

Local girl and boy collecting fruit along the river.

Local fisherman bringing in their nets

Floating house along the river. The lady in the picture is washing her clothes and hanging them out to dry.

Paul with our friends and fellow coworkers for the last 3 months, Esther and Luis Cintron in a peki-peki boat on the river. (Named peki-peki due to the sound it makes while running)

Local store in one of the communities

Church located in the community of Acho Mego

Bananas being brought into Pucallpa

Local dock in Pucallpa

Pucallpa Bound

Please keep Paul in your prayers this week as he heads to Pucallpa to help with the closing and reopening of the five savings groups. He continues to remain in contact with our coworkers in the FH office in Pucallpa of which several have commented that the groups continue to flourish. This is a huge encouragement and blessing.

Please also keep Cael and I in your prayers this week as we remain in Lima. I am down to the last two months of the pregnancy and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to keep up with Cael! Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We feel truly blessed to have friends and family backing us during our time here in Peru.

Happy Thanksgiving

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with 20 + friends and coworkers at our new home in Lima. It was such a blessing to be able to host the dinner and spend the evening eating some Thanksgiving favorites and celebrating with our family away from home! Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Lauren (friend and coworker) cutting the amazing turkey she prepared for the dinner!

Cael's buddy, Luis (friend and coworker), helping him eat his Thanksgiving meal and giving mom and dad a break!

Angela (friend whose husband works with FH) and her two boys making their way through the line.

The kids had a great time playing at the coffee table.

Left: Luis, Karina, Cristian, and Lauren

Left: Janina, Kami, Priscilla, and Mesha (friends and coworkers)

Left: Luke, Ryan, and Paul (friends and coworkers...and husband)

Grand Escape

This is a typical scene at our house around 9 in the morning. Cael usually wakes up, eats his breakfast, and is ready to go outside and play until it is time for lunch. However, if I need to get something done, he usually isn't too forgiving, resulting in him hanging on the door, trying to get out! So far he hasn't figured out how to open the door on his own, which I'm not encouraging either!

Baking Cookies

This past Saturday, me and three other girls living and working with FH here in Lima, went to our language teacher's house to show her and her sister how to bake cookies American style! It is difficult to make the common cookies you would make in the states, because you cannot find brown sugar here in Peru. It is even difficult to find molasses to try and make your own kind of brown sugar substitute. However, after living here in Peru for the past few years we have learned to stock up on brown sugar from the states...it is a staple on the list of "what to bring down". Several small packages of MMs were also donated to the project to help flavor the cookies. Therefore, we were able to make monster cookies, sugar cookies, and a chocolate brownie cheesecake as a treat!

It was a long afternoon, but I had a great time hanging with the girls! Paul was gracious enough to take Cael out for a boys afternoon so that I could have the afternoon off. What a sweet guy!!

Me and Irma (pronounced ear-ma), our language teacher

Irma and her sister, Elsa setting out the monster cookies

Mesha and Kami helping out on cleanup

Me and Elsa helping Esther, the chocolate brownie cheesecake expert.

Irma, Mesha, and Kami cutting out sugar cookies

First Crush

Cael seems to have a little crush on our Swiss neighbor's daughter, Katarina. Every time she comes outside to play with her two older brothers, Cael runs up to say hi and usually tries to give her a hug. It has been really cute to see. Here are a couple pictures of Kati sharing her cookies with Cael yesterday.

Little Man #2

We had our 6 month doctor's appointment this week and are excited to say that our second little guy is healthy and growing. He weighs, based on his measurements, almost 2.5 lbs. He is due on February 10th and we are looking forward to meeting him. Here is an ultrasound picture of him trying to suck his fingers.

Hair Cut

We finally broke down and cut Cael's hair...even his cute little curls in the back! Here are a few pictures from the adventure.

We quickly realized the only way Cael would sit still to get his hair cut was if he were on my lap.

Cael also loved the fact that Dad was in the next chair having his hair cut at the same time.

They gave me the camouflage cover and Cael the pretty purple cover...funny

He wasn't too sure about wearing the cover and kept trying to get it off

Our friends Mesha and Kami were there to help and take pictures!

Excited to be done!

The final product

Circuito Magico del Agua in Lima

This past Saturday we were able to spend time with some friends we met over here in Lima a year and a half ago when Cael was born. They have a son named Joshua who is 10 months older than Cael and the two of them play well together. In the evening we all decided to visit the Circuito Magico del Agua in Lima, which won the Guiness World Record for largest water park in the world. The fountains were very impressive and the kids had a great time watching (not playing in) the water.

One of the larger fountains

Joshua and Cael watching the fountains

The kids were tempted to run and play in the water, but the Dad's did a good job containing them while their pregnant wives took a break.

Paul and Cael walking through a water tunnel...very cool!

Boys Will Be Boys

Cael and I went to the FH office today to participate in a devotional and eat lunch with the staff. For the last few months now Cael has been fascinated with large trucks, buses, and motorcycles...basically anything that makes a lot of noise. Cael enjoyed socializing with everyone in the office, but his favorite part was sitting by the window and watching the digger scoop up dirt from the street and fill a large dump truck. He sat still for a record amount of time, and as you can see he had a great front row view.

The Lima Coast

Last night we went down to the coast to see if we could watch the sun set and get Cael out to play a little before bed. Our departure was delayed due to a salad dressing accident...Cael spilling dressing on my last clean pair of pants so we had to do a load of laundry before going. So we arrived down by the coast a little later than we wanted and only caught a glimpse of the sun set, which takes place around 6pm every night of the year. However, we were still able to enjoy the park by the ocean and visiting with our friend Kami, who also works for Food for the Hungry here in Lima. Here are a few pictures from our time. You might be able to see a little bit of a baby bump in the second picture too. Enjoy!

Neighborhood Friends

Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood kids. Cael loves going outside to play with the kids and he especially loves to do what the bigger boys do...good or bad.

Our Swiss neighbor's oldest two: Nathaniel (5) and Mateo (3)

Cael and Caleb (2), our Korean neighbor's oldest. He just became a big brother and isn't too happy about his younger sister getting any of the attention.

I finally got them to look at the camera together.

Here are all the kids playing in the back of our neighbor's truck. Left: Katarina (1 1/2), Caleb, Nathaniel, Cael, and Mateo