Happy 12th Anniversary to Us!!

Today Marcus and I celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary!!  We never would have though 12 years ago that we would be celebrating in Arequipa, Peru!  We had never even heard of it.  But we are so thankful to be here together with our family, and so grateful to the Lord for bringing us together.  One of our teachers commented playfully - "lots of patience"!  We weren't sure if he was talking to me or Marcus, but we said it certainly has gone both ways over the last 12 years.

We were so happy to celebrate on Friday night by going out to dinner!  Our new friends, Rick and Suzie, from Colorado, came over to keep the kids for us.  They are in school with us and will be serving in the jungles of Peru with Pioneers.  Marcus and I had a wonderful time together, and had a great meal!!  We had a meal for two of a variety of meats served on hot stones, including ostrich and alpaca!  It was actually very good, and we had a great salad and dessert too!  Eating out here is surprisingly inexpensive, so we had this fabulous meal for very cheap!  What a treat!!

Happy Anniversary, Arequipa!!

On the rooftop of a restaurant in the Plaza de Armes in Arequipa, with the cathedral (built in 1612) and El Misti (volcano) in the background.  

This last we took part in celebrating the birthday of our host city, Arequipa.  In 1540, the Spanish conquistadors founded this city as part of their conquest of Peru.  After 470 years it is now one of Peru's most prosperous cities.  On Sunday afternoon, after church we went to the parade in the Plaza de Armes (town center).  It was a huge parade, lasting from 9am until late in the evening!  We always thought the Tupelo Christmas Parade was too long, but wow, this one is really long!  We didn't get to the parade until about 3 and stayed a couple of hours.  There were dancers and floats, with natives from all over South America dressed in beautiful costumes!  It was amazing and we had a fantastic view from a rooftop of a restaurant in the Plaza.  It was a great day until we tried leaving, and in the massive crowd Marcus had his wallet stolen!  We are having to learn what we can safely do here, and have to think through every step differently than in the US.  This is partly because we are in a large city, partly because we are in South America, and very much because we are white and stand out as minority! 


Aside from the parade, the people here celebrated with fireworks!  They had a fireworks show on Saturday night, which we did not attempt to go to.  We did hear the fireworks at midnight, and also individuals shot fireworks at random times of the day, including 5:30 am.  In Arequipa it seems that fireworks are a way for people to celebrate birthdays, special Catholic saint days, and anything else they can think of!  We hear fireworks often any time of the day or night!  

First Week of School

We have officially completed our first week of school!  Marcus and I are officially students in ABC Language school as well as all four children are now students at Rey de Reyes (King of Kings).

Marcus and I love our school, which is a Christian organization designed to teach missionaries spanish.  We have fellow students from Korea, Sweden, Germany, and of course several others from the US.  We have grammar class together with a man from Korea, then we separate and each have one on one conversation class.  Our teachers are very kind and encouraging, and we are thankful for the friendships we are making!

Sarah Caroline's school uniform (she says she looks like a waitress!)

The children did well this week starting their new school. This is probably the biggest adjustment they will have to make, and overall they have handled it really well.  The teachers are very kind and helpful to them, although they do not speak English.  There are a couple of teachers in the school who do speak English, and they have been kind to help our children adjust.  What a blessing to us that Sam can go with the others to school!  We thought he would need to go to a different preschool, and were praying about our different options.  There were some good schools, but the locations were going to be difficult with our schedule and where we live.  He is pretty overwhelmed by his class, but they are allowing him to stay with Luke until he gets a little more adjusted.  Luke has been a great big brother to take care of Sam, although he is ready for some independence!  The biggest difference for Ben and Sarah Caroline is that all handwriting is required to be in cursive!  Even in first grade the students write in beautiful cursive, and so at night we are practicing handwriting with the older two.  This is hard for now, but will be something we will be thankful for later.

Sam wears the "blue thing", or a "maudil" over his clothes to school (like Madeline).  Luke wears a "buzo" which is gym pants, t-shirt and jacket.  All children are required to wear these hats when they go outside.  We don't have a photo of Ben - he wears navy pants, a white dress shirt, a navy tie and red sweater.  On gym days he wears the same type outfit Luke has on.

We walk a lot each day to and from our schools, which is our only way to exercise right now.  We take a taxi to take the children to school, because it is a long uphill walk otherwise.  After we get them settled we walk to our school, about 10 min away.  After we finish school we have about an hour, and we work on our homework until time to get Luke and Sam at school.  We walk them home (downhill, so not too bad), which takes about 15 minutes.  After being home for about 30 minutes, Marcus walks back to the school to get Sarah Caroline and Ben.  We then have "lunch", or you could call it an early supper I guess??  It is tradition here to have the big meal of the day at lunchtime, so we just go ahead and eat then.  The kids take a small lunch to school, but they have that at about 10:30.  This is just one of the many adjustments to living in South America!  We all work on homework, handwriting, and maybe have time for playing in the park.

Sarah Caroline's new friend, Alli (her mom teaches at our school, and they are in the same class at Rey de Reyes)

This week the Lord has certainly watched out for us....  on Wednesday we had a gas explosion in our kitchen.  Our oven and stove is gas and a little on the old side, and sometimes doesn't light well.  I had gone to light the oven and when I went back later to check it, realized it had not lit.  When trying to check on it (obviously without thinking through that gas may have leaked), it made a huge explosion and blew out the kitchen window!!! Sarah Caroline was standing right there with me, and Ben was in the doorway.  Thankfully none of were hurt, and the glass from the window went all around in the kitchen but did not cut us at all.  I didn't realize until later that the hair was singed off of my arms, but no burns thankfully.  Marcus and I were pretty overwhelmed with thoughts of what could have been, and gratefulness that the Lord was watching over us.  Our window has already been replaced (at a price of only $30!), and the oven suffered no damage.

One big prayer request for this week is that we could find a Christian, trustworthy cab driver to take us to school in the mornings.  It is a safety issue to take any cab that comes along (there are certain companies that are considered safe).  We know we need a driver every morning, and we also would like to have someone to call when I need to run errands or if we all need to go somewhere further than walking distance.

More updates to come....

Welcome to Arequipa!

Our first week in Arequipa we spent most of the time learning our way around the city, shopping for the apartment and gathering school uniforms for the kids.  In-between all of the adjustments, we were able to do a little sight seeing.
Arequipa is a large city of 900,000 people in southern Peru.  The altitude is about 8000 feet:  higher than anything east of the Rockies in the US.  It doesn't seem that high, although we do have a view of three mountains/volcanoes outside of the city.  The climate is very dry (dusty and dirty) and we have arrived in winter!  I know you Mississippi folks may be jealous, but our weather has been pretty cold at night - down to the mid 30's or low 40's.  In the afternoon it gets warm (highs around 65-70), and is very sunny and beautiful!  The hard part of having lows in the 30's is that we have no heat!  We have heavy wool blankets on our beds and fleece ones over that for the kids.  

Plaza de Armes - the town center, with this cathedral being built in the early 1600's 

an overlook from outside the city

guinea pigs (at a guinea pig farm): otherwise known as "cuy", a delicacy to the Peruvians, and yes, our children have now all tried to eat cuy, and said they liked it  (it will not be a staple on our menu at home!)

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WE MADE IT TO PERU!!

We are so thankful to be in Peru!!!! What a blessing to have arrived safely!!! We traveled from Birmingham to Miami to Lima, Peru on Wed, July 28th! The goodbyes were very difficult, but we were blessed to have so much encouragement from family and friends as we prepared to leave.

The kids were a little anxious, as they have NEVER flown before! What a way to start! Marcus and I were a little anxious about all of our luggage - 12 suitcases, 6 carry-ons and 6 backpacks to deal with and get through security! We were so grateful to arrive in Lima to see all bags intact with all of our belongings. Lydia Rice, who is doing a one year internship with Peru Mission, traveled with us, and was a huge help gathering our bags. Thankfully we moved right through customs with no trouble! The kids were very helpful with all of the luggage, and they each (the older 3) pushed a large cart full of luggage from the airport across the street to the hotel. We were thankful the Lord gave them servant hearts at that moment!

On Thursday, we traveled from Lima to Arequipa, where we will be in language school for 3 months. Again, the Lord was watching over us as we traveled and all of our luggage made it. We were happy to see some familiar faces when we arrived - Steve and Dianne Hill. They also are joining Peru Mission and have been in Arequipa for 3 months already. What a blessing they have been to get our apartment set up and prepared with a refrigerator full of groceries, as well as dinner cooked for our first night!

outside of our apartment (there were fireworks going off, which is why Sam's ears are covered)

I spent the first two days shopping for items that would be simple to buy in the States - measuring cups, tupperware containers, mixing bowls, and some basic dishes. I shopped on two different trips on Friday - once with a sweet Peruvian lady who taught me what grocery items to buy and then she took me to buy a rice cooker and coffee maker. She speaks only Spanish - and I understand very little Spanish! So this was in interesting trip! Then in the afternoon Steve and Dianne Hill took us shopping again for household items and some more groceries.

My list was still long after one day - the prices are high for some basic things (peanut butter is $7 for a small jar, and a tiny pyrex measuring cup was $6), and the selection was pretty slim. On Saturday Dianne took me to a local marketplace where I had better luck finding the items on my list for a better price. Now we can get our small apartment a little more organized for a family of six to function in! We still have a need for a few basic furniture items which we'll shop for with help this week. We will post some pics later of our apartment...

We worshiped on Sunday in a non-denominational church that meets in a school auditorium, where we will go while in Arequipa. The people we met were so sweet and kind, but I'm not sure how much we learned from the sermon (all in Spanish, of course)! Ben and Luke met some boys their ages who live just a couple of blocks away, and they are a missionary family from Florence, AL!! They were pretty excited to have some new friends so fast! The boy Ben's age is also named Benjamin! They look forward to playing with them, and I am grateful for a friend as well!

We can't believe we are really here! It feels funny when we wake up and go to sleep thinking that we are so far from home! There is much to adjust to - the language, our apartment, new friends, altitude (higher here than anywhere in the US east of the Rockies), the weather (the highs get in the upper 60's and the lows about 35-40, with no heating!). The hardest things for me to adjust to right now as a mom is grocery shopping, doing laundry, and dishes. It isn't safe yet for me to go to a store alone, until I know more Spanish and learn my way around better. We walk or take a taxi everywhere, sot it's a little different than jumping in my own car to drive to Kroger or WalMart. I have to have Marcus with me, which means all four kids also. This will change as school starts, but for this week that is a challenge. The laundry is also a bigger deal - we thankfully have a washing machine but no dryer. It's very dry here so the clothes dry fairly quickly, but we only have enough lines to hang about 1/2 of a washing machine load. I am also washing our dishes in a little sink, rather than having a dishwasher. We have only enough hot water for one shower, maybe one and a half. So we need to adjust to how to work out times for everyone to get clean without screaming about the cold water! We are thankful to have these adjustments - we are learning so much about what is important and necessary. The kids are learning so much already about needs vs wants. Although we will look forward to a larger home, more hot water, a clothes dryer, etc it is good to learn we can make it and be content without!!

We are really enjoying family time and not following a schedule! It is so laid back, and we aren't in such a rush that we don't enjoy each other! This week we will continue to get settled in, do some sight-seeing, and practice Spanish. School for all of us starts next Monday!!

Thanks so much to all who have prayed for our travels and encouraged us along this journey!!! God is so good!

Two Week Countdown!

WOW! Our time is almost here! We are so excited, and crazy packing and taking care of details here and in Peru, and trying to make the most of quality time with friends and family!!

It's been a roller coaster ride the last few weeks, and the Lord is certainly preparing us to be flexible (which we are told is key to serving in Peru!!). We've had several bumps in the road with our living arrangements (here and Peru), my sweet nephew Graham got sick while staying here with us and had to be hospitalized briefly, and I could go on... but the thing that we are learning is that God is providing us with peace that He is sovereign over ALL things!!! What a comfort that has been to us. It is my only hope when things don't go my way, to know that the Lord has a better plan and He sees a BIG picture that we may never see. I just came across this verse that sums it all up: Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Sweet Baby Jake

What a HUGE blessing that Baby Jake Taylor Goldman (my nephew) was born while we were in Mobile visiting on June 22. We arrived at Rebecca and Justin's home at midnight for a quick stop to sleep on our way to the beach, and one hour later Justin woke us up and said that they were headed to the hospital!! Two weeks early!! I kept thinking, wow, God really doesn't have to be this good!! It was so much fun to take Graham to the hospital the next day to see his new baby brother, and we were thrilled to see baby Jake!!

Ben coming off of a fun water slide!

Luke climbing a wall on our beach trip.

Sam wants to be big, too - until he started climbing!

We had a brief rest at the beach after moving out of the house, while Marcus was able to get the rest of his continuing education hours needed. It was a much needed break from the packing and moving, so that we could return and get back to business! The kids had fun swimming and playing in the ocean (oil-free!). Another blessing in June was a girl's getaway to Birmingham, and it was such a treat to have special time with great, sweet friends!!

And, yes, I was the Statue of Liberty in our "Almost Annual 4th of July Popsicle Parade" (I think that's the title!). It was really fun, and the kids were so glad to have a chance to be in the parade one more time before we moved. It was a great way to celebrate our nation's independence, and it will be very different next year celebrating in a different country!

So, we are on the countdown now! We fly out of Birmingham to Lima, Peru on Wed, the 28th! On Thurs, the 29th we will fly to Arequipa where we will spend about three months for language school and adjust to the culture. We are looking forward to this time for our family! In some ways it may be restful to focus on our Spanish and family time, and have a break from going a hundred different directions. The kids will be going to a Peruvian Christian school, and will (hopefully) learn Spanish by immersion. Marcus and I will be in school each day ourselves.

Please pray for our peace of mind and wisdom as we finish our last two weeks in the US!!

Peru Plans Continue...

July 28 is our official departure date!!!

We can't believe that the time is really almost here!! We fly from Birmingham to Lima, Peru on July 28 (in 6 1/2 weeks)!!!

We are so grateful for the Lord's provision of all the details! It seems surreal to think we will be living in a different country soon, not just visiting! Please pray for all for all of the details to continue to fall into place - moving out of our home, final decisions of what to pack and what to leave behind, and all of the business that needs to be taken care of! We know the Lord will provide - He has made so clear all of the details to get us to this point. We are amazed at how things continue to work out, not always as early as we would like, but His timing is perfect. What a lesson to learn!

We will be in Arequipa, Peru for language school for about 12 weeks, and following that time will fly back to Lima, then make our final move to Trujillo, Peru where we will live for about 18 months. During this time we do not plan to return to the US for any visits, and know at times this will be hard to miss family so much! This is becoming more real as the time nears for us to leave! We hope to soak up as much family and friend time as we can over the next 6 weeks amidst all of the planning and packing that continues!

Memorial Day Lake Trip

Each year Mimi and DoDad plan to take our entire family on a lake trip together, and this year it worked out for us to get together Memorial Day weekend. We usually go to Pickwick Lake or Smith Lake, but this time we traveled further south to be closer to Rebecca, since she is expecting baby #2 very soon! We had such a great trip and enjoyed hanging out together! Of course we ate lots of food, kayaked and even walked the hills, but we enjoyed relaxing (as much as you can relax with five kids in one house!) most of all! We have great memories of spending time together with Mimi and DoDad, Rebecca, Justin and Graham, and Katie and Talmadge.

Busy May!

Sam's Birthday Party in the Park

Happy 3rd Birthday to Sam!

Rebecca's Baby Shower

Cousin Time in Mobile

Shiloh National Park

Gum Tree Fun Run with Friends

Sarah Caroline and Mrs. Ginger Howe, piano teacher and friend

May was a busy time with the end of school, field trips, piano recital, cub scout awards, a family reunion, the Gum Tree Run/Festival, a day trip to Shiloh with family, and Sam's 3rd birthday!! Time flies by so fast, and we feel like the school year just began! Much has happened for our family since school started, and our children have grown up so much!!

It seems that this year had a few extra tears shed than normal, and with everything we do now, it may be the "last time" for a while! I broke down leaving sweet Calvary Baptist Preschool for the last time, and am so grateful for the seven years I have had children in school there. Leaving Church St. the last day was also emotional, and we are also thankful for the time our children spent there. We have had four different teachers at Church St. and they all hold a special place in our hearts, as well as the support staff!

I also had a great quick visit with Rebecca in Mobile so that I could go with her to her baby shower. Graham and Sam had fun having some cousin time together! It was great spending time with Justin and Rebecca and meeting their sweet friends from their church in Mobile.

It really is hard to imagine that Sam is three! He is keeping us entertained with all he has to say these days, and loves to be big like "the boys" or "his boys" (aka Ben and Luke!). If I ask him to do something he quickly responds, "I N'am." He told us this week that bananas come from monkeys, and really, that's smart, right? There is always an image of a monkey getting bananas out of trees! He has been enjoying Dr. Billy's tomatoes growing next door, and gives a report on the "potatoes" often! He is precious to us and I am heartbroken that my baby is getting so big!!

Peru Mission T-Shirts

Our sweet friend Jenny Smith has had these cute t-shirts designed as a fundraiser for our family. The t-shirts are $15/each and available in youth small, medium, and large, and adult small, med, large and X-large. If you are interested in a t-shirt, you can email Jenny at jennifer_smith1886@comcast.net or myself at marcusandwhitney@gmail.com to place your order. Checks can be made to Lawndale Presbyterian Church, or you can try the PayPal button on the right side of this blog to pay and place your order. If you are not in the Tupelo area Jenny will be glad to ship them to you! Thanks, Jenny, for the great idea and cute design!