Happy Thanksgiving!

As we are out celebrating this holiday with our wonderful family, we wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a "Happy Thanksgiving". Eat a ton, relax a moment, and take in all the small glorious moments God gives to us.

Angels unaware...

You never know why God puts people in your path. But he knows, and he always has a reason.

Near the beginning of our vacation, we were sitting in Buenos Aires airport waiting for a flight to Iguazu to see the falls when we met an American woman. In the midst of the conversation we found out that she was an ER doctor (as well as a medical missionary) who was coming back from Antarctica. She was on her way to the falls as well. She then proceeded, out of the blue, to ask me about my older brother. My older brother...are you kidding me? Now, here's where I should mention that my brother is also a medical missionary. She knew my older brother personally and his family...my family. What are the odds? So there we were sitting in an airport in Argentina laughing and talking about stories of my older brother. We invited her to accompany us on our private tour of the falls the next day. We spent the day together. Later....when I received the news of my grandmother, my husband held me tight as I cried and she prayed with me and for my family. I cannot tell you what great comfort that was. The next day she boarded her plane and walked out our lives.

God always has a reason. For that moment, he must have known that I needed that prayer. It was...angels unaware.

A day and a half of flying...

Yesterday we made it home finally after a day and a half of flying. We left El Calafate (which is near the bottom of South America - close to Antarctica) on Wednesday at 10 in the morning and flew 3 hours to Buenos Aires. From there we transferred to the international airport and boarded an overnight 11 hour flight to Dallas. After landing in Dallas we finally got on our last flight which was only 2 hours into Des Moines. By lunchtime we were home and exhausted. I have to tell you, the trip was incredible. It will be a hard vacation to top next year. I encourage everyone to go to Argentina...you won't be disappointed.

Shining light...

Today was our trip to see a glacier. The pictures just cannot do it justice. It was massive with all the creaking and groaning and crashing down that comes with glaciers...way cool!

On a totally different note...the people here are absolutely mesmorized with our newest son from Ethiopia. We have had TONS of people come up to us, rub his head, kiss him on the cheek and say "bonito" - which means beautiful. O.k., when I say tons I mean it. People have asked to take pictures of him, with him and have crowded around us everywhere we have gone. He has taken it in stride mostly and will strike a pose now when someone pulls out a camera. There was only one time that I had to take him out of the crowd because it was too much (and yes...I did say crowd). I'm not really sure what it is about him. Maybe it's because he's black (there are no black people in this country). Maybe it's because that adoption is highly unusual here or maybe it's because we are a multi-cultural family. Whatever the case may be, he causes a crowd wherever we go. Today as we sat on our tour bus, we noticed that the people on the tour bus next to us were waving to him. He waved back. It is a bit overwhelming to all of the attention.

But here is the amazing part, the meaning of his African name means "shining light"....maybe his birth mother could see it the minute he was born. Because truly he is a shining light and we'll tell him all about it someday.

Pictures...

Our vacation is coming very quickly to a close. By the end of this week we will be travelling back to the states. It has been a very difficult trip at some moments, to say the least. But then at other times...the very best memories. I missed by grandmother's funeral on Saturday. I was walking among the penquins. I laughed and cried - but for the most part I held it together. I haven't really had the heart to blog much. So I will leave you with some pictures for now from the past several days and tell the stories more later...there are lots of stories to tell.

Yesterday...

In a small casa in the middle of the jungle in Argentina, the phone rang. I knew the minute the Spanish operator said in very broken English that my little brother was on the line, it was the phone call I was dreading. Through the tears I said thank you in spanish and then there was my brother's voice. No one calls South America during someone's vacation with good news. My grandmom...my favorite grandmom in the entire world...the one who has made such an impact on my life...passed away yesterday. Yesterday...yesterday we were on top of the most beautiful falls in the world. Yesterday...yesterday we climbed to the bottom and got soaked in the falls. Did you see me wave to you grandmom? Did you see the most beautiful rainbow near the point? It was the closest thing I could get to heaven, grandmom...did you see me?...yesterday.

On the road again...

On the road again...I just can't wait to get on the road again...

Oh yes, we are on the move. Today we flew (domestically) about an hour and half north to Iguazu. You should have seen it. As we landed all you could see for miles and miles was a sea of green. The jungle apparently...who knew. Tomorrow we will go into the national park here and see Iguazu Falls. It's an all day tour and we will see it from the Argentina side only (the Brazillian side is quite expensive for all of us to cross over just to see a different angle). We are staying at a small cabin on the grounds of lush tropicalness (is that even a word?). Anyway, it's beautiful. Granted we all smell like bug spray (there is a high risk of malaria here...better to be protected). But we are enjoying ourselves tremendously. So from this smelly bug spray family over and out...until tomorrow...