Our Post-Christmas, Pre-New Year Update

This will have to go down in history as my slowest entry. Typing with one hand while trying to hang on to a squirming week and a half year old is tougher than I thought it would be...















(This picture is fairly representative of my experience as a father till now - minus the squirming)

Well, I've given up and abandoned her to her vibrating rocker chair/lounger. Time continues to fly by, Jessie and I have been here in Colombia for a month and a half, and have been parents for 10 days, pretty remarkable! Jessie, though not quite back to normal, is walking around (a lot), cleaning, shopping and losing weight rapidly, much to her delight. Isabella is a feeding machine and remains perfectly healthy, except for fighting with us every night when we put her to sleep in her own little moses basket and not our bed with us. We are settled into our little apartment and I've been working from home quite a bit, since I don't have a desk at the office yet, and it's more convenient to work here as a result of the weird hours that our family has been keeping lately.

I'm currently working on editing/re-writing all of the English portions of the CDA website, which has been a long-standing need since the vast majority of CDA's sponsors speak English. I've also been coordinating and arranging the details of three different short term missions teams that are coming next year. The first team, coming from New Zealand, arrives in January, the second in February will be coming from Canada, and the third, arriving in March, hails from the USA. This work in particular is wonderful practice for my Spanish since I'm having to work closely with a number of other CDA people who only speak Spanish. Half of my work related email traffic is now in Spanish which hopefully won't result in anybody being left at the airport, starving, or building in the wrong place (all three teams are coming to help with construction projects at the Girls' Home in Tenjo).

One thing I really wanted to tell you about was a great evidence of God's hand-in-action that just took place. On Thursday night, we found out that funding for some of the construction had fallen through, which put CDA in a tough spot, since a team was flying out to build using materials purchased with that funding. Then, this afternoon, we found out that one of CDA's donors had just sent in an unexpected financial donation that covers the amount needed, and he had done it on Thursday night! God is truly faithful! I continue to be amazed at how different my timing and God's timing are.

In family news, Jess and I are eagerly preparing for the arrival of her parents. On Monday night, Mitch and Jennie will arrive for a two week stay to meet their first granddaughter. They are also bringing our dog Ransom as a checked bag (he'll be in a crate not a bag- don't worry) to bring the total number of residents in our two bedroom apartment to: 4 adults, 1 newborn, and 1 large extroverted lab. Excitement will no doubt ensue (in all its varied forms).

We have been so blessed during the last several weeks and are so grateful to all of you for your continued encouragement and support. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. And for more pictures of Isabella, since I know that's all 2/3 of you are interested in anyway, check out our picture link on the right side of the page.

Blessings,
Jim and Jessie