Visiting Keyling

We stopped in Managua for a couple of days on the way home so that we could meet the child that I sponsor though Compassion International. I've sponsored her since my freshman year at Butler and we've written letters back and forth since then. Occasionally I would send her stickers or a photo in my letter, and once a year Compassion would send me a new picture of her. She's 11 now, and oh so beautiful.

I have her pictures hanging all over our house: by my desk, on the fridge, in the front of my Bible, but I'd never actually met her. I'd always thought it would be so cool to get to hug her in person, hear her laugh, see her smile, and meet her mom, but didn't know if my dream would ever come true.

So, rewind to last Christmas (2009).

I am sitting at the kitchen table after opening stockings and presents. My grandparents are here and so my whole family is hanging out, getting ready to play Mexican Train Dominoes (which is the tradition). Dad went outside to check something (the snow? I can't remember...) and came back in with the mail. Now, I'm sure it was not delieverd that day, but we picked it up on Christmas day. It probably was delivered a few days before, but in the busyness of getting ready for the Christmas Eve service at church, getting presents wrapped, cookies baked, etc, we had apparently forgotten to pick it up. Dad filtered through the coupons, junk mail, Christmas cards, and bills, and handed me a new letter from Keyling. "What a neat Christmas present," I thought.

I opened it up, and began to read in Spanish. She talked about her school, her studies, her family, and whatever else she could think of, and then (pretty much out of the blue) asked me "Cuando puedo verle?" which translates to "When can I see you?"

At this point, I stopped reading and checked the English translation of her letter just to be sure I had read things correctly. Sure enough, "When can I see you?" Woah.

Now, you must understand that our family has sponsored children for years (I think since before I was born!) and never has one of them asked about getting to see or meet us. Never. Until Keyling's letter on Christmas.

"When can I see you?"

Back in September, we had discussed the possibility of us going to Nicaragua for a mission trip over spring break last year. I had considered the idea that that we might be able to see her on that trip. When our participation in the trip fell through due to school and other stuff, I was certainly disappointed and didn't know when I'd ever get to meet her.

But then in November, Dad proposed the idea of going to Costa Rica as part of his sabbatical. Yes, Costa Rica is close to Nicaragua but still not the same thing, so it would be difficult to make a visit to Managua possible. So close, but yet so far.

So all those ideas had been floating around last fall (2009)....right before I received Keyling's letter. "When can I see you?" God's timing continually amazes me. Now I knew we HAD to go. We just had to make it work to visit her somehow!

So fast forward to early August 2010. We're in Managua (having worked it out to stop there on the way home) and actually will be meeting Keyling and her family!!!

I could go on and on and on about our afternoon in her neighborhood, Barrio San Francisco. But this post is already long enough, and so those stories will have to come in time.

But one quick one first...

Keyling lives with her mom and 18-year old brother. She also has an older sister who has 7 small children of her own. I'm still not sure exactly where Keyling's sister and nieces and nephews live, but we got to meet them all. Anyway, Keyling, her mom, and her brother rent one small room in a house (Read, what we would think of in America as a shack. It has dirt floors, a rusty corrugated tin roof with holes in it, and tattered tarps for doors. No bathroom inside or running water. There was one dim lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room.).

At one point, Keyling was showing me her school books and some other things in her (their) room. She proudly pulled out her "tigre" that she earned for winning a dance competition. I told her that it was very cute, and she held it out to me, saying,"Suyo!!" (meaning "yours!"). She was GIVING me her tiger! I didn't know what to say. After asking her several times if she was sure ("En serio?? Estás seguro?") (and she was very sure!), I accepted this incredible gift. Of course God knew she would do this and I had (or He had?) decided several months before to pack a lamb for her.

So here we are, both holding our new animals. :)



I am still in awe of how God works things out. For Keyling to ask me "When can I see you?" in a letter I received just months before traveling to Centroamerica, just has to be His doing. And then for her to give me her tigre, her one stuffed animal that she obviously loved so much, again, I think it must be His doing. God is so good!

Photos of the beach and the volcano

Can you believe that we have even MORE pictures?!?!?!?? Check out these of Playa Conchal, Arenal Volcano, the hot springs river in La Fortuna, Pizza John, and celebrating Dad's birthday at Pizza Hut in San José!

Click here to see the pictures :)

Pictures from CR!

Okay, normally the blogs start out "Written by so-and-so" but I don't need to for this one cause I know you can guess who is posting this...cause I'm the one who is most crazy about pictures, haha!

Anyway...I've posted about 400 pics on my Facebook and here are the links to the albums (and these links will work whether you're on facebook or not) if you are interested....

Album 1

Album 2

Enjoy! More to come later, including pics of our visit with Keyling and her family :)

A quick post to let you know that....

We just arrived in Nicaragua! We left Arenal Volcano this morning and drove back to San José before flying to Managua.

(And I (Kristen) should apologize in advance for the grammar in this email. As you will read in this blog, I've been thinking and talking in Spanish for the better part of the day. Now we're in Nicaragua, and it seems that almost no one speaks English...so again, I am thinking and talking in Spanish. It's completely fine and I'm really enjoying it, but it is most definitely affecting my ability to communicate in English! haha It's crazy when I think of a Spanish word for something BEFORE thinking of the English word. Anyway, sorry for the run-on sentences and lack of fluency and spelling mistakes that are sure to occur.)

Okay, so about the volcano: we were there for 3 full days and it rumbled occasionally, maybe 1-2 times a day. We saw a lot of smoke come out of it, which was really exciting especially the first time we saw it. It is just really crazy to see brown smoke shoot out of the top of a mountain. Anyway, we didn't see any red lava until last night. About 11 pm, we heard a rumble which sounded a lot like thunder or a jet flying overhead. But DUH!! We are at a VOLCANO!! All rumbles are most likely THE VOLCANO. (I know this sounds quite obvious, but really, it is kind of hard to keep remembering that!) Anyway, at the 11 pm rumble, I rushed to the window and finally saw a tiny bit of lava!! I shrieked, which immediately caused Mom and Dad to rush to the window too. The red color was visible for only a few seconds and there wasn't much of it, but it was definitely molten rock. Pretty cool!! (actually I guess it pretty HOT, but whatever. haha)

Anyway, the volcano continued to be quite active all night (rumbling every 30 minutes or so) but there was a cloud covering it for most of the night, so we didn't see lava again. But we had seen a little bit, and I was happy. :)

So this morning, we left Arenal and drove to San José by way of a quite curvy (think West Virginia times 10!) road. We are not much for curvy roads so we took it slow, but still got to San José by noon. We were supposed to be meeting a friend at the airport to have lunch, and miraculously found him within 5 minutes of getting there! So we dropped off our luggage and the rental car and headed to Alajuela (a town near San José) with Carlos. We met Carlos 2 weeks ago when we first arrived in Costa Rica and were staying at Portantorchas and painting the children's home. He is from San José and therefore speaks Spanish (and is learning English!) . Anyway, at first I was nervious/scared to talk to him (since he's a native speaker) in Espanol, but over the time we were at Portantorchas, he was patient and listened to my (often incorrect) Spanish and gently corrected and helped when need be. So, I am much more comfortable speaking Spanish now! Still a looong way from perfect, but a bit better I think. Hopefully, he can come to Indy sometime and meet you all, cause he is pretty awesome! So, it was great to hang out with him again and to get back in the hang of speaking Spanish (which, come to find out, I would really need in Nicaragua!).



We had lunch at Pizza Hut and during lunch, Carlos found out that Dad's birthday is this coming Saturday. He told the waiters (in Spanish, of course, which Dad can't understand at all) about his birthday and at the end of the meal, they brought him an ice cream sundae complete with a candle and singing! Anyway, lunch today was a great way to end our time in CR. I totally loved it there, and was so sad to leave.





So after lunch, we took the bus back to the aeropuerto and had to say goodbye to Carlos (but in Costa Rica, they commonly say "Hasta luego" which means "See you again later" instead of "Adios" (which means "goodbye, I may not see you again") because it implies that you will see each other again soon. So actually, we said "Hasta luego" - definitely a little better than goodbye :) ).



Then, we flew to Nicaragua! Somehow (and we still don't know how) we got put in first class which was quite surprising and kinda fun! As soon as we got on, they gave us drinks and AGAIN when we were in the air! Woah!







So now we are in Managua. Tomorrow, we are going to meet Keylin, the girl that I sponsor through Compassion International. I am so excited! We all are, really. Before we left Indy in early July, Sophie and Mandy C. helped me pick out some gifts for Keylin and I am so looking forward to giving them to her. It has always been a dream of mine to meet her, and so after she asked me in a letter last winter, "When do I get to see you?" I knew we had to come visit. :) So tomorrow is the day! I'm not sure when you are reading this, but our visit is at 1 pm (3 pm, Indy time) tomorrow (Tuesday) and we are going to her home and Compassion project school. Please pray for all of us - Keylin's family included! - that we are not nervous to meet each other, that we can communicate well, and for safety. Muchas gracias! :)

And then, after visiting Keylin, we are hanging out in Managua for one more day, and then coming home!! I can't believe it! Back in Indy for good (wellll, at least for now)...AND you know what that means??!? Chick-fil-A for me in less than 100 hours!!! hahaha (Of course there are other reasons that I will be happy to be home, but I have sure missed chicken sandwiches.)

Love and miss you all. Can't wait to see you again soon :)