Must needed update!!!

It has been a while since my last post. So many things going on...well, we are finally in Ecuador after an exhausting move but finallly here. God has been so good to us! We have settled down in a rented house close to my parents, which is always good, getting used to the new place, enjoying the beautiful landscape and weather, seeing family members and loved ones we have not seeing in years, and trying to get into a new routine as a family. I am recovering from surgery (I had a hysterectomy done because of my recurrent ovarian cysts) feeling good with menopause, no symptoms with the hormonal treatment i am on. I had the blessing of having my cousin as my oncologist so he took care of everything, I was in great hands! All the results of the pathology from the cyst were negative which was something we were concerned about but I keep saying it, God has been with us all the way in the good and the bad. The kids are happy, have lots new friends, Dami lost his first tooth, Mia is hoping to lose one too!!! Not me, seeing Dami lose his teeth made me realize he is growing and is a bi kid now, it brought tears to my eyes!
We are going slowly but surely, no furniture yet, no car yet, but we have each other which I am thankful for everyday!
Will update soon!
Staying positive,
~Lore~

Us again!

I know, it has been a W H I L E since we have posted anything. Well, it has been crazy since we moved to our new home here it TN, the moving, organizing, getting to know our neighbors, meeting new people, visiting beautiful places etc., had taken lots of our time and I decided to put our blogging to rest for a few months. Also, we don't have internet service so we connect when we really need to through our cell phones. 

Now that we are settled down, God has opened a door for our family, a door that we have been knocking for years. We are moving to Ecuador! Rick has always wanted to move down to South America and now we have the blessing of him taking his "job" down there, so he will be working his same job but from Ecuador. We prayed for a long time trying to figure out what to do and God has answered every single prayer showing us that moving to Ecuador is what He wants for us. I was, and kind of am, a little scared since it will be a big change but after seeing God opening door after door I trust that He will lead us in our new journey in life. We are sad to have to leave this house, which we learned to love in such a short time, this beautiful state that has provided for many great experiences especially the change of the seasons, so many people we have met, family that we love, etc. etc. But one of the big reasons why we are excited is because we will have a chance to do some missionary work. There are so many people in need not only physical but spiritual needs that as a family we want to make a difference in their lives, the mission that God gave us to take the good news to all the world. We have some plans and ideas but God will decide how He want to use us, wherever we are. We are willing...

I will post some more soon...

Blessings,

~Lore~

Mustache

We had a game of who would make the biggest mustache after drinking our morning fruit and veggie juice. You can decide who won...

God Bless,

~Lore~

Zoologico

El Domingo fuimos a el Zoologico de la ciudad. Tuvimos un lindo dia en familia.

Nuestra guia....Mia y su mapa....

con el panda rojo, este lugar es famoso por ser el zoologico con mas crias de pandas rojos en EU

Estas tres fotos siguientes fueron tomadas hace casi 2 meses cuando fuimos por primera vez al Zoologico, para que puedan ver cuan hermosos son estos pandas rojos...



Fuimos a una seccion que es como un pequeno museo donde puedes hacer actividades manuales, entre ellas jugar a los disfrazes...
Nuestra abejita Mia

Y quisieron que la mami se vista tambien de abeja, lastima no entre en el vestido!!!

La zebra posando para la foto

Me encanta la mirada de estos pequenos animalitos...

Mucho amor,

~Lore~

Parque de la Semana

En nuestra nueva ciudad hay muchos parques que tenemos planes de visitar. Decidimos empezar por este. No pude tomar muchas fotos como podran ver. Para la prixima semana tendremos mas.

~Lore~

Playing time

Kids have so much imagination and I enjoy seeing creativity blossom in their lives. This time they used their "teacher role" to pass on their knowledge to their toys. Dami had a drawing and painting class, while Mia had a reading class!

Dami and his students

Mia reading to her class

Also Mia had an art class going on....

Here she made a photo frame with rocks as decoration...

and a mobile for her baby koala
up close of the mobile...

I love to see them having fun...cleaning up is coming after!

~Lore~

Mud bath

This weekend we went to visit my sister and her family. They invited us to celebrate one of their friend's birthday so we went to her house and had a nice time. We played some volleyball, ate some good vegetarian food, played "carnaval" (water balloon fights), only downfall was that Rick hurt his knee after chasing my sister to get her wet, we went to a river to swim, among other things. But the highlight, at least for the kids was a nice mud bath! Ezequiel, the birthday girl's father made a mud puddle on the side of his home and got in...of course, being any kids dream to play with mud, the children got in too. They had so much fun and we enjoyed it too just by looking at them. Ezequiel told us about the benefits of mud and there are many...."Health benefits are not proven, but a mud bath is claimed to improve the complexion, relieve joint and muscle pain and remove toxins." Although they are not proven the kids surely enjoyed it!!!

Dami and Caleb

the kids had a chance to pick some strawberries
Ezequiel after his mud bath
Dami tried it too
Mia, Eli and Arleth

cousins playing together making mud pies
some volleyball anyone???

Love,

~Lore~

Buenas Noches

Los ninos estan durmiendo en su propio cuarto y en sus propias camas. Estan felices disfrutando su independencia (por otra parte nosotros les extranamos!!). Una noche fuimos a chequearlos y esto es lo que encontramos...

Dami con medio cuerpo abajo y chupandose el dedo!!!

Mia no se mueve tanto, ella generalmente amanece de la misma manera en que se acosto...
pero Dami se pasea por toda la cama durante la noche...

Mucho carino,

~Lore~

Pool Time!

We are enjoying the pool at the apartment complex we are while it last. An update on the house: we got it inspected and it looks like it is in great shape :) some minor repairs that the owner is willing to fix, so it looks like by the 25th of this month we will be closing on the house. We are soooo excited!!!! Therefore, we think our days in the apartment complex are counted and the kids are taking advantage of the pool. We have had so many good times here, the kids have learned how to swim, dive, submerge and get stuff from the bottom, they have lost the fear of water and gotten comfortable in it. Here are some pics of those milestones reached...

They love to jump

Mia and her goggles

This is at the beginning when they needed their "floaties"

After a nice swim...
more jumping
The pool has natural indoor trees, one of them is a palm tree. It even has bananas!!!

We are going to miss the pool!

Blessings,

~Lore~

Margarita Falls

Una de las ventajas de vivir cerca de la familia son las reuniones aunque no muy frecuentes pero muy disfrutadas! Mi hermana y su familia viven a una hora de donde estamos ahora asi que cuando podemos nos visitamos. Esta vez nosotros fuimos a su casa y ellos nos llevaron a una cascada que se llama Margarita. Para llegar a la cascada grande uno tiene que subir una montana pero como llegamos un poco tarde y la subida consiste en unas cuantas horas de caminata, cruzando rios, escalando troncos y piedras, etc, etc. no pudimos llegar, pero pasamos lindo.

Una de las tantas "cascaditas"

Los tres mosqueterosY mi sobrino Caleb, que se me parece tanto a Dami cuando era chiquito ahora que le cortaron el cabello!

Con amor,

~Lore~

It's always nice to have family close by. My sister and her family live an hour away and when we get together it's always fun. Here we are at Margarita Falls. Although we did not get to the actual Fall we had a great time.