Another Weekend in Colombia

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Sorry that I didn't post last night....we were without internet connection here at the hotel. So I'll get you up to speed on the whole weekend.

Saturday was one of those days you don't want to have to relive. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and then it rubbed off on the other two. Weekends are hard here because there's not much going on, and this one was especially hard because of a couple of things. The hotel had run out of water on Friday around 2pm. This was when I chose to do my laundry because we were getting quite low on essentials. But, with no water, no laundry. They promised me it would be fixed, "mas tarde." For those of you who don't speak spanish, that means, "later". So, in the morning, I checked my sink to see if the water was running, and it was. I thought I was in the clear. After breakfast, I went to take a shower, and turned on the faucet. Out of the faucet came a brown, oozy substance...but no water. Needless to say, this made my mood even worse. So no shower. Then, as I was putting on my jeans (and my last pair of clean underwear), a button popped off. With no needle and thread here (or an insty sew is more like it in my case :)) I put it on the counter to put in my suitcase later. A few minutes later as I was making a bottle for Max, I accidentally slid it off the counter and into the toilet (of which a certain 6 year old had forgotten to flush) Bye bye button, hello even worse mood. This continued through lunch (Juanita, the cook has the weekend off, and let's just say, we should have gone out to lunch..I know better!) and into nap time....until I got an email from my friend Kristi. She is a fellow adoptive mom and knows how long some days are here in Colombia. She told me that she was praying for me and she encouraged me to read her blog. In it, she was reminiscing about her last adoption, two years ago, that day.

As I was reading her blog, I was reminded again, why I am here. I am not here for me. I am not here to be selfish. I am not here to feel sorry for myself. I am here because the God of the universe wants me to be here. This is how God has chosen to grow our family and I am forever grateful. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I spent some time in prayer, asking God to forgive me for all of my thoughts earlier that day. I then picked up a great book that I'm about half way through (called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp...a great read if you're looking) and was reminded again to look for the blessings and the good in all circumstances. Life isn't about getting to the next thing...it's about living fully in the moment, and finding peace and joy and God in everything.
So, God used that horrible day to bring me closer to Him. And for that, I am forever thankful. I'm not going to lie. I would love to go home soon to be with Scott and Will again. And to be home for Will's birthday and for Christmas. But I know that God will bring us there in His perfect timing. So for the rest of the day, I rested in that.

Today we went to the markets...it is Sunday! We walked with a bunch of other families from the hotel. We enjoyed the sunshine and bought some gifts for people back home. We decided to go out for lunch (got smarter today) and went to Presto, a local burger place. The food was not much better than what we may have gotten at the hotel, but this restaurant had a large play area, where Ally, Julio and Steven (Julio and Steven are two biological brothers, 7 and 11, being adopted by an American couple here) could play to their hearts content. And they had a blast. It was a little too gross for me to watch (I would never have let Ally play on something like this in the states, but you do what you have to do) so Max and I enjoyed their laughter from a distance.

So all in all, we had a really great weekend here in Colombia. We are very excited to be welcoming my mom and Cathy late tomorrow night. I am really looking forward to seeing two of my favorite faces in Colombia. And we'll see what God has in store for us in the coming week!

With love,

Becky, Ally and Max