HERE!

Since "here" means a place in Maryland and a job in Virgnia, there will be another set of pics featuring the "School of Smiles" (for REAL my school's nickname is that!). But for now....HERE'S OUR CUTIE PLACE IN GAITHERSBURG, MD (below Marcelo, Sarah and Elianna)!

Welcome!
Walk in our front door...


..look at our FURNITURE that arrived from Idaho! We are so thankful for it:).

*We did however purchase the table for a GREAT price that only "required" me to paint the black part.....which possibly made me question the "great" price at the end of the whole project!

Here's the view...
.....from our bed!
Here's the hallway to the bathroom and our....
..kitchen!

La Paz in DC

Esteban and I miss La Paz.
It's true.
We are really happy to be living here (I'll share and show more of "here" later) but we miss the sights, sounds, food, and, most importantly, the people of La Paz.

HOWEVER, God has been so kind to give us bits of La Paz over the past few months.

- We live DIRECTLY BELOW Esteban's brother Marcelo, his sweet wife Sarah and joyous daughter Elianna. It's been such a blessing to be here, to have them so close and we thank the Lord every day for them. We enjoy being able to pop in and say hi, talk about the crazy weather lately (seriously....it started with an earthquake, then we had a hurricane, then we had more rain that caused a flash flood, and I'm just bracing myself for the winter to really start!) or other life topics, to share meals together and just to be a part of each other's lives!

Our little welcoming committee (she likes to look out the glass door and smile at us as we walk by to go to our place on the lower level)

- Not only do we have Sarah and Marcelo to keep us connected to life in La Paz, but we also have mini-Bolvia here! In this little group, every man is Bolivian but only 2 women are....guess those Bolivian guys have a way with the American girls:)! One of the families in this "group" was actually Eseteban's youth pastor in La Paz. He and his wife and 2 girls are here for the pastor's college through Sovereign Grace Ministries. We are thankful for this opportunity to see Oscar, Prisci and their precious girls, Abigail and Bianca, on the other side of the equator!

- As I mentioned, the food of Bolivia has been missed by the 2 of us...especially my husband. However, last weekend we stumbled upon a Latino Mercado full of treasures! We bought some choclo (big-kernel corn), queso fresco (fresh cheese) and yucca. So...Sunday night we decided to celebrate el Dia de Santa Cruz with Sarah and Marcelo and enjoyed some chorizos (from Trader Joes....not so authentic but still good) and zonzo! We had this dish at our wedding and just love the yucca-cheesy-yumminess!

We also were able to enjoy some tuna, compliments of Marcelo and Sarah....yum!

- Our most recent gift Paceño was last night when we were able to meet up with 5 other people "from" La Paz that are in the area!
The Kolar family was a sweet gift to my Highlands Community and they left last December. Kathy was my neighbor in La Paz! She is still living in La Paz but is just in the states for a quick month furlough to be with her family. And, Sheldon and Amber both worked with Samaritan's Purse down there and now Sheldon is getting a master's degree in International Development.

Amy and Amber

Kathy and Abby enjoying.....

...this sweet treat of Fall in the U.S. with friends from Bolivia.

Sufficed to say, it was so *sweet* to see everyone and to be together again!

(I LOVE this girl!)

In Honor of...

I'm back.....and life has brought a LOT of changes that I'm VERY anxious (I know that doesn't SEEM like the most appropriate word to use after the MONTHS that have passed since some of these changes occurred...but I truly am) to share with you after my leave of absence from the blogging world.

However, before I start with the wedding, honeymoon, house, job, and just LIFE updates, I want to take a moment to honor a godly man.

Dan Marks...
a man of God
a husband and a father
a pastor at my church in Twin Falls
a friend to my family
a support for my parents
the pastor of our wedding
a saint with his Savior
You will be missed.

SOME of what I have been doing...

Hello faithful readers!
I'm back in the lower 48.
And BOY has it been a whirlwind so far!
I feel like there is SOO much to share.
So this is the plan...I will give you the stateside run down in this post.
And then backtrack a bit to share some of the past months in La Paz that are worth sharing.

So, since I've been back, I have....
...not had any real flight problems- just a few slight delays. THANK YOU LORD!
...spent 30 hours in Maryland/Virginia- 1/2 of that was spent traveling to different schools (with my DEAR friend Lauren George) and handing my resume to a...secretary!
Bummer.
The other 1/2 was spent with my future family which includes a new NIECE!

...spent some QUALITY time with my family.
...celebrated my dad's birthday AND Father's Day with hoops&yoyo :)!
...done some MAJOR wedding planning.
And there's still a lot more to go!

So until the next moment of free time.....

April Showers Bring...

MAY SHOWERS!
That's right!
The month of May has brought a series of bridal showers for me, my middle school buddy who is also getting married this summer (Stephanie) AND 1 for Choco too!

The first was with my lady friends at Highlands. It was a fun time where we played games and laughed a lot.

Some special people from my HIS community....

The second was thrown by the middle school moms. This one had a hat theme....little did I know that my hat was picked for me!
We had a toilet paper dress competition with the moms....

Guess who LOST?!

It was a special time to celebrate our upcoming marriage with these moms that have so much wisdom to share.

The next shower was the one that Choco was able to be a part of. It was a thrown by some of his high school classmates.
We played some fun games...

...pop the balloon with the same part (arm to arm...tricky!)

..answer questions about one another and then be punished for each incorrect answer!

Guess we didn't do very well!!

This outfit totally beats the toilet paper one!

I even have cute shoes:)!..and a groom to match:)

The last was with church friends and was yet another sweet time with the girls!
Drawing pictures blindfolded...
...ooooo, not so good:)!
..and more toilet paper fun!

As I finish this post (I started it in May but I'm finishing in JUNE mind you...) it makes me feel so thankful for my community in La Paz.

There are SO MANY people that have played a special part in my life and I thank the Lord for each of you. I miss you already....thank you for sharing yourself with me!

Birthday Fun..

As I mentioned before, my Gramie's birthday happened to fall on her last day here in La Paz!
Because her life has been so special, we had to "celebrate" it in 2 days! :)

I took the day off on Friday and we went out to lunch at a French place in the area called "La Comedie." As you can see, it is shaped like a boat....kind of fun!

We had a yummy lunch of stuffed salmon, llama and sardine sandwiches!
Then we headed a few blocks over the La Paz's very own, Red-bus Tour!

Esteban (and of course Gramie) had never done it. So we enjoyed our informative tour of the city complete with historical antectdotes and pretty sights!

One funny part of the tour was when we went to plug in our headphones, the lady informed us that in order to hear the tour in English, we had to plug it into Japanese....of course!

Then on Saturday, her REAL birthday, we had coffee with some of my girlfriends at school.

After coffee did a few things on the internet including introducing Gramie to skype for the first time and hearing Ella sing "Happy Birthday" to her!) and then headed to Esteban's house for lunch.

We had a nice time eating some Bolivian dishes, hearing more stories and celebrating!

After lunch we went to a few more places in the city and then dropped Gramie off at her hotel for a nice rest before getting up at 2 in the morning for her early flight the next day!

Bye Gramie and thanks for celebrating your birthday with us!!