New year, new beginnings.

Happy New year! The Lord has seen fit to grant us another year of life. Praise the Lord!
We spent our New Years eve in church, as usual and the Holy Spirit did not disappoint. We were surrounded by his presence.
I wasn't sure how New Years eve was celebrated by our Tico friends and neighbors but realized on our way home, that it was going to be another big deal. People were in the streets talking, laughing, grilling and getting their fireworks ready.
At midnight New years day, the sky lit up. It was grander than the ones from Christmas day and it went on for more than half an hour. I can't even begin to explain how magical it was. The younger kids ran outside and watched from the back yard. The older teens ran down to the front gate of our Finca and watched. Tony and I being the old fogies that we are decided that the view was just fine from our dining room windows. What an experience.
In a few weeks we will be on a bus to Managua Nicaragua to help out at an orphanage. I am so excited to see what the Lord is doing there. If you were to ask me a year ago if I would be living in Costa Rica or planning to go to an orphanage in Nicaragua...well, no one would of even asked.
How could we do such a thing with so many children, how would we ever afford it? Just not possible! But God is continuing to prove to me through grace and mercy that all things are possible. He is awesome! The bus line is called TicaBus, pretty similar to our greyhound buses in the US.

Price per passenger is $22 one way, which is about what it cost to get from Maine to Boston. The trip will be approx 7 hours, not including the stop at the border to get our visa's. This trip not only fulfills our requirement to exit the country every 90 days, but gives us a pretty awesome reason to. 

It has always been a desire of mine to feed the hungry, care for the orphan and spread the gospel and I am humbled that I may be able to do just that. 

Between all of these exciting plans, school is back in session tomorrow. Kids have had 2 weeks vacation and have spent 99% of their time on the laptops and the playstation. I am very happy to get back to school if for nothing else but to put away those distractions until next weekend. I much rather them explore the neighborhood, read books, bake or play together. 

I have kept a mental list of all the questions I have been asked these past 2 weeks such as: 

"Why did the moon turn that color during the eclipse?" 

"Can a spider really get big enough to kill a bird?" 

"What continent is Central America considered part of, North America or South America?"

These and many more will be part of their curriculum this week along with their math, literature, history, writing and Bible Study. 

We will also begin our FAFSA application this week for my oldest. She has decided that she does not want to leave us in the Fall and will be enrolling in an online University majoring in psychology. She has been prophesied over as a missionary when she was 16, so I'm excited to see the path that God puts her on. 

More to come...