Photo Update

Hello! We have been busy here, feels like a lot has happened since we wrote last, so let’s do a catch up through pictures! We are a few days shy of being here in Ecuador for one month, it’s crazy to think a month has already passed by. We had our first short term team come and go already. They were a group of 25 high school students and 5 teachers. They were such a great group, it was good to get to know some of them and hear their stories. 

Our family escorted the team back to Quito for their tourism day and to get them to the airport. On the way to Quito we stopped by a local waterfall, it was beautiful! We got to put our feet in a small pool & it felt amazing. It’s so humid but the water is cold, it feels refreshing. 

We saw a parrot while at the waterfall as well! Josie felt indifferent towards it. 

We spent Easter in Quito since the team flew out the day prior. It was not a traditional Easter for us but we had family time, read Josie the Easter story, and rested as much as we could. Below is our Easter lunch, lol. We found Kraft macaroni and cheese at a grocery store & decided to eat that, egg salad sandwiches, and chips. Josie was thrilled to have “roni cheese” again, she’s been asking for it since we left the states. 

Gideon started on the steps inside the house. Previously the steps went into the only bathroom of the house. He tore them out and switched them around so they now enter into the kitchen. He also took out two walls at the top of the steps & is in the process of building a railing. This way let’s in so much more light to the downstairs during the day, which I am loving. 

Josie has started helping us with our chores. She doesn’t really play with her toys here, and she’s always preferred doing what mom & dad are doing. It takes letting go of control to let your toddler help you. Things aren’t always getting done the way I *like* them to be, it usually takes longer, and there’s sometimes another mess to clean up after. But I’m learning there’s more joy in allowing her to help, than if I did it myself. Washing dishes has became her favorite thing to do, she asks to wash them all the time. We also have been practicing folding wash cloths & dish towels, sweeping floors, and putting clothes away. 

I briefly shared in the last update that we had mixed emotions as a family on returning. I have been giving praise that we all feel good about being back here since arriving. God is good that way. We occasionally hear from people that we are brave or special for moving our family here, but the reality is, we are humans too. We have doubts, fears, anxieties, and don’t always “feel” like going. We have spent a lot of time in prayer as a family, asking God to go before us, to give us strength, submitting our doubts and anxieties instead of allowing them to take over. I was reminded months ago when praying about returning, our feelings don’t always matter, but our actions do. Trusting God isn’t always a feeling, sometimes it’s an action step and the feeling will come later. We are living that now, we chose to take the steps, trusting God along the way, even when our feelings didn’t always match. Because of that, He has been faithful in giving us peace and contentment since we’ve arrived here. He wants to do the same for all of us in our lives, you don’t have to move to Ecuador for you to practice trusting Him.