Well, we have only 8 hours to get to the airport, and I don’t know how we thought all this stuff was going to fit in our luggage!! We get to take back 50lbs. of kids clothes to give away, plus a bunch of other goodies we bought or had at the folks house. We had a great trip! It was so fun getting to see all of our friends and family, and all of the kids. Our spirits are lifted and we are ready to dig back into the work. David asked if I thought the kids would know that tomorrow is the day we are supposed to come back, and I thought, “Are you kidding, I’m sure they will have staked out the house all day, just to be sure they don’t miss us!” It will be good to get back!

Better run, there’s still packing to do (someone has to sit on the suitcase so it will close!!)

Well, we are in the states right now, so nothing too exciting is going on. We were able to bring a bunch of coffee, so everyone can have a taste. The coffee is in 1 lb. bags, and we have ground, bean, and a few bags of green coffee. We’d love to make $2.50 a bag, just to cover costs, but we’ll give it away so everyone gets the chance to sample it. So far all the reports on the coffee have been good. Most say it has a smooth taste, with no bitterness afterwards. My mom said it mixes really well with the flavored creamers. I’m planning to make comment cards, so that everyone can let us know how it is and any improvements. There are options for everything. We decided to roast the coffee “chocolate” color. They also have “wine,” which is a little less roasted and lighter in color. It was neat to see the process. The coffee goes through a machine that uses a wood fire to roast it. I have pictures, but my sister’s computer doesn’t like my CD, so we’ll try at my mom’s later this week.

We’ve been having tons of fun getting to visit the family. Garrett is cute as can be, and talking up a storm. He’s even learning a little Spanish for when he gets to visit us. Isabelle is the smallest little thing I’ve ever seen. Rebecca said she’s negative on the chart, but she’s just as happy as she can be. I took pictures of them too, so the “Family” gallery will finally be updated too.

With only two days until we head out to the states, things are wrapping up well. It looks like we will finish cutting the farm this week, which means we will be totally done with the actual harvesting. While we are gone we decided to have about 5 men work to clean up the farm (cut the grass from in between the rows of coffee and clean any vines off the coffee). We’re giving everyone a little break, since we will come back in full force! When we get back we will have people come in and work on picking up all of the coffee that fell while we were harvesting. This is to be sure that we don’t have any coffee plants growing where we don’t want them. They will also be sure there are no more cherries on the branches. If cherries are left, a little bug crawls in them and eventually they infest your whole tree and ruin your harvest. Some of the coffee is already flowering! It is amazing to be able to see the branches and know that we are going to have an even better harvest next year! I have pictures, but I’m going to wait until we get to the states to put them up. After the cleaning, we are going to start cutting back the coffee, removing some trees that are too close together, and just doing a general overhaul on the organization of the trees in the farm. Silly me, I thought I’d get to relax after the harvest!!

There’s so much to say I don’t know where to start. And I only have 8 min. of internet time left! This past Friday we had a special service where the kids got to do little skits, sing for the congregation, and have competitions for who could say the most memory verses. Kelin, 4, said 5 verses, Sarah, 7, said 12, and Edwin, 10, said 7. They can all say more, but the nerves got to them! We also had a group of teens from Mangagua come and participate as well. Total, we had about 195 people there. Afterwards, we had a meal for everyone. This was a great outreach, because we have so many kids that come without their parents.

Sunday, for the New Year, a group of about 40 from the church went to the beach. It was so nice, because I only saw 1 bathing suit. Everyone else on the beach was in pants, shorts, skirts, or whatever they had on, they just came to have fun with their family. It only took about an hour to get there, and after we went to a river (about 20 min. away) to wash off the salt and sand. It was really nice because it wasn’t deep at all (some areas only ankle high), so even the small kids got to play.

Monday was a holiday, so I got to catch up on house work! We started cutting again today. This time we’re cutting ripe and green coffee, and so when we finish, we’ll be totally done with the harvest. And I’m ready for a break!!

The clock’s flashing that I ran out of time!!

The congregation watches the skits