ups and downs

This week has been one of ups and downs...at the end of the week, we found out that Elvis not only has a 3rd interview this week, but it's going to be an all-day (9-5) interview!! Which sounds like a really great sign. The same day, we found out that I have a final interview this week for a World Vision summer internship. Plus I made some great connections with my professor's wife who also works at Fuller, grew up in El Salvador, and even lived with one of my bosses from school in ES for a few years as a child! She is actually leading some research and even a trip to El Salvador this year, which made me so happy to hear that people from Fuller know what's going on in ES and cares about doing something there. Great week of connections and good news. 

Also, Elvis led a vegetarian cooking class last night and taught everyone how to make some traditional Salvadoran food. It was a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed learning how to make the food. However, the down part was that Suzy has been sick all weekend...well actually she has had a cough and congestion for about 6 weeks,  but got a fever and diarrhea and wheezing cough over the weekend. We thought she was feeling better b/c she was running around helping us cook at the party, but as soon as we all finished eating pupusas at the table, she started coughing and threw up all over herself, me, and elvis! Not the grand finale we were hoping for.  

 I'm hoping people will remember the food, not the throwing up. 

And we are hopeful for more good news this coming week about jobs and Suzy's health...that would be really great after having a hard weekend of sickness. Thanks for praying with us about all those things. 

Here are some pictures from the cooking group:

most handsome chef award

chatting it up with brian

cutest lil' chef award

teaching proper pupusa-making technique

cutest lil' pupusa flipper award!

yumm.....pupusas!

around the house

Not too much new stuff going on around here....I'm finishing up my first quarter on campus and Elvis is still interviewing with two different companies for a job. He has another interview this coming week sometime, and so we hope to know something soon about both jobs. Keep praying. And enjoy a couple of pictures from this week...

craft time with Papi...they ended up making a cool cardboard car!

When Suzy wears this dress, she sings Dora's song "Dance dance dance, baila baila baila!"

Free haircut in the patio! And I thought we were going to miss Suzy's 25 cent haircut in El salvador...

at home in the city

So, I think we found our new church home this morning. We had been going to a huge church just 2 blocks from our house, and we really enjoyed the extremely structured nursery program (we didn't exactly need beepers at Ruta 3:16 in El Salvador...) and the free tea and coffee after church, and being able to walk to church. However, we knew we would probably just sit on the last row every Sunday and never really meet anyone b/c of the large size. And that's ok too...I think we need a time of rest after a very intensive time of serving at our church in ES. However, we wanted to find a church that represents our heart for serving in the inner-city and to all ethnic groups and I think we found it today: New City Church. It meets in an old historic theater right smack dab in the middle of downtown LA which being there, in the middle of the tall buildings and the central market and the interesting characters on the street, made Elvis and I just feel really alive. The church seems extremely authentic which is what we most appreciate. It is multi-ethnic and multi-socioeconomic and welcomes those straight off the street or straight from a Beverly Hills mansion.  We also liked their small groups which meet to discuss more in-depth the sermon, and then go out into the city to serve in really practical ways.  One of the many new families we met was an interracial family from El Salvador and the US, and we hit it off right on the spot.  There is just something about being with such a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds that makes me feel like we're getting a much better picture of what the body of Christ really should look like.  You realize that maybe you had preconceived thoughts about what that body of Christ was like, like maybe you thought it had your same skin color or spoke only your language or drove a nice car instead of a shopping cart on the street. Anyways, all that to say that we felt very much at home this morning, in this place we had never set foot in before. We are really excited about going back and seeing if this is a place we can call home for a while.

love is in the air

my sweet valentines!

Suzy made this valentine flower pot at playschool yesterday

The 3 of us went out for sushi last night!! she was so excited about sushi she kept talking about it all day. Turns out she only liked the rice, but she thought it was so cool to use the chopsticks!

chopsticks!

a good balance

Being in Pasadena offers us the perfect balance of mountains, beach, and city life. On Friday, we went back up the mountain just a few minutes away from the house:

It was lovely and peaceful on the mountain, but by Saturday we were itching for some concrete and a noisy, hectic urban experience. So we decided to take the metro for the 1st time into LA to explore Olvera Street and a little bit of Chinatown. Elvis has been really excited about trying out the metro, and it may prove to be a quick and easy way for him to get to work (wherever that may be) and avoid some traffic.

Union Station

prayer is like love: a valentines day post??

Today I went for another run/walk in my neighborhood. Like I've said before, I am not a runner nor do I pretend to be. However, when it's 79 degrees outside and not a cloud in the palm tree filled sky, you feel guilty NOT going for a run. It's like being in Rome and not eating pizza. So, I went for a run/walk today around my neighborhood, and when I say "my neighborhood", I really believe it now. It's starting to feel mine.

Our street

I feel that way partly because we are quickly approaching our 2 month anniversary of living here, but also because of the time that I have spent just thinking about my neighborhood. Like I mentioned earlier, in my Urban Studies class, we are investing the quarter doing in-depth research and contemplation about our particular neighborhood, with the purpose of proposing a hypothetical activity, event, or solution to a problem at the end of the course (by the way, mine is going to be a community garden). Our professor is pretty famous here in LA for the work he has done restoring and organizing cities, like giving the famous McArthur Park in downtown LA a complete makeover. He has really encouraged us to take ownership of our neighborhoods and to make a difference about important issues such as homelessness, etc. At the same time, he has worked a really interesting thread into the course, which is using spiritual disciplines to theologically reflect upon our neighborhood.  Who knew that you could turn studying Census data and zoning laws into something theological?

So i've tried to be intentional lately about praying for my neighborhood as I walk through it, but maybe you can relate when I easily get distracted by all the cute little bungalow style houses and oh! look a squirrel! oooh flowers.....and cactus in your yard, who ever woulda thunk of that? oh here comes that crazy flock of parrots again!

....and i forget how I was supposed to  be being "spiritual".

Well my professor challenged us that what if instead of praying while we walk around our neighborhood, could just the act of walking around it be our prayer? Kinda of the whole pray without ceasing deal. Making every thing we do an act of worship, a "spiritual" thing. Taking time to just be silent and listen instead of thinking that prayer means doing a lot of talking. I like that. It kinda sounds like cheating at first, but of course it doesn't mean we shouldn't ever take time to intentionally pray and talk to God.  It's like those times when elvis and i are just sitting beside each other on the couch and don't need to say a word to express everything we feel.

Check out this quote from Carlo Carretto which I found in the book we are reading for that class, Sacred Rhythms:

"Prayer is like love. Words pour at first. Then we are more silent and can communicate in monosyllables. In difficulties a gesture is enough, a word, or nothing at all- love is enough. Thus the time comes when words are superfluous.....The soul converses with God with a single loving glance, although this may often be accompanied by dryness and suffering."

theology of migration

One thing I love about Fuller is that for most classes, I can focus my research on a topic that applies to the class but is based on whichever area I am most interested in. For me, that is immigration since our future goals are to be involved in full-time ministry with Hispanic immigrants. So, I've had the opportunity to write about the theme of immigration throughout the Bible, educational risks for undocumented Hispanic students, and the connection between immigration, gangs, and globalization. One of my favorite theological writers about immigration is Daniel Groody, and I love his words which reflect theologically about migration:

"The basic premise of a theology of migration is that God, in Jesus, so loved the world that he migrated into the far and distant country of our broken human existence and laid down his life on a cross so that we could be reconciled to him and migrate back to our homeland with God and enjoy renewed fellowship at all levels of our relationships."

traveling mercies

A couple of years ago, I read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott and this idea of traveling mercies has really hit home the past few weeks as we made our big transition to life in the US. Of course, there are always going to be little obstacles on the way, such as having to talk on 3 different cell phones at the same time to try to get your bank to authorize your credit card payment for the last 3 seats on the last available flight....the point is that although there were little hurdles along the way, God gives you wisdom to decipher between friendly little complications just to make life interesting and a RED LIGHT DO NOT PASS warning alert.

However, even though there are obstacles, I have learned through this experience that God definitely offers traveling mercies as well.  I appreciate that many of you have asked about Suzy and her transition.  We are so thankful that she has made the smoothest transition possible.  Elvis and I both have been able to be in the house for the past month and a half, which has definitely boostered her feelings of security.  We saw evidence of this this weekend as she spent the evening over at a neighbor's house (with the 20 other neighborhood kids) as all the adults shared in a progressive dinner. She had a blast. The next morning, she also had a blast at Sunday school at the church we have been visiting (it helped that both the Sunday school teachers were also bilingual!). Staying in nursery or staying with anyone besides us or Dinora has always been a struggle. I'm not saying she didn't cry the first few minutes, but she did great after that, which tells me she feels secure in her new environment.

Also, one of  my big worries were the fact that we were going to have to make the move to a new house and new room for Suzy AND make the big switch from her crib to a bunk bed all at once. Other than one time that she tried to get down during the first week, she has not gotten out of her bed at all, and she loves it. She used to want to get in our bed sometimes at night, but that has not been an issue at all since we got here, thankfully. Mercies.

I love my turtle booster chair!

Another big worry was meal time, especially when we eat out. In El Salvador, it is normal for the kids to just run around the restaurant while the parents eat, so Suzy never wanted to sit in a high chair in restaurants. I was so worried about getting the stink eye at restaurants as my child ran around, interrupting everyone's meal.   Not the case. She has had no problem sitting in a high chair/booster chair at home or at restaurants. Mercies!

And potty training? We haven't been pushing it very much, but she is doing great with it. I'm still nervous about actually getting rid of diapers, you  know, having borrowed furniture and all, but we're getting close. Mercies!

Throw in the great friends we have made and all the free food and such, and that's a lot of mercies! Way more than i expected or deserve.

Of course, I'm not writing this post to make you think our daughter is automatically perfect now or that we have everything figured out. Of course there are still many lessons to learn about sharing, manners, patience, etc. I'm not saying we've arrived yet as parents either.  I'm just saying that we are so thankful that God has shown us so much grace and mercy as we settle in to our new home. Makes me wish I hadn't spent so much time and energy stressing about it before we came.

I write this also to my friends that have made a big transition or are getting to make one with their kiddos. Those that have already done it can testify with me of these mercies, in spite of occasional speed bumps. And for those that are getting ready for a transition, don't waste your time worrying like I did if your kid will adjust OK or if they will end up resenting you later in life for uprooting them. They won't. They will be thankful of the love that surrounded them despite the changing setting. And it will give them lots of great stories to share later in life.

And I'm also not saying that you have to pick up and move your family in order to experience mercies:

Lamentations 3:22-23

 "Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness."