Here...and settling in

Yeah, so, we made it! The trip itself was not bad at all. There were a few stressful moments, as can be expected when traveling with small children, but nothing God didn't give us the grace to handle. We're grateful for the prayers of our friends and family and we're full of praise for our awesome God who has been with us every step of the way.

We are already mostly settled into our new house! God has provided in miraculous ways. To begin with, the house we are in is awesome! It is perfect for our family in so many ways - bathtub and all! (Bathtubs are not common in Latin America.) This particular house is also very close to Mike and Joan Ross, our MAF co-workers, and it has been so nice to have them nearby. They've been a huge help as we settle into life in Mexico and even let us borrow their car Saturday so we could do some running around for the many little things that we needed to get set up in this house. We feel incredibly blessed to have this house to move into right away...this is not normal!

Also, there "just happened" to be a missionary family leaving Oaxaca for the States who contacted us about maybe buying some of their furniture and appliances. Once again, this is not normal - we have been able to buy nearly everything we need as far as furniture goes for a great price. We only lack living room furniture, a dining table, and a car. After doing some looking around on Saturday at what is available here and what it all costs, we realized just how amazing it is that we have been able to buy so much at such great prices! We are so grateful, as it helps us settle in to our new life just that much faster!

First impressions? I love it here! I will confess that I've really had a hard time convincing my brain that we are here to stay. I don't know why - it isn't like we've been lounging around on vacation for the past few days, and I've certainly done my share of cleaning and preparing a house for us to live in - but for some reason, I keep thinking things like "it's too bad we won't be here longer" or "I'd love to live here." Duh! I will be here for a long time, God willing, and, um, I do live here. My brain is playing mean tricks on me.

But back to first impressions.....

• Oaxaca is just beautiful. I love the weather - dry! It is actually a bit hotter than I expected but nothing unbearable. At night it gets cooler and today we have a nice, cool breeze flowing through our house. It's nice. The surrounding mountains are beautiful and the sky is so blue! And let's not forget that sun - that warm, glowing orb we saw so seldom in Shell - it is out in full force all day long here. In many ways, it feels more like our hometown in Colorado - maybe like a warm, summer day in the San Luis Valley. Mike and Joan took us to the Zocolo (historic downtown area) and it was amazing. I can just imagine wandering around down there for a long, long time. I can't wait to go back!
• Conveniences. Lots of conveniences that we didn't get in Ecuador exist here in Oaxaca. We live very close to a shopping area that is chock full of conveniences that we are drooling over :-)
  
• Prices. Yep, there are lots of conveniences, and plenty of really nice stuff to buy, but the prices seem insane! We're going from a very cheap place to live, to a place where things are much more expensive - things run about 30-40% higher than they would be in the U.S. Goodness gracious.
  
• Pesos. It doesn't help that we have to try to figure out the dollar price from the pesos price! We accidentaly bought two shower curtains for $70 each!! They were plastic! In my feeble mind, I just couldn't accept what I was seeing on the price tag and, without even realizing what I was doing, I just put the decimal point where I thought it belonged rather than where it really was - I thought they were only about $7 a piece. You can bet that we turned right back around to to the cashier and returned those overpriced shower curtains the moment we realized what we'd done!
• People. We've felt very welcomed by the Mexican people, as well as by the Ross'. Mexicans here seem very friendly and warm, and we've really enjoyed getting to know them a little bit.
  
• Church and sun. Mike and Joan took us to their church today. We really like the pastor, who is an awesome teacher - we learned a lot just in Sunday School! The girls were whisked away to play and do crafts. They had a great time. Maddie, unfortunately, did get a little bit of a sunburn. (Guess this means I'll have to keep sunblock on her all the time.) This church is actually a church plant and is held in someone's yard. It was a great place for church if you ask me :-)
  
• Food. Mexico equals Mexican food. Need I say more? And if that wasn't enough, we've got Burger King, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and KFC nearby too :-)
• Friends for Brooklyn. Right next door lives Emily, a four-year-old girl who has quickly become Brooklyn's "best friend in Mesico." There is also another family in our little complex that has kids. We're finding it hard to keep Brooklyn from running off and disappearing into our neighbors' houses (they do, at least, invite her in, so she isn't barging in uninvited). We'll have to set some boundaries, but it is such a blessing to see Brooklyn playing with our Mexican neighbors and actually using her Spanish (and she's improving very quickly)!
• Dirt. Because it is dry season, there isn't much keeping the dust down. Both girls are filthy by the end of the day. We've gotten lots of use out of our new bathtub already! They absolutely love bathtime because they actually get to play in the water and have bubbles and toys and everything :-)
• Confused. Brooklyn is still very confused about Mexico. As near as I can tell, she thinks Mexico is our house, though she has some confusion about what house is ours since we stayed in the Ross' house our first two nights here and it is identical to ours. She keeps asking us when we are going to Mexico! Poor thing. Today she was telling us she wanted to go back to Shell in 10 sleeps. We're trying hard to make this feel like home and I know she really does like it here, but she is still confused about what "moving to Mexico" really means and she, apparently,is not feeling at home here yet. (I understand that!) It will just take time.

That about covers it for now! I'll post some pictures sometime soon! Thanks again for all your prayers.

Happy Easter! He is RISEN!