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...