The national anthem of Paraguay is quite long and usually only two verses of it are sung. The kids at school sang this every Thursday when they had their "formation" at the beginning of the day. The classes would line up and the kids would sing the anthem. Arms are to be straight down at your sides and no one is to move once the anthem starts. Bear with this music. There's a lot of introduction before it gets to the words. I apologize for the boring video while the music is playing. This was the best one I could find to post on here, though. Enjoy it anyway! I did.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Good Neighbors = Big Blessings
We have the best neighbors around. Mr. Ivan, as we call him (because we didn't know his last name when we first moved in), is such a wonderful man! Grandpa would have loved him, I'm sure. Ivan is one of those guys that knows a little bit about everything and has connections with everyone all over the country. He can rig up a rain barrel or a composter out of miscellaneous pieces of stuff that he finds when he's out driving around. (I'm telling you, Grandpa would have loved him!) He's amazing.
He's also sooo generous when it comes to helping me out with my garden. Ivan's garden has been green for several weeks now and he's sticking more things in every day. His garden is not anything like what we used to have to slave away in as kids (sorry parents, but it felt like that at the time), but for a little city lot, he's got an amazing thing going over there! He is semi-retired, so he spends lots of time in his garden tending it, making it a bit better, checking everything out over and over again. A few years ago when he saw me trying to be some sort of horticulturist, he wandered over and gave me a few tips. Then he offered me some stakes to label my garden. Then he gave me his surplus when my peppers and tomatoes didn't grow. See why he's a dear neighbor?
Well, this year we've expanded our garden space. It's more than twice the size it was last year and I was excited to get out there when we got home from Paraguay to start planting a few things. Ivan suggested I get it rotatilled again before I started. Well, I would do that if I had a rotatiller, but since I don't, I was out there on Saturday turning the soil over with my shovel. I took a break because we were going to meet Oma and Opa at the park for a few hours and when I got home, my garden was all plowed so fresh and neat! Can you believe that after Ivan and I had that talk, he got on the phone, called one of his friends, went over and picked up his tiller and came back and did our garden all before we got home from the park?! What a great neighbor, I'm telling you!
I told him that this kind of thoughtfulness deserved something like a warm rhubarb pie or a loaf of homemade bread for starters. He just laughed and asked, "Do you need any seed potatoes? I've got lots left." This man isn't out for rewards and payments. He's out to be a great neighbor! What a blessing he and his family are to us! I hope he can say the same thing about us!
He's also sooo generous when it comes to helping me out with my garden. Ivan's garden has been green for several weeks now and he's sticking more things in every day. His garden is not anything like what we used to have to slave away in as kids (sorry parents, but it felt like that at the time), but for a little city lot, he's got an amazing thing going over there! He is semi-retired, so he spends lots of time in his garden tending it, making it a bit better, checking everything out over and over again. A few years ago when he saw me trying to be some sort of horticulturist, he wandered over and gave me a few tips. Then he offered me some stakes to label my garden. Then he gave me his surplus when my peppers and tomatoes didn't grow. See why he's a dear neighbor?
Well, this year we've expanded our garden space. It's more than twice the size it was last year and I was excited to get out there when we got home from Paraguay to start planting a few things. Ivan suggested I get it rotatilled again before I started. Well, I would do that if I had a rotatiller, but since I don't, I was out there on Saturday turning the soil over with my shovel. I took a break because we were going to meet Oma and Opa at the park for a few hours and when I got home, my garden was all plowed so fresh and neat! Can you believe that after Ivan and I had that talk, he got on the phone, called one of his friends, went over and picked up his tiller and came back and did our garden all before we got home from the park?! What a great neighbor, I'm telling you!
I told him that this kind of thoughtfulness deserved something like a warm rhubarb pie or a loaf of homemade bread for starters. He just laughed and asked, "Do you need any seed potatoes? I've got lots left." This man isn't out for rewards and payments. He's out to be a great neighbor! What a blessing he and his family are to us! I hope he can say the same thing about us!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Back In Business!
I'm so excited! I'm back in business again. We have a working washing machine again that has replaced our deceased. Our front loader broke down and spun it's last load the day we were leaving for Paraguay back in April. I'm thankful that we were able to wash all but the clothes on our backs before we left Karen's house to come home because it's now been over a week since I've had the chance to wash clothes. Fred's mom so kindly took two loads for me last weekend and Jo took two more loads for me on Wednesday, but with a family of little boys that love to play in the dirt, a washing machine is generally put to good and constant use!
We had the repairman here on Tuesday to assess the situation and he gave us the news that it would be about $510 to repair the machine. Uh ... no thank you. If we're going to shell out $510 for repairs on an eight year old machine, we may as well get a new one. A new washing machine isn't in the budget, though, so we prayed! We knew that God loved us and that He could provide a solution for us, and did He ever! Someone found out that our machine had died and called Fred to tell him that they had replaced theirs when they moved and now they had an extra one that we could have. I'm very grateful for this machine and value it as a special gift from God.
As I'm typing here tonight, I am hearing the whirring and spinning of our new washer and it is music to my ears. Who would have ever thought that one would rejoice over the sound of a washing machine?! Well, I am! God gives good and perfect gifts and that is a reason to rejoice!
We had the repairman here on Tuesday to assess the situation and he gave us the news that it would be about $510 to repair the machine. Uh ... no thank you. If we're going to shell out $510 for repairs on an eight year old machine, we may as well get a new one. A new washing machine isn't in the budget, though, so we prayed! We knew that God loved us and that He could provide a solution for us, and did He ever! Someone found out that our machine had died and called Fred to tell him that they had replaced theirs when they moved and now they had an extra one that we could have. I'm very grateful for this machine and value it as a special gift from God.
As I'm typing here tonight, I am hearing the whirring and spinning of our new washer and it is music to my ears. Who would have ever thought that one would rejoice over the sound of a washing machine?! Well, I am! God gives good and perfect gifts and that is a reason to rejoice!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
There IS Such a Thing As A Free Lunch!
Today we continued to celebrate Stephen's birthday and we were all treated to a free lunch! The kids belong to the Birthday Club at PizzaPizza so every year on their birthdays they get a card from PizzaPizza with a coupon for a free slice of pepperoni pizza and a drink, which in our house means that they get a HUGE chocolate milk all to themselves!
We were on our way to PizzaPizza to get Stephen's free slice of pizza when we passed a grand opening event of a store close to the pizza shop. Out front was a big sign, "Grand Opening! FREE BBQ - Everyone welcome!" So ... we stopped in, took a look around at the store, got a free M&M hamburger and a can of pop and went on to get Stephen's free birthday pizza!
There IS such a thing as a free lunch! We enjoyed ours today. Got any of your own "free" stories to share?
We were on our way to PizzaPizza to get Stephen's free slice of pizza when we passed a grand opening event of a store close to the pizza shop. Out front was a big sign, "Grand Opening! FREE BBQ - Everyone welcome!" So ... we stopped in, took a look around at the store, got a free M&M hamburger and a can of pop and went on to get Stephen's free birthday pizza!
There IS such a thing as a free lunch! We enjoyed ours today. Got any of your own "free" stories to share?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Happy 6th Birthday, Stephen!
Today we celebrated Stephen's sixth birthday! It's so much fun seeing the excitement of a child about his/her birthday. Everything today revolved around the fact that it was his birthday, and not only that, but that it was a Pac Man birthday for him! At Christmas, he fell in love with Pac Man at Aunt Liz and Uncle Joe's house and it has been a dream of his ever since to have a Pac Man birthday. At breakfast we started out with pancakes that he insisted needed to be cut into Pac Man shapes. (Thanks, Daddy, for the finishing touches.)
Then his cake for tonight's celebration was Pac Man as well. Stephen designed the cake and the cupcakes to look like a Pac Man game, and I must say that he was quite successful at it. That was a good thing since I'm not sure I've ever even played Pac Man, so I don't have a clue what's what with all these dots and colors and everything else. We had a great birthday celebration today for Stephen and he's a happy little camper tonight!
We also got to celebrate his birthday along with all the rest of the little boys at Aunt Karen's house last week. We had cake, gifts, toys, and a pinata. How great is that to celebrate your birthday twice in two different countries with two different cakes? How great is it that even if it wasn't your birthday any time soon, you still got to have a birthday party with everyone and say it was for you, too! 
Happy Birthday to everyone, especially Stephen!Friday, May 15, 2009
Is This Canada?
Christopher's first question when we got off the plane was, "Is this Canada?" I guess after almost 24 hours of airports, one looks the same as another and it's not easy to identify where you are anymore. Stephen saw a Canadian flag and went crazy, shouting so loudly that he could see the flag of Canada that all the other people standing in the line for customs were grinning at him. Yes, we are home in Canada and are slowly but surely getting reaquainted with our surroundings.
Thank God, for the most part our trip home was uneventful! We were a bit anxious in the airport in Asuncion because all the computers were down and the staff was doing their best to manually fill out all the forms, boarding passes, luggage tags, etc. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:00AM and we were told we would start to board at 10:20. The TAM Airlines attendant was telling us this AT 10:20! We still wanted to pray with Oscar and Karen before they left and we went through security. We needn't have worried. By the time we finally got to the gate at 10:45, there was no one there and we still had to wait about another hour until we finally left.
When Fred was checking us all in at the airport in Asuncion, the attendant asked Fred if he was aware of the fact that my landed immigrant papers for Canada were expired! Can you believe they expired in March and I didn't even catch that! I knew my passport was ok, but I never thought to check my immigrant paperwork! No one caught it on the way down, so I just tucked that card away in my wallet and used only my VALID passport for the rest of the trip. No problems! Thank God!
Our flight got in to Toronto nice and early at 5:30AM. It took us about an hour to get through customs, luggage gathering, etc. Plus, with three little guys, it took us probably twice as long as everyone to get off the plane, walk from our gate to customs, find our bags, and all that. We always seemed to be at the end of lines, but that's ok. The boys were so tired at that point that most of the time they were laying on the floor crying while we waited our turn in the lines, so it was ok that there were only other families in the same boat, or smiling (probably deaf) grandparents in wheelchairs around us. The boys all fell asleep on the ride home, too, so I know they were exhausted. We all took long naps this afternoon, and none of them complained tonight when they got in bed either. Poor Stephen is all confused about what day it is. He couldn't understand how it could be May 15 at the supper table tonight when it was May 15 when we got to the airport. He couldn't understand why we had to eat two breakfasts yesterday - one with heart waffles at Aunt Karen's and then one on the plane (20 hours later). He keeps checking the calendar and the clock to try to figure out what really happened. Poor guy.
So here we are, safe and sound and exhausted. Christopher got into our van in Toronto and asked, "Is this OUR van?" And then when we said we were going home, he asked if our house had toys. Stephen assured him that it did. When we got home, the boys wanted to play outside and Christopher was about to step out onto the deck when he came back in and asked me if it was snowing outside and could he shovel. That was his last memory of being out on our deck, I guess!
Thank you all for your prayers for our family this past month. It was an amazing experience for our family. I hope that some day we will be able to go back and do some more work, but I think I'd like to wait until the boys are older. It was harder on me to deal with three little kids, in the airports especially, than I thought, so I would rather wait until they're older and can handle themselves better. They still loved it, too, and all day today we talked about Paraguay ... Aunt Karen's house, Sasha the dog (I didn't talk about Sasha, but the boys did!), the school, Edson, Uncle Oscar's birthday today, La Quinta, Gaby's hair cut, empanadas, mosquitoes, etc. We will miss a lot of things from last month in Paraguay! Thank God for the memories, the pictures, the gifts and the blessings of growth!
Thank God, for the most part our trip home was uneventful! We were a bit anxious in the airport in Asuncion because all the computers were down and the staff was doing their best to manually fill out all the forms, boarding passes, luggage tags, etc. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:00AM and we were told we would start to board at 10:20. The TAM Airlines attendant was telling us this AT 10:20! We still wanted to pray with Oscar and Karen before they left and we went through security. We needn't have worried. By the time we finally got to the gate at 10:45, there was no one there and we still had to wait about another hour until we finally left.
When Fred was checking us all in at the airport in Asuncion, the attendant asked Fred if he was aware of the fact that my landed immigrant papers for Canada were expired! Can you believe they expired in March and I didn't even catch that! I knew my passport was ok, but I never thought to check my immigrant paperwork! No one caught it on the way down, so I just tucked that card away in my wallet and used only my VALID passport for the rest of the trip. No problems! Thank God!
Our flight got in to Toronto nice and early at 5:30AM. It took us about an hour to get through customs, luggage gathering, etc. Plus, with three little guys, it took us probably twice as long as everyone to get off the plane, walk from our gate to customs, find our bags, and all that. We always seemed to be at the end of lines, but that's ok. The boys were so tired at that point that most of the time they were laying on the floor crying while we waited our turn in the lines, so it was ok that there were only other families in the same boat, or smiling (probably deaf) grandparents in wheelchairs around us. The boys all fell asleep on the ride home, too, so I know they were exhausted. We all took long naps this afternoon, and none of them complained tonight when they got in bed either. Poor Stephen is all confused about what day it is. He couldn't understand how it could be May 15 at the supper table tonight when it was May 15 when we got to the airport. He couldn't understand why we had to eat two breakfasts yesterday - one with heart waffles at Aunt Karen's and then one on the plane (20 hours later). He keeps checking the calendar and the clock to try to figure out what really happened. Poor guy.
So here we are, safe and sound and exhausted. Christopher got into our van in Toronto and asked, "Is this OUR van?" And then when we said we were going home, he asked if our house had toys. Stephen assured him that it did. When we got home, the boys wanted to play outside and Christopher was about to step out onto the deck when he came back in and asked me if it was snowing outside and could he shovel. That was his last memory of being out on our deck, I guess!
Thank you all for your prayers for our family this past month. It was an amazing experience for our family. I hope that some day we will be able to go back and do some more work, but I think I'd like to wait until the boys are older. It was harder on me to deal with three little kids, in the airports especially, than I thought, so I would rather wait until they're older and can handle themselves better. They still loved it, too, and all day today we talked about Paraguay ... Aunt Karen's house, Sasha the dog (I didn't talk about Sasha, but the boys did!), the school, Edson, Uncle Oscar's birthday today, La Quinta, Gaby's hair cut, empanadas, mosquitoes, etc. We will miss a lot of things from last month in Paraguay! Thank God for the memories, the pictures, the gifts and the blessings of growth!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Nine More Hours
In nine more hours, our bags will be in the car and the boys will have one last ride of freedom in the back seat of a moving vehicle without safety restraints. In nine more hours, I will have to remember to do one last look around to make sure we didn't forget anything. In nine more hours, Nancy will probably be taking "just one more" picture. In nine more hours, I will be looking around for the last time at this beautiful house that we've been privileged to call home for the last month. In nine more hours, I will have to brace myself for the good-bys that I am dreading to say. I'm not going to be ready to say them; I am crying as I type this! But I know it must be done, so I will force myself to go through the motions. I hate good-bys. My friend that I see only once a year for a few hours always tells me to say 'see you later' instead of 'good-by' because it's not so final. Sometimes I'm tricked by that, but this time I don't think I will be.
Our month here is over. It's time to go back home and try to get back into our old routines. Can that be possible? My life is forever changed because of these four weeks here. Sure, we can slip back into our familiar surroundings and routines and lifestyles, but I don't think that the lessons my heart has learned will allow me to remain the person that I was on the inside. I have a lot to digest from this time, so maybe a 20 hour trip home will be a good thing after all!
In nine more hours, the gate to the Caballero home will close behind us and we'll be on our way to the airport. I will miss this place terribly, but I know that I'll see many of these loved ones again in a far more beautiful place some day. Good by, Paraguay! Good by, Colegio Privado Adonai! Good by Karen, Oscar, Brandon, Gaby and Edson! See you later! I love you!
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