Nothing out of the ordinary

*Note: I had to edit this journal entry several times since it was outdated!*

Well, I’ve officially been in Ecuador for more than a month now, and it honestly feels like time is going pretty slowly while I’m here. But maybe that’s because there’s so much I’m looking forward to. I always feel like time goes by so quickly only when you don’t want it to, and then it goes so slowly when you wish it would go by faster. God has quite the sense of humor. :)

 

The last month we’ve been keeping pretty busy. I actually got to babysit a few times, which was SO much fun! Santy has gone with me to babysit, and it is so cute to watch him interact with the kids. We were babysitting for one of our favorite missionary couples, and they have two daughters- an infant and a toddler. While I got the infant ready for bed, Santy played with the toddler. They watched Barbie, played with puzzles, and just hung out!

However, after eating dinner, the baby woke back up. When Santy heard me struggling, he came into the room and told me he’d take her. So while Santy rocked the crying baby, I got the toddler ready for bed and read her a story. I swear Santy is a baby whisperer because the baby went to sleep so quickly when he was holding her. It was the cutest thing!

Once they both were asleep, I got Santy to watch just ONE episode of Pretty Little Liars on Netflix, which got him hooked! Originally he told me he didn’t want to watch it, but it’s obviously such an addicting show that we went through several episodes before the missionaries got back!

We also got invited to the missionaries’ house for dinner! They have become one of our favorite couples, as they interact with each other similarly to Santy and I! We got to hang out with them over some delicious lasagna and garlic bread! It was a really fun time!

Probably one of the most exciting things that I should mention is that Santy and I got piercings together two weeks ago! I got my belly button pierced, and Santy got an industrial (a bar in his top ear). It was a really nerve-wracking but at the same time fun experience, and for anyone worrying, it was a super clean and sterile environment with professionals. We actually found out that one of Santy’s family friends works there, too. Also, in case you’re wondering, yes, we both thought that it hurt, but Santy’s was worse than mine! Regardless, we’re super excited to have them!

Also, since I last wrote, Santy and I went back to the orphanage several times! We have to wait a bit longer to get really involved in helping plan more in depth things and events, but as of right now we like it a lot. We’ve gotten to hang out with the kids, who are all adorable. We helped feed the infants, played with the toddlers, and met some of the important people at the orphanage (the social worker, the accountant, etc.). We took the younger children to read books and play with blocks and the older ones to do some crafts. I’m also excited to hopefully shadow the social worker, and Santy’s excited to do some kind of carpentry work.

Our goal is to do intentional crafts & activities with the older kids that are fun but also have a lesson in them. For example we made a little mini “photo frame” with popsicle sticks. It was outlined with “What makes me happy is…”, and they were to draw a picture inside with what makes them happy. The lesson was that God makes the things that make us happy for us to enjoy! We’ve gotten to do the evangelism bracelets, friendship necklaces, Bible coloring pages, and other fun crafts. We’ve also learned that they LOVE finding hidden objects, so we’ve made it a point to hide numbers every week, which we then count together afterwards (as they’re still learning numbers).

Another important thing we’re stressing for the kids is that they also get their tias involved in their crafts and activities by telling them what they learned or what they mean. Jen told us that since the orphanage desires to be God-centered, they want the tias to be, as well. Yet many of the tias are not involved in churches or Bible studies. Therefore we wanted to help make an impact on them with the kids’ crafts. We had them tell the tias what their evangelism bracelets meant. They couldn’t remember every color, but red was an easy one for them. They kept saying how red was for the blood of Jesus. This week a girl said to us, “I went to the doctor, and they took out blood from my arm, just like Jesus’ blood!”

We’ve also seen some more of the Calacali parties since I last wrote. The typical groups dressed in Ecuadorian garb doing a dance specific to a city in Ecuador. That means loud music until late at night, caramel apples at night, and lots and lots of drunk people! We wanted to be able to dance in the streets like last time, but they kept changing the music every five seconds, and the speaker wouldn’t shut up!

As I mentioned before, Santy and I got to go to the beach for 5 days, where we met some awesome Canadian girls and a group of guys who live at the beach! We spent the week swimming, dancing, and having bonfires on the beach. We stayed up late with them pretty much every night and had so much fun. I did get food poisoning one of the days, though, so that was NOT fun. Santy took good care of me, though, and I pretty much just watched Fox the entire time (thank God our hotel has cable!). The girls & I also bought matching “I <3 a="" atacames="" crop="" good="" it="" really="" span="" tops="" was="" week="">

We also sent Santy’s two brothers off with lots of advice for their first plane ride to go to London. They arrived a few weeks ago and got to see their dad for the first time in years.

Santy and I also got to do some more fun things the last few weeks. We have a new favorite frozen yogurt place that is pretty much like YoGo (make your own frozen yogurt). We also got to go to a fancy Italian place for our anniversary dinner. It was delicious, and the people were so nice! We also went on these mini boats in the park for our anniversary. It was really cute!

We also went to another awesome Italian restaurant after a day of searching for Ecuadorian gifts for our bridal party and favors for the wedding. We’re happy to already have gifts for everyone for Christmas and for the wedding!

We’ve gone to a few parties, too. We went to our little cousin Cristian’s graduation party and the Cevallos’ party for Juan Carlos’ birthday. I got to see a lot of people there that I haven’t seen in quite a while!

Not to mention that we also got to hang out with a pretty sweet American group a little while back, AND I got to lead worship at the church while they were there! Since I couldn’t find more singers, Santy sang with me, and our cousin Cristian played the djembe. It was pretty awesome.

Oh, and since I forgot to mention.. I experienced my first earthquake here! It was so scary! It just literally felt like what it was.. the whole Earth shaking! The first one was apparently a 5.1, and since we were at the orphanage, we were close the epicenter. It caused 2 deaths and 8 injuries (to miners). We've already had at least 8 in the last 24 hours and have been put under a state of emergency, so a lot of people are praying that they'll stop!

That’s pretty much been our last few weeks here, and we have SO much more planned, too! I forgot to mention that we also officially have retained an immigration lawyer and are starting the next steps for all of our paperwork and whatnot!

Although time has been going pretty slow, and sometimes it’s still a struggle STILL getting used to life here, I really do love it. When I really think about it, I’m really blessed to be here with a loving family with three precious siblings, a spacious & cute room with an incredible view, and of course a wonderful fiancé who takes care of me and loves me more than I deserve! I’ve gotten to do so much already, and we already have more plans for traveling, another beach trip, and some more awesome adventures. So when I write again, I’m sure I’ll have something more than just the ordinary to give you.

Although, really… what is the ‘ordinary’ when you’re living in Ecuador?!

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