Thank you for your prayers as we get our family settled here in Oaxaca. We have been here now over a month. We praise God that we have found an apartment near the language school. Thank you all for praying for us as we searched for a place to live. A great blessing for our family is that we are only two blocks away from a really beautiful park where Sarah and Nora get to spend most mornings while Luis is in class. It has been great for our transition since Nora loves playing at parks so it feels normal for her. She’s even met some new friends to practice her Spanish with and Sarah has gotten to chat with the mothers as the kids play.

Our partners COBAMI have gone over and above to help us get settled. For instance, our apartment’s main energy source is gas. We needed to learn from our partners how to set up our gas stove and gas tanks. Our new friend not only drove us to buy the items, but then set them all up as well. Thankfully he was here when the internet guy came to set up the Wi-Fi because that also was a whole ordeal; it was helpful to have a native Spanish speaker and one who had experience in getting internet hooked up. We thank God for our new friends and we look forward to working alongside them in their churches and ministry projects. Another couple from church has been helpful as well. Nora needed to go to the doctor so they called their daughter’s pediatrician, set up an appointment for us (something that couldn’t have happened in the States) and drove us to the appointment. Nora did really well and is feeling better now. The great news is now Nora has a pediatrician which is an important box to check off on our getting settled To-do list.

Another huge praise and answer to prayers was that we got a car. It was a new experience for the both of us since we had never purchased a car in a different country and in Spanish. We had three of our ministry partners help us on different occasions (the process was long and required different days to return back to the dealership). We are happy we have wheels which makes moving around the city much easier. Luis was the main driver at first but then I got brave enough to try. It’s actually not as bad as I was imagining. Driving here is different, I call it a dance that everyone knows and or figures out how to get out of people’s way. Our partners warned us about having to drive slow over the many speed bumps, avoid the potholes, and look out for the motorcycles. We are getting used to this new way of driving. Sometimes the GPS takes us down very bumpy dirt roads which Nora especially enjoys by saying “big bump!”.

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Yays: For our home and car; Luis enjoys his walks to school; dinner with IM colleagues, Keith and Deb Myers; Nora adapting well to her new surroundings; Nora loves playing at the park; Sarah finishing a hard semester at Palmer and being finally at her project phase (she will graduate in May); for our ministry partners who have been so helpful in getting us settled.

Prayer requests: For us to build good friendships and trust; to give ourselves grace during our language and culture learning; for our safety and health; for our ministry partners; for the girls and mentors of Talita Cumi; opportunities for Sarah to get to know the mentors better to offer spiritual and emotional support.