World Cup, Thomas, and all that jazz...

On Monday we had some of the youth from the church over to our house to watch the soccer game, Chile vs Brazil. We everyone was there with their red shirts and hats and flags..but unfortunately the outcome wasn't as we had hoped :( Brazil won the game 3 to 0. Everyone was so tense that they didn't fully enjoy the yummy BBQ that we made, well we still enjoyed it but as Brazil was scoring goals people slowly seemed to lose their appetite, haha. Here people take the World Cup very seriously, and some even shed a few tears knowing that Chile would be coming home...but either way, most Chileans are still content with how far they got in the world cup, especially seeing as how it is the farthest they got in the past 48 years, and not to mention the fact that they were the team with the youngest players in this World Cup in South Africa. We were also able to connect on skype with Cassie and Mario who were in Brazil, and of course, cheering for their country! It was fun to be able to joke around with them and watch as our countries battled it out. Of course with a Brazilian on the computer the guys couldnt help do their Chile battle cheers the whole time, Mario just laughed and got a good kick out of it anyways.

Here is a picture of our time together watching the game..
















*Note* Siah was sitting there reading his new Thomas the Tank Engine book that Mum sent him in the package that came the other day, he loves it!

Which brings me to my next part of the title of this post.. Thomas!! Oh dear Thomas..how Josiah longed so much to have you, and now here you are, being played over and over and over and over again, and we are so sick of your tooting around this house, hhahahaha! Just kidding. Yes, my Mum sent Josiah two thomas movies in the package and he was sooo excited and has not stopped watching them ever since. If they are not on for a little while he will suddenly come to either Jorge or I and say "Mummy, Honey, where's the Toot-toot?" lol. Such a cutie. We are just thankful that Mum sent two of them so that we can switch back and forth instead of seeing the same one over and over, lol. It was a great gift for him and he absolutely loves it! Thanks so much Mum :)

And here I sit, on my living room couch listening to my gift from Mumma that came in the package..yep, you guessed it, the Chicago soundtrack! I hadnt gotten a chance to listen to it and today I decided it was time to put it on...what can I say?? I just LOVE the music from that movie! Thanks Mum!!

Well I need to go eat lunch now..will write more soon.

pics from last post...

my baby Levi, almost three months old!

another week gone by..

and I still left my blogging for too long, lol. I always look at my blog and think, "I should write something," but then the baby cries or Josiah throws something or the doorbell rings...and I get distracted and then don't write for a whole week. Sigh, it happens.

Anyways, we have had an okay week. To be honest it has been quite uneventful as we have not really left the house much all week as it has been so cold and for most of the week it continued to rain and rain. But I am going to follow my Mum and do some point form of some things that happened this week, so that I don't start rambling about just anything, lol.

Wednesday - we had our ladies Bible Study and decided that we would celebrate one of the ladies Birthday's...her birthday was last Saturday, the 19th, but we bought her a little cake and sang happy birthday to her..it wasnt much but to her it meant a lot. While we were singing to her she was holding back trying not to cry. She had told one of the ladies before that she had never had anyone celebrate her birthday before...her first celebrated birthday was her 55th...she said that she was so surprised and couldn't stop thanking us for making it special for her.

Thursday - Josiah came down with a pretty bad cold...we didn't think much of it, seeing as how both Jorge and I had been showing signs of getting sick also..

Friday night - Josiah was up all night and was having trouble breathing as he was soo congested! Jorge and I were both really worried and considered taking him to the ER, but we knew that although it was hard for him, he WAS breathing alright as long as we held him upright, so that is what we did. We took turns sitting up with him and holding him upright on our chests while he slept...it was a loooong night. But thankfully Levi slept for many hours in a row and just woke up a few times to eat and then fell back asleep..so that made things a lot easier.

Saturday - we took Siah to Concepcion to go see his Pediatrician. Turns out he has bronchitis and laryngitis...poor baby boy. He was a mess in the doctor's office, screaming and crying as she had to have us take all his clothes off to weigh him and measure him etc. She said if he continued with a fever by tuesday we would have to put him on some antibiotics, but last night his fever stopped, so we are praying that from here on he only gets better. The doctor gave him an inhaler and some medicine and since he started taking it he has already improved a lot and gotten a bit better...so praise the LORD for that!
Jorge on the other hand is also very sick and is needing to use the inhaler also. Apparently this is very common for people to have bronchitis here during winter, due to the humidity mixed with the cold air and all the smoke from the wood stoves in the houses...makes sense, I guess. Anyways, I hope they both get better soon.

Photos - this week I decided that seeing as how I am no longer living closer to my sister *sniff* or mother *sniff sniff*, I should learn how to take better photos with my camera. We have a good camera that takes good pictures, I just dont know how to use it..lol and always use it on auto. Jorge used to be the camera person in our little family, so I never really bothered on learning because he loved taking the pics and I just figured he would learn..but now he doesnt find the time and I am the one who is always with the boys and always wanting to take pictures in the moment..so it looks like I will need to learn a few things . I'm trying to remember tips that I heard Tanya and Mum talk about all the time..lol, I should have taken notes. But I did have some "natural light" this morning and tried to take a few pics of Levi and capture his light coloured eyes...because in most pictures you cant tell but his eyes are still quite blue-ish.

I tried uploading a couple photos but they were taking forever and I am falling asleep..so maybe if I can I will try to put them on tomorrow...they are not that good anyways, lol.

goodnight for now.

Sweat, tears, a wedding AND a funeral...

That sure sounds like a fun day all packed into one hey?? Well our day has been quite eventful here in the house just because of a certain two year old who was just, shall we say "off" all day. Sigh. Josiah was just a complete mess today, I don't even know how else to explain it...and this is the second day in a row that he is like this. It is literally impossible to please him, and trust me, we have tried. He has just been whiny and grumpy and irritated and there has really been no pleasing the boy. I think it hasn't helped that this whole week we have pretty much been cooped up in the house as it has been so cold and rainy everyday...so we only left the house twice this week, he went into town once with Jorge and then last night we were invited to someone's house for supper, but other than that, we have just been closed into the house together. So when I say "sweat and tears" I am not referring to Josiah, but rather to me, haha. I have been so emotional today and with both him and Levi who just wants to be held allllllll day long...I lost it a few times. By the time the evening had come around I was just done, and trying to get ready for the church service (I decided to go just to get out of the house and because there was a wedding afterward and Jorge was performing the ceremony). Josiah had both Jorge and I so stressed out and tired, and it kind of pushed us over the edge when we left him alone for two minutes, just to find him sitting at the table, pen in hand and Jorge's special ceremonies black book open....yes yes, he scribbled all over the pages. Jorge didn't even say anything, nor did I...it was one of those moments where we were both to the point of losing it, and that just last thing we needed. But the boy is just two and we are trying to remember that...it is just a phase. I hope.

Anyways, this evening was the first night that we met back in our church building! We have been meeting in the dining area behind the church for the past few months since the earthquake, but this week we had an engineer come and look at the church and assess how much actual damage had been done and whatnot....and he confirmed that we could still meet in the church and that the walls are repairable, without knocking down the whole building, so that is great news. But it is going to cost us probably about 4 thousand dollars to fix...so we are praying that God will provide that money when we need it. So we had our church service there tonight...and boy was it cold! LOL. The nice thing about where we were meeting was it was small and nice to be all huddled into a small warm place, but either way it was also nice to be back in the church with more space I guess. After the church service Jorge performed a wedding ceremony for a young couple, the daughter of one of the sisters in the church. It was his first time doing a wedding and he was a little nervous, but of course he did great.

Once the ceremony was over Jorge and a group of people from the church went to the wake(I don't know if that's how it's spelled) of a man who passed away, his name was Pedro, one of the neighbors of sister Luisa in our church. He had been dying from stomach cancer and Luisa had been going over to his house, praying for him and reading the Bible to him...at this time he was not yet a believer and actually didn't even want her to pray for him, but she insisted and told him that he needed to get his life straight before he died. After a few weeks he started calling her and asking if she would come and pray with him..and one day he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. These past two weeks Jorge started to go and visit him because he asked Luisa if she could bring her pastor to see him. And Jorge would pray with him and talk to him, he also lead him to repent before the Lord and explained to him that it wasn't enough to just "accept" the Lord, but rather that he had to repent from his old way of life (this man used to be a very grumpy angry man to his family, etc) and seek God. Well, Pedro began asking for forgiveness to his wife and children, and then almost everyday he would ask for Jorge to go and see him. On Thursday they knew that his time was coming soon and he wouldnt live much longer, and he asked for Jorge to go and see him again...when Jorge was with him Pedro told him that he knew that the Lord was calling him home. Yesterday Jorge went and saw him one more time, as the family all knew he would not last much longer, Jorge said he was not even able to speak, but he said that in his eyes you could see that he was ready to go. How amazing..this man repented and became a follower of Christ in his last weeks of life, and last night at 11 pm he went to be with our Lord, and stood before his Throne...just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. Anyways, Jorge went to his house tonight with a group of people from the church, and tomorrow morning is the funeral, which will be done by Jorge at Pedro's request.

So that brings our day to an end...and now here I sit, with a cute chunky baby in my arms, nursing, and a kissable little two year old with marker all over his face sitting next to me watching his "buzz". I am blessed. I am tired, but I am blessed.

Where to start??

It's what I always do. I leave my blogging for too long and then I don't know where to start, lol. Last week was a crazy one what with Jorge's birthday, a day trip to Concepcion, and on Saturday a day trip to a place called Mulchen for a meeting with a group of pastors from our district. So I will just go over a few things that happened in those days, which were probably the most eventful of the week.

Wednesday - Jorge's Birthday. I had planned ahead of time that I wanted it to be a special day for my man, so I planned to make as many of his favorite foods that I could in the day. The weekend before I let the ladies know that Wednesday was Jorge's birthday, so they planned a special "once" (afternoon tea) for him and then invited him to attend after our class that took place at 3 pm. So the meals of the day went something like this.. 1) Breakfast = cheese omelet + gift and cards (I made a card from the boys to Jorge and Josiah coloured all the inside, he was so proud to give it to him:) 2) Lunch = Garlic Cheddar Chicken with mashed potatoes + apple pie for dessert. 3) Once = Completos + birthday cake . All the ladies of the church were there and we had a great time together in the afternoon, then sang happy birthday to him and were done around 6:30 pm. Jorge said that he really enjoyed his day so that is the most important thing...

On Thursday we went to Concepcion for the day as we had an appointment for Levi with a pediatrician at 6:30 pm. Here everyone takes their kids to pediatricians as there are so many of them, not like in Canada, where you can only get your child into see a pediatrician if they have a serious problem or health concern etc. So we went to Jorge's parents house in the late morning (his parents were in Villa Rica, the south of Chile for a pastors meeting), and had lunch there with his aunt and cousins. Josiah ran around the house and played so happily, he loves going to his abuelos house and always goes running to get his toys as soon as we get there. Jorge went downtown to run some errands and pick up Josiah's paperwork from the government building in the morning. We are soo happy that it has all finally worked out and Josiah is officially Chilean! But always Canadian first, hahaha ;) At least he can have dual citizenship with no problems. They even registered him with two last names, so on his Chilean birth certificate and any of his documents they will say Josiah Reuben Santana Barto. This is because everyone in Chile has to have two last names, but as I didn't keep my last name technically he should only have one or in the case of a single parent the child usually just has their one last name repeated. Meaning that Josiah should have been Santana Santana, but for some reason they decided they would just use my maiden name, which will be nice for both of our boys as they grow up here in Chile.

Anyways, while downtown Jorge met up with our friend Veronica and brought her back to the house for lunch...it was great to see her again and get caught up with her and her news. After lunch we all went to the mall to pick up a few items that we needed, and then after that went across the street to the clinic where the pediatrician's office is. We got there right at 6:30 and were called right in...the Doctor looked Levi over and confirmed that he is a healthy growing baby:) Which made Mummy very happy, as it confirmed that nursing is going as great as I thought it was and my baby is healthy and thriving on my milk, which is an important thing for me and an answer to prayer, Thank you LORD! Levi weighed 5.6 kg, which comes out to 12lbs, the weight of a normal 3 month old...and this was at his 2 month check-up, lol so I guess he is doing just fine :) There were only two concerns that the doctor did have, one was what she said sounded like a heart murmur, and the other was that one of his testicles has not come down yet. She said that heart murmur's can be common among babies but she wants him to see a cardiologist so that he can make sure all is well. Again, that is strange for me because just like seeing a pediatrician, in Canada you only go to a cardiologist if you are certainly having heart problems. So I was kind of scared when she recommended us to one, but after looking up some info on the net and getting some feedback from my friend Heather about what a heart murmur could be, I see that they are quite common in infants and so we trust in the LORD that he will be just fine and that it is nothing to be worried about. And about his testicle, the Doctor has recommended that we take him to get an x-ray done to see if it is pushed up or what the case is...so we ask for prayer about that. Other than that she just gave me some tips on what I should and shouldn't be eating, things that might give him tummy aches, etc. I wasn't all too fond of the doctor myself..she sort of appeared to be one of those "it's my way or the highway" type doctors, that is kind of pushy and I didn't really like that about her. Jorge and I are looking into seeing if there is another pediatrician that speaks english and spanish, so that I will not be confused if there are sudden medical terms that I don't understand (like heart murmur..which had me really worried because all I knew was she was saying he had "something" in his heart, and I was quite panicky until I got home and understood in my own language what that was all about).

Once we were done there we headed into the car and stopped by Jorge's sisters apartment to visit and have supper with her and her husband, Tito. We had a GREAT time with them and they really enjoyed spending the time with Josiah and Levi also. After our visit with them we got back in the car and drive home in the pouring rain, getting home pretty late, around 10:30 pm.

On Friday night the officials in the church and I planned a surprise dinner for Jorge for his birthday. It was two days late, but they had to do it Friday as some of them are away working all week and only get back Friday evenings...so we all went to brother Patricio's house and had a great time of sharing and eating together. It was really nice!

Saturday we had to get up early and drive to a city called Mulchen, which is about an hour drive away from Yumbel, for a Pastor's meeting, which is a group of pastors from our district, that we will always be meeting with, usually once every two months or so. We had to be there by 9:30 so we were up and leaving the house at 8:15, dropped Josiah off at sister Mariela's house (he spent the day there playing with her two kids, Paulina and Hector), and then headed out to Mulchen. The day was quite eventful, with lots of meetings and planning for different events. It was nice to connect with some of the Pastors wives again, that I had met in the conferences in Santiago..a few of them are new just like us and it is good to be able to connect with them on a certain level. Around 11am I had a great surprise from Levi when he decided to poop out everywhere, on all his clothes, socks, everything. Now, you must understand, that this NEVER happens with Levi! He has always been my non-pooping out, non-spitting up baby, so when I was planning on what to bring him for extra clothes, I just through in an extra onsie and pair of pants because "he never poops out." Rrriiiiiiggghhhhtttt..... Anyways, thankfully my mother in law was there and she helped wash all his clothes out, his nice cute handsome cothes that I had chose for him and planned on him wearing the entire day *sigh*, while I fed him. Actually, in the end she hung his clothes up by a stove to dry and they were dry by the late afternoon, so I was able to change him back into his cute little overalls and shoes before the church service which began at 6 pm. We stayed for the service in the church, it was really good but also very looong. Jorge and I were given an "opportunity" to share with the church, where they called us up and asked us to give our greetings and share a quick word, because we are the youngest couple pastoring in the denomination right now...so I guess that kind of peaks peoples interest, haha. Either way it was nice and we had a good time, we drove home around 9 pm and arrived to pick up Josiah around 10pm. He had a great time playing with Paulina and did not want to leave...so we ended up staying for a bite to eat with them and then heading home around 10:45.

So I would keep going but Levi is in his bouncy seat and starting to get fussy...maybe tomorrow I can catch up a bit more. Honestly the past few days have been very uneventful as it has been pouring rain and we I the kids and I have been cooped up in the house, trying to keep warm!

I will write again soon...

The desire within to blog...

Yes, that is what I have...a desire to blog, lol. Will I be able to keep up with such a desire?? That is the question, but I do not yet know the answer.

I am doing better balancing out my days now that we are getting into a bit of a routine with the boys. Well, realistically, Levi isn't on much of a routine, but I am beginning to understand how he works a little better everyday and he has started having certain naps at certain times of the day, which help me try and work around him a little bit with Josiah etc. Having my Mum here for those three weeks was sooo helpful and now I feel like I am doing better and am feeling more "at home" with being the mother of a 2 year old and a 2 month old.

This week has flown by pretty fast, as I said earlier, my days have mainly been spent just trying to survive and figure out some type of schedule around here. It has, of course, been helpful also to have Digna come three times this week to clean the house, what would I do without her?? Have a messy house, I suppose. On Wednesday I went to the ladies Bible Study and we had a very nice time together! All of the ladies asked about my Mum, if she got home safely and were talking about how hard it must have been for her to say goodbye (yes, it was hard, I don't want to talk about it *sniff*). I gave the devotional that day, and spoke about Love and shared a bit about what God has been speaking to me about how I Love in my own life with my family, friends, etc. It sounds like a very simple thing, but after spending some time reading 1 Corinthians 13 I realized just how complex Love really is! While preparing for the class and analyzing my own life, I decided to give myself a test (bad idea!)...the test went something like this....

Love is patient - am I?
Love is kind - am I?
Love does not envy- Do I?
Love does not boast - Do I?
Love is not proud - Am I?
Love is not rude - Am I?
Love is not self-seeking - Am I?
Love is not easily angered - Am I?
Love keeps no record of wrongs - Do I?
Love rejoices with in truth - Do I?
Love always protects - Do I?
Love always trusts - Do I?
Love always hopes - Do I?
Love always perseveres - Do I?

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark! LOL. I scored myself ...and I'm not going to share my final mark though...it was a little humiliating, but God spoke to me through it and I learned that love is not something that you can just sum up and say "but I LOVE my family!" When you really have no patience and are easily angered, self - seeking, proud...the list goes on... In the end I shared how Love is a decision, not just an emotion or a feeling. So if I decide to love, then I must decide to have patience, decide to be kind, decide to not get easily angered...etc. The Lord used this teaching to speak to my life VERY much, and I am praying that He will help me put it into practice, especially with my little two yr old. I hope it also spoke to the lives of the ladies in our class.

Anyways, I should go get lunch started....will write more later :)