March 31st

We drove into Guatemala City today to bring Naomi to the airport. We made it there in plenty of time for her flight and managed to avoid getting lost in spite of the confusing inner city highways and lack of clear signage. Have a wonderful time with friends and family, Naomi!

Travelling on the highways in Guatemala is always such a treat! We all marvel at the amazing sights; colorful chicken buses, ancient trucks all full of rust and dents, heavily loaded vehicles with stuff piled precariously high, dozens of people crowded in the back of a truck with children peering over the sides, steep mountainside roads that wind through the canyons, beautiful trees and foilage that are alive with color, huge brick and stone structures that are walled in and gated, leaving much to the imagination, and roadside booths selling everything from handwoven hamocks and clothing to oven fired bricks to local cuisine to produce and plants.

The trip to the city only took up a few hours of the morning, so we decided that it would be a good day to go to the local market in Chimaltenango. Steve and I went and Eden talked us into letting her come to help carry all the heavy bags. Without Naomi to talk to the vendors, Steve and I had to use our Spanish! Luckily, asking about prices and making purchases is something that we have had a fair bit of practice at, so we made out okay. We made a lot of our purchases from some of the same vendors as last week; I am going to enjoy building these relationships while we are here. The farmers are a very hard working group of people.

Yesterday we went to an orphanage in Paramos, about a 20 minute drive away. There are 19 kids at this orphanage, ages 2-18. We brought along some soccer balls and soccer jerseys for everyone! Steve and a couple of the guys that work at the orphanage joined the kids for a vigerous game of soccer. Tomorrow we are joining the staff and the kids from the Paramos orphanage for a picnic at a park in San Lucas. We are all looking forward to spending more time with them. The kids are all so eager to play with us!
Cole is starting to settle in to our new routine. The first week was pretty hard. Everywhere we went was new and there were many overwhelming experiences for him. By the first weekend, he was already getting into the routine at Joy Filled Homes and at church on Sunday he was quite relaxed. We have depended a lot on sensory input (tickles, scratches and squishes) and treats to help him cope with change, but we have already been able to eliminate most of the edible rewards that he needed at first to qualify new situations as positive. I really thank God for helping him adjust to everything. He really loves his cat and likes to spend regular cuddle time with him. He leaves his schedule at home on the fridge when we go out now and is becomming familiar with our regular outings.
Eden and Jalen are really enjoying the oppertunity to play soccer with the children here. Jalen and Zeke are making friends with one of the neighbor boys even though their communication is limited; Thank God the playtime is universal!
Autumn is quite a big hit wherever we go. She is usually very overwhelmed when she first gets mobbed by eager girls! Laine and Eden do a great job of explaining to the girls that she just needs a few minutes to get used to the new faces, then she will be ready to play. She is learning a lot of new Spanish words every day.
My appologies for any spelling errors that you may notice. My spell checking option hasn't been working for me since we got here so don't be too hard on me!

A day at the park

So today was a great day at the park/pool! Because of financial strain, the orphanage cannot afford to hire a vehicle to take them on outings in the community. Having the van here, we are able to accomodate the transportation aspect, making it possible to bring the kids out for some much needed social interaction. Today is Eden's 13th Birthday, Naomi's last day at the Home and with only 4 days until Jalen's Birthday, we have plenty of reasons to have a party! We loaded up the van and brought all the kids and Nannies to a local park to celebrate. We had 26 people in the van! It was actually quite a big park with lots of playground equipment, a large duck pond and two swimming pools, though poorly maintained. We parked by a covered picnic area and chased away all the mangy street dogs. It was so much fun playing in the park with all the kids. We pushed them on the swings and helped them go down the slide. Their little joyful faces were such a beautiful sight! After a while we all suited up and went over to the pool for some swimming. It was fantastic! Cole sure loved the water therapy. He is getting to be a really good swimmer, praise God for that! We don't have to worry about him getting in over his head anymore. After swimming everyone was ready for lunch. Maureen went to pick up the cook and the food! We had hambergers and homemade fries! It was delicious! Steve saw some boys playing soccer with a beat up, half flat ball. He asked them if they would trade him for one of the soccer balls that we brought with us. They were incredulous! Jalen joined in and they played a vigerous game of soccer. We had two piniatas which drew a crowd of local children! Chocolate cake with chocolate, peanut butter, nutella icing (my own secret recipe), mmmmm! After the that we were all pretty tired out! Time to pack eveyone up in the van and head back to the orphanage. A happy day for everyone!

Happy 13th, Eden!

We have been here for a week now and are already feeling more comfortable in our new suroundings. We still have a lot to learn about culture and language, I find that the formalities are the hardest part. For example, if someone askes, " How are you?" You answer, "Bien, y tu?" (good, and you?) for children or if you know them. If you don't know them well, you use the formal "you" which is, "Bien, y usted?" Which makes a big difference here; I get weird looks every time I mess that one up! So far everyone has been very gracious while we are learning.
As I mentioned earlier, Steve is getting good at driving in Guatemala. I have driven a few times in the evening when the traffic is lighter and I think I will attempt a daytime drive soon. The trick is to be aggresive. I don't think you'd ever get anywhere if you wait for a break in traffic. You really have to just get your nose out there and make people let you in! It helps that we are driving a big van because the biggest vehicle has the right of way. "Motos" are everywhere. A moto is anything from a scooter to a dirtbike ridden by youth and even whole families cramed on one bike! There is a large section of parking at the mall designated to motos. It doesn't look very safe to me; they weave in and out of traffic, driving in the middle of the road or on the shoulder, depending on where there is room. I have to admit, though there is obvious danger, I'd like to try it someday.
The night time noise is a little harder to get used to. The street dogs bark all night long and there are often car alarms going off. We haven't experienced any theft yet; Our house, like all Guatemalan houses, has a wall with razor wire around it. Only the poorest shacks aren't walled in with double locking gates. Every door on our house has a locking mechanism so that it is very easy to get locked out. The other night, Laine and I were at Naomi's house and when we got home we found poor Steve waiting on the balcony to get let back in. He had put the cat outside then double locked the back door. After that he had gone out the front door to let the dogs out of their kennel. The front door locked behind him and since he had just gotten out of the shower and was wearing only his towel, he didn't have his keys in his pocket! He climbed up the metal bars on the windows to the top floor to try to wake Jalen up to let him in, but no use; All our kids are deep sleepers. Luckily he had the dog's blanket to keep him warm and we arrived home only 20 minutes later! We all feel pretty safe knowing how hard it would be to break in, I'd say nearly impossible.
Tomorrow is Eden's 13th Birthday! We are taking all the kids from the orphanage along with the Nannies and going to a public pool for a birthday party, complete with piniatas. We will also celebrate Jalen's 8th birthday, it is on April 2nd. This will be a special trip for the kids from the orphanange because they can't afford to hire a driver to take them out except to church, so most of them haven't ever gone to a pool. Steve will have to take several trips in the van to get us all there, but it will be well worth it!
I'd better get some sleep because it will take a lot of energy to keep up with my 5 and the 11 kids from the orphanage at the pool!

Joy Filled Homes

With 4 of us eager to use the internet and only one access stick, it has been tricky to find an oppertunity to skype and blog! Loving the weather down here. It is about 30 degrees durring the day and it cools down to about 15 degrees at night.
Steve learned to drive the Guatemalan way once we crossed the border. Mexico driving was a little crazy too, so he was broken in a bit before we reached the wild roads here! Everyone drives as fast as they can and there are very fewe posted speed signs that no one obeys anyways. The GPS doesn't work in Guatemala and we had no road map except for what was on the bottom of our Mexico map which only included major highways and cities. Once we crossed the border we were kinda depending on posted highway signs and started heading in the direction of Guatemala City, since Chimaltenango is on the way. It wasn't until we were a couple hours down the road that we realized that we were taking the scenic route! From about 5 till 6:30, there is typical rush hour on the highways everywhere. This includes flying along in bumper to bumper traffic at 100km/hr then suddenly hitting the brakes to go over one of the many speed bumps, frequent passing in oncomming traffic so that the cars comming towards you (or you if the passer is comming your way) have to pull nearly off the road to get by! Steve actually passed a line up of buses and semis causing a police truck to drive off the road to let us by and rubbing a bus with his rear view mirror! We actually need to take video of driving through the mountains because you would not otherwise believe the steep roller coaster curves and bends! Very exciting, to say the least. As it was dark and we were driving over a very steep mountain with the van on the verge of overheating, we were all earnestly praying that we were on the right road and would end up in Chimaltenango that night! We finally came into a city that was un marked like all the rest and found a Burger King with a play area! When we looked at the reciept from our woppers, it said Chimaltenango! Praise God! We had finally arrived! After trying the broken pay phone, we asked a man on the street to use his cell phone to call Naomi. We met up with her and she brought us to our house that she had rented for us and set up with beds, couches and basic needs to get us started. What a blessing she has been! Naomi has taken us around and helped us find good grocery stores and make connections that we will need while we are here.
Sunday we went to her church in Antigua where the worship is in Spanish and the service is in both English and Spanish. When the kids got back from children's church, Jalen said, "Mom, I got to play cards with a Spanish kid and we didn't even know what we were saying!" There are a few other missionary families that attend that church as well, none with kids though.
We have been to the orphanage most days this week. The kids are so fantastic! They still fight over us a bit cause we are still new. Over the next couple months I will do my best to share with you how special these beautiful children are! (Cole is sitting beside me whisper singing, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!") We sure have our work cut out for us! Yesterday we went through the list of maintenance issues for Steve to address and it is long! He is already at work mowing the lawns today and cutting some dangerous metal wires that were sticking out of their concrete walls so the kids don't injure themselves on them. Over the next couple weeks I will be spending asessing the kids' speach, sensory and educational needs and putting together IEPs ( Individual Education Plans) and therapy suggestions for the staff at the home to review. Please pray for me in this; I feel that the experience that I have had with Cole has given me some insight and education, but this really is a job for a professional. Please pray that God will give me wisdom and insight through the Holy Spirit that I can do this job at levels beyond my natural abilities!
Steve is a huge favorite around the Home! The kids are all hungry for a father figure and are quite happy to latch on to Steve and soak up every ounce of love that he sends their way! It really will be miraculous if he manages to find the time to work on the buildings! There are 11 children at the home ages 3-17, 9 girls and 2 boys. Daniel is about 14 years old and has the highest level of functional developement. He doesn't know yet that we brought him a soccer uniform and brand new soccer cleats! Soccer is his favorite activity, though he doesn't get to play often because he usually has no one to play with. Before we came, we talked to him on skype and he asked for a soccer ball, which we also brought for him. We are hoping to get the oppertunity to take him out of the home occasionally to play soccer with typical kids. You can pray that God will work out the details for that to happen. Daniel tells Steve every day what strong arms Steve has and that he wants to be strong like Steve. He loves to dance with Laine and I and he gave Eden her first kiss! (it was an accident! He meant to kiss her cheek.) Daniel Loves Jesus and has had dreams where he has been taken up into heaven and God has showed him the house that he is building for him there! He is a power prayer and has the kind of faith that moves mountains! We will be sure to get lots of pictures of all of the kids, I just know that you are gonna love them!

Mexico

So, we made it into Mexico! What a crazy event that was! We got a green light at the border which meant that we could drive through without having the border guards go through all our stuff. There were militarty personel standing by and they decided that they would like to check us out. Unfortunately, they did not speak any English! It was a riot. They were more amused than anything, as they tried to ask us questions about our destination and the contents of our van. We played charades and figured out most of the questions in spite of our poor Spanish. At one point, the soldier looking through the van found a small container of loose catnip that he thought looked fairly suspicious. Knowing what he was thinking, I had Eden pass Evinrude to the front so we could demonstrate that it was for the cat! Evinrude was distracted by the chaos and wasn't interested at first, but finally, he chowed down on the catnip and the guard was satisfied that it was "No por hombre!"
After the border, we had to go through customs which took about an hour and a half. Laine waited in the van with the kids while Steve and I filled out the paperwork for visas and temporary import of vehicle permit. Again, no one spoke English and we were again faced with the challenge of communicating with minimal Spanish! I tell you, we have learned way more Spanish in the past 3 days than we have in the last year! We miraculously got everything we needed and with a little help from our GPS, carried on down the road. On our way out of town we passed 4 rebel vehicles with scary masked men and guns mounted on the top! All the cars moved to the side to give them lots of room so we did the same! They passed by and we drove on, hearts in our throats!
The first night we found a quaint little motel with secure parking which they probably charged us double for! We started brushing our teeth with bottled water and tried to remember not to flush the toilet paper. (Guatemalan plumbing is poor, so we are practicing now so we don't plug the plumbing later!) Our travels through Mexico have been full of new sights. We have seen tin shacks, road side cafes in the back of a pick up truck, scraggly dogs, people begging for money at frequent speed bumps, crops of oranges, mangos bananas and bamboo, farms and orchards on many hills. I think when God made Mexico, He made a people that can do anything! There are many people here that love Jesus! On the road today we saw some people in a white van waving at us. Later we saw them at a gas station and they had a Jesus fish and a dove sticker on the back of their van too!
We haven't had good a good internet signal since we've been in Mexico. I must admit, I did feel a little isolated yesterday when there was no internet and I couldn't speak Spanish well enough to ask how to use the phone! I'm good at asking for more towels though! " Qiero cuatro toallas, por favor." We have been speaking Spanish to each other, practicing on everyone we get a chance to speak to; it is amazing how much we have picked up since we crossed the border.
We have been waved through most policia and militia road blocks. Today we were pulled over at a military check point and they attempted to search us but they couldn't communicate so they gave up! I asked to take a picture and the guy in charge nodded but gestured that I couldn't photograph the Hummer with the machine gun mounted on top! The soldier requested that my "Muchacha" should be in the picture with them, so Laine got to pose as well!
We have always felt very safe with the military personel and the Policia. They have been very curteous and good to deal with. Pray that we don't pass by any more rebels though. We have heard that they avoid the toll highways because they are heavily patrolled by policia and we have found this to be true. God is our source of peace, our refuge and our strong tower.
Our hotel tonight was a gift from God. It was getting dark quickly so we went into the nearest city hoping to find a place to stay. It was a maze that we quickly misplaced ourselves in. Suddenly, before panic set in, we found an ATM and just across the park we saw a Hotel. It was big and we thought it would be expensive, but desperate for a safe place to stay, we went in. They gave us a great deal and then they even gave us back more money. It has almost been the cheapest place so far! (Not cheaper than the one I wrote about before with the dirty tub!) Laine has her own bed tonight; she usually shares with Eden, and the boys don't have to sleep on the floor either! Earlier we heard singing comming from the street below and the van is safely parked in the courtyard. I deffinitly feel like our Heavenly Father prepared this place for us tonight.
It has been difficult to break through the language barrier to share Jesus with anyone in Mexico so far, since we are always just passing through. Autumn has broken through a few barriers with her rays of Sonshine and Cole has captivated the hearts a a few people as well. We just keep praying that God's love will cross the divide!
Our prayer requests are for continued saftey as we travel and for us to learn the language quickly.

My favorite slow cooker meal so far:
1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. mexican rice side dish (any brand)
1 chopped red pepper
1 small onion
1 jar salsa
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans mixed beans, drained
taco seasoning
cumin powder
Mix it all together in the slow cooker and add anything you'd like to make it your own, then turn it on high for 6 hrs, give or take. Spoon into tortillas, soft corn tortillas are best, with cheese and eat! Mmmm....delicioso!

Border-town

We spent 2 nights in San Antonio, Texas, to tune up the vans cooling system because it was starting to get hot at high speeds on the highway. Speaking of heat, the temperatures are getting hooter as we head south. All motels have pools, but most of them are not open till May, even though it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is aprox. 24 Celsius.
We are in Rio Grande City tonight. Tomorrow we will cross the border into Mexico. We have heard a lot of fear from local Americans about travel in Mexico as they are having a political feud right now and Americans have been targeted for hate crimes in Mexico. We continue to pray as we travel and continue to feel peace and comfort in the calling and safety of being obedient to God. After all, Jonah wasn't very safe when he chose a scenic tour to tarsus! As long as we don't look American, and I assure you, we do NOT blend in travelling through the U.S.! Do pray with us as we cross the Border and as we travel through Mexico. Steve will be driving and I will navigate and pray us through!
Travelling for hours on end has gotten a little easier. The kids have all gotten used to the routine and there are always lots of new sights to see. The scenery is really starting to show it's Hispanic culture. The houses all look very Mexican and the signs are mostly in Spanish even though we are still in Texas! We have been practicing our Spanish by speaking it to each other and looking up all the Spanish words that we see if we don't already know them. Please pray that we will be able to communicate in Spanish as we travel and when we arrive.
I want to give glory to God for a miracle that I hadn't even realized at first. When we were in Redding at the Bethel church, there was a call for healing of muscle related issues. I have always experienced problems with my back, neck and shoulders and was concerned about the effects of travelling. I had struggled with a pretty painful bout of shoulder pain just prior to leaving Vanderhoof. Steve prayed for me that night at Bethel because I was feeling pain and the tension went away and I have not felt it since. I wasn't sure right away that there had been a healing, but after travelling for 2 weeks and not having any muscle pain or tension, I know that God has definitely done a physical healing in my body! Hooray God! Thank you! It has been such a relief to be free from pain during this trip.
I really have to get some sleep now. We have travelled two time zones and with daylight savings, we have lost 3 hours! Bedtime has arrived!

Three cheap motels and a whole lot of miles later, we are in Van Horn, Texas. It is amazing how the scenery changes a the miles go by. Even the types of cacti change from mile to mile; Prickly pears, barrel cacti, joshua trees, yuccas, saguaros, and many other types of desert plants. Beautiful! There are many changes to note as we travel the I10. Steve notices fuel prices; 2.55/gal. is the cheapest gas so far. He refuses to pay over 2.80! Laine and I venture into the various markets to shop for groceries. The wildest store we've been in so far was in Blythe, Ca.. The closer you got to the meat department, the stronger the smell of raw meats! There were various 3 gal. jars on the counter with raw shrimp, chicken pieces and several unidentified items floating in brine. There was a tiny dairy section with no half and half cream for coffee or yogurt. We managed to find some of the items we were looking for, but there were so many strange things that we had never seen before. I'm sure that shopping in Guatemala will be a lot more complicated even than that!
The motels have been very interesting too. The last place we stayed was only $45, but it wasn't very clean. I fell asleep thinking that we must be real missionaries to sleep in such a place!
Funny story: today we were at a rest stop and Cole immediately spied the snack machines and began asking for a Quarter. I was putting it off and putting it off. Finally I saw Cole skipping towards me with a bag of skittles. Steve had seen a fairly disgruntled man at the snack machine and we figured that Cole had probably jumped in and punched the numbers after the man had put in his money and then just taken the candy! Since we didn't realize it in time to approach the man, we just prayed that he would be able to forgive Cole and wouldn't harbour bitterness!
We were craving chicken today so we bought a whole chicken, cut up, and cooked it with veggies and Tandoori, mmmm.....good!
Blessings! See ya down the road.

Pacific Coast

Had such a great layover in Redding with the Harpers. We had waffles for breakfast every morning and Dave's famous homemade salsa and guacamole in the afternoons. They took us out to Shasta Dam for the tour; one I took as a child with my own parents. We managed to catch the very last tour of the day, so when the security guard proclaimed that Laine would not be able to attend the tour unless she first returned her bag all the way out to the van, Dave came to the rescue and ran over a km. to the parking lot and back, nearly missing the tour himself. We gave the security guard a hard time since sweet little Laine is hardly a threat to Homeland Security. He agreed to pose for a picture, and it turned out to be his Birthday! Shasta Dam is a historic monument for my Dad as he had a very memorable experience there when he was very young. My kids were excited to hear tales of Grandpa Bambauer when he was a child like themselves!

With hugs and more prayers, Dave and Maryann sent us off again this morning, another 9 hours of travelling. (including all stops.) Our first stop was Corning, olive capitol of the world, for a picnic lunch and olives of course. We chose Steve's favorite, pimiento stuffed, and a new selection for all of us, herbed cheese stuffed olives! Mmmmm...even Laine, a self proclaimed non- olive appreciator, didn't mind them.

We reached the ocean just before dark. We had a picnic dinner, chicken and rice, hot out of the slow cooker before heading down the winding coastal highway. We had reserved a room at a motel in San Simeon that would allow us to use our own sleeping bags and squeeze into 1 room instead of 4 to a room; twice as much money. With about 70 miles to go, there was a warning sign of night time Hwy closures ahead. Uncertain of where these closures were in relation to our motel, we continued on. When we were about 50 miles past the last possible place to stay with 20 miles still to go, we encountered the dreaded sign; Road Closed. Hmmm... well, I'll tell you what we did, but you have to keep it a secret! We drove around the barricade (quite easily, I will add) and carefully drove through the "closed" stretch of road with out discovering any reason why it would have been so! On the other end, we drove around the barricade again and advised some tourists on the other side that we had not encountered any problems travelling through. We won't share this story in church! Ha ha.

After checking in at the motel and unloading all the children and suitcases, Steve decided that unpacking the sleeping bags from on top of the van was too much work; Any of you would have agreed as it involves untying, untarping and accessing the load on top of the van. So he came up with a very Stephenish idea, all 5 kids could fit sideways in a double bed. Well, I don't know if Eden thinks they fit, but there they are; Eden, Cole and Evinrude (his cat), Jalen, Zeke and Autumn, like peas in a pod!

We are all tucked in here now, Laine has a cot in the entry way. I hear a few little snorers and the furnace kicking in from time to time. Goodnight, and blessings till next time!

Slow cooked Chicken and rice

When I was a kid, my mom used to make a fantastic dish called "Chicken Hurry." I don't have the recipe with me so I made up a similar dish for our dinner this evening. Heres what I did.

4 chicken breasts, cubed

1 pkg. onion soup mix

2 squirts Worchestershire

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 med cans tomato sauce

1 c. rice

salt and pepper

Mix it all together and put in the slowcooker on high for 6 hours. It is helpful to stir part way through so the rice cooks evenly.

Redding Bethel

Just a quick report on our church experience in Redding. Yesterday we went to the Bethel church with Dave and Maryann. They have been experiencing revival at Bethel for many years and counting. We saw a woman healed from firomialgia, a woman healed from a bone deformity amongst other muscle and tailbone issues. Check it out at ibethel.org . It is always encouraging to see God moving in peoples lives in that kinda way! Blessings! Talk to you all again down the road.

All the way to Redding, Ca.: March 6th

Over 2,000 kms later, we have arrived in Redding, Ca. at Dave and Maryann Harper's family home, which has palm trees in the yard! We are here until Monday morning when we will head on down the road through California, Arizona and Texas before crossing the border into Mexico.

Crossing the border into the US was fairly hitch less. We were pulled over on account of a small box of manderines. Once inside the building, Cole reacted to the intimidating environment and pitched a record fit like even I haven't seen in years! There was flailing and screaming that disrupted the entire office! As I observed his display, I realized that it was a blessing in disguise. The border guard quickly went over the produce regulations with Steve and after throwing out the oranges and dumping the dog food, they sent us on our way as quickly as they could! Hooray, Cole!

Once across the border, we enjoyed the American scenery as we drove through the countryside on our way to the I5. It was dark by the time we reached Seattle and the kids squealed and exclaimed at all the sights!

I brought along Cole's weekly schedule off our fridge, so I wrote him a brief schedule for the day. I wrote, ride in the van, eat dinner, meet new friends, sleep at friend's house.

Our final destination on the 4th was Battle Ground, Wa., the home of Tom and Rhoda Hilman. The yard was packed with the vehicles of all the family that had come to greet us when we we arrived. Hugs all around and hours of good fellowship. The first thing Cole did was run to their fridge and put his schedule on it before finding half a bottle of root beer inside it and pour himself a glass!

Redding weather has been fantastic! The first morning here, Zeke woke me up with, "Mom! They have a pool! And palm trees!" Though Californians wouldn't dream of swimming at this time, my kids have all been in the pool several times. Before we hit the road, I will have to repack our travel suitcase with shorts and sandals and put away the sweaters! It is supposed to be 70 degrees here today. I don't know how to convert that into Canadian temperature, but I know that it feels like summer out there!

Guatemala trip: March 3rd

We have successfully navigated the journey to Kamloops, where we arrived at 6:45 p.m. last night. We did not encounter any difficulties along the way; the only dismay was the rise in gas prices which remained consistent all the way. It was such a blessing to have an extra pair of eyes and hands in the back seat of the van! Laine has been such a blessing; we have all really enjoyed her company.
In preparation for the long trip, Steve and Pete Knowles wired an inverter from the battery, making a "kitchen" behind the driver seat in the van. We have a slow cooker and a coffee maker in the kitchen and a borrowed plug in cooler to keep our groceries cold. We saved 8.10 on day 1 just on coffee, not to mention the Timbits we'd have likely bought if we'd gone through the drive-thru.
It was exciting to cook our first dinner in the slow cooker and by the time we got to 100 Mile House, the chili was starting to smell delicious! We had dinner with Steve's family at Brent and Bonnie Bylsma's house. (We missed Erin and Malaki who were getting ready for Malaki's trip to participate in the B.C. Winter Olympics in Terrace.) After the overwhelming introductions to 5 families and all of the children, Laine fit right in to the big family gathering. I think that she must have had some practice growing up in a large family!
On the agenda for today, Cole has an Occupational Therapy appointment and an IEP ( Individual Education Plan) meeting to help us stay on track while we are away. We need to find a pair of soccer cleats for Daniel, one of the boys from Joy Filled Homes who has Cerebral Palsy, who loves to play soccer. The rest of the day we will be enjoying more family. Steve has gone with Dad to his Eye Specialist appointment while Laine and I visit Mom and catch up on our Blogging and Facebooking.
Tomorrow morning we will head further south, crossing the border into the U.S. and travelling to southern Washington. We will be staying overnight with friends, providing that Steve actually gets around to calling them before we show up on their doorstep!
Please pray for travelling safety and mechanical stability of the van. If you are an ambitious prayer, you can also join us in praying that the van has a miraculous reduction in fuel consumption for the duration of this trip! As always, we need prayer for wisdom in following God's leading and for our health as Steve, Autumn and Zeke are still coughing quite a bit.
Blessings to you all!

Bylsma Chili
2lbs. ground beef
1 med. onion
1 red or green pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chick peas
1 can mixed beans
1 lg. can tomato sauce
chili powder, cumin and tandoori

Brown the meat and add the onion and pepper. Add drained tomatoes and drained, rinsed beans and chick peas. Add tomato sauce and spice to taste. * the secret to great chili is in the spice. More is always better! I use a fairly even amout of all three spices and a tsp. of brown sugar gives the chili a friendly disposition. Put in the slow cooker on low for 5 hrs. Garnish with sour cream and serve with affection!