The following link will take you to the place we are going to have our first meal in Honduras - it'll be Friday night. We will be meeting Reid's cousin for the first time and it is ran by a good friend of hers. How blessed are we!?!

http://www.haciendasanlucas.com/

Talk to you in three weeks!

MAVIS: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the phone message! We will enjoy ourselves and have many stories when we return.

SEVEN MORE SLEEPS!!

No, relax, not until Christmas. You've got 132 days until then. Seven sleeps until we are on route to Guatemala. We've been so busy getting the last of the details finished up. I can hardly believe that we will be there soon. Reid & Caris are both away this week (Caris is at Camp Squeah in the pouring rain!!) and so Phoebe and I are both taking care of the million little things to be done.

We've finalized our plans. Want to hear?? Okay. We fly into Guatemala City Thursday evening and drive to Antigua. We'll meet our host family, and the next day we will hit the road and drive six hours to Copan, Honduras. We will spend the weekend there and Sunday head back to Antigua. We spend Mon - Fri there. Study Spanish 8 - 12 and then sight see and tour around for the rest of the day. The next Friday we travel again to a town called Panahachel which is on a beautiful lake. We spend 2 nights there and Sunday we head to Chichicastenanga where they have a huge Farmers Market. Back to Antigua for one more week of Spanish classes and then the following Friday we head out again to Tactic to visit some Missionaries that my sis & bro-in-law have worked with. We will visit their school, and homes. This will be the poorest area we will spend time in. Our family will have the honour of meeting our Sponsored Child Dani for the first time. We are so excited.

We are there until Wednesday when we will head back to Guat City to fly home on Thursday. *sigh*

One more bonus for this trip is that we will be meeting Reid's cousin for the first time. She is a story unto herself - I haven't got time to describe her just now but if you want to know more just google "jennifer casolo". She even has her own Wikipedia entry. I'm anticipating that she will be a highlight for Reid & I.

I'm in that mood again. The mood that gets me thinking about how we've only got one go around on this earth. One life. Do the choices we make in lifestyle reflect that? I'm getting these thoughts...these ideas. Like,say we chucked it all. Well, not really chucked - more like sold it all. Everything. And bought a travel van (like the "great big rolling turd" in the movie RV - but smaller) or bought a cafe or coffee farm in Guatemala. What if we just did it. Risked the Western norm and did it.

I really want to set an example for our girls. Show them all that life can be. Choices. I guess that is what I'm thinking about. What we choose to do with our hours and days, how we choose to spend our money, who we choose to spend time with. Reid and I understand that our actions now will set the tone for what our girls do in the future. Family is important to us. We make an effort and priority to spend time with our family. We go out of our way to spend time with my parents (not that it's any great hardship - they are awesome!!) But I want them to understand that the things that crowd into their lives as they grow up - they are good but they aren't as important as they might think. I'd like to think that they will honour us the same way we have honoured their grandparents. Kind of that "Cat's in the Cradle" by Cat Stevens thing. So I suppose that I am thinking of daily choices as well as longer term life choices. I'm just thinking.

Letting my mind go.... isn't there just a part of you that says let's just do it. Let's see where we end up.


And then that reality thing gets in the way. Of course, reality can be altered...

For the first time in many, many years I went hiking. Our family, along with my sister's family hit the trail and climbed to The Patch on Hope Mountain. I am in NO condition to hike - but I've been working hard to improve this body and it was time to push. My family was so encouraging and I have to admit that at this moment I feel really proud (I also feel like my legs are jello but let's not go there!). It was a great way to spend the day, enjoying creation and family.

Hope your BC Day was just as memorable.