Greetings from Bogota

We are having an amazing time here in Bogota.  Each day has been jam-packed with so much activity, sight-seeing, meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends that we met last year, getting to know Julian's life here, etc., etc., etc.  We haven't had internet access in the apartment yet (thus the reason that I haven't been posting any blog entries or responding to much e-mail), but they are working on getting that taken care of for us hopefully today.  It will be nice to be able to get online on our computers rather than taking our phones across the street to the wifi zone and trying to type on the little keypads. 

Julian had gotten the keys to our apartment while we were still on our flight here, so that made for a wonderful reunion with him as soon as we arrived.  We stayed up late unpacking and getting adjusted in our quite spacious apartment (compared to last year).  We are really liking it.  It has two floors, and both boys have their own room.  David was sleeping in a sleeping bag, but lastnight we were lent a mattress for him to sleep on.  I have a nice little patio to sit out on in the mornings with a beautiful view.  We have plenty of closet space so that we each have our own closet with shelves and hanging space, there are hall closets for all the bathroom stuff, and we even have a little office. 

Our first day, we met the lady that Julian has been living with, as well as the lady who has been discipling him on a weekly basis (who is friends with the neighbor).  What a blessing to me to see how she is just pouring the Word of God into him, and it was also a blessing to see how much she has just loved and adored him.  I also got to attend a prayer meeting with him on Friday night, where I got to meet the whole group that has just embraced him and that he has been committed to.  It has been such a blessing to me to see how our prayers for his spiritual growth have been answered.

We've made some amazing friends with the other teachers who are here for summer school.  One of the teachers, Stacy, and I apparently look alike, so people have been asking if we are sisters.  We just decided that we'll be sisters for these three weeks that we're together.  There's another guy, Andrew, who is a college student from Chicago.  We've kind-of adopted him, and he's been great.  David really likes hanging out with him.

Sunday we spent the whole day with a neighbor family from the apartments, who also work at the school.  They took us to church, then we met up in the afternoon to go to a nearby town called Chia.  They have a nine year old daughter, so she and David have had fun together.  When we got back, he stayed and played Wii at her apartment, and then we ended the evening watching a movie with them. 

Monday we went to the school to check things out and prepare a little, then we went to a fundraiser activity at another Baptist Church that is raising money for construction of the church.  We witnessed God arrange one of those divine appointments again when Julian recognized a lady there.  It just happened to be the very lady that led him to Christ as a child, took him to church, prayer meetings, etc.  She was like a mother to him, and she adored all 3 siblings.  He had told me about her before, and I always wished I could meet her.  But he said she had moved to the States years ago, and he didn't even know her last name.  Well, apparently she wasn't in the States, because there she was, right in front of us.  They hadn't seen each other in nearly ten years, but it was so obvious that she loved him dearly.  Now we have her address, e-mail, and contact information to get together sometime while we're here. 

Monday night we met another one of Julian's neighbors who just happened to have adopted three older siblings from the same orphanage as Julian.  We went over to their house and had a really nice time talking with them.  The man is from Austria, so he spoke English, so Mike was right at home.

Tuesday morning school started.  We didn't have a thing ready, but we got there an hour early, scrambled around to get everything ready, and at 8:30, the kids came in.  I have 19 4-6 year olds on my list, but so far I've only had 13.  I still have the biggest group of kids, though.  My aid has been a wonderful help, and the kids are adorable.  This week we're studying the zoo, so we've been doing a lot of animal activities.  I feel right at home, back in the ESL/Bilingual school setting.

Mike met the director of operations, and so far he's been painting.  He said there's several other things that he might be doing, too.  The custodial ladies couldn't believe how quickly he could paint a room, and they asked me to tell him they wished he could give lessons to the other painters on how to do it so quickly and efficiently. :)

David met the P.E. Coach on Monday, and we let him know David would love to help out with the sports program for summer school.  So Tuesday morning, the Coach recruited him, and he's having a blast.  Actually, our friend Andrew is here as the P.E. Assistant, but David is now Andrew's assistant--the assistant to the assistant.  He sure feels important now, though.  Julian helped me out to get some materials ready yesterday, but he won't be coming every day because he has other appointments throughout the week.  He also works on Saturdays for the orphanage, so those are our family days for just the three of us.  Since we're trying to model cooking and budgeting to Julian, we save Saturdays for the times to eat out. (Not that we don't want to enjoy it with him, too, just that it's not really a reality for him and we want to help him learn how to eat healthy on a small amount of income.)

Today we're on day 2 at school, and so far it's going well.  When we get home, we're getting together with our wonderful friend that we met last year who is only here for the day.  We are really looking forward to seeing her.  She is mentioned on the dedication page of my book, so she has been anxiously awaiting a signed copy of it. :)

My break is about over, so I think I'll get off now.  Thanks for all of the prayers.