Off again!

Well we are sitting at the airport in DC (we did get the right airport this time) waiting for our 24 hour journey over to Bolivia. We have had a wonderful time in Chattanooga, Birmingham, Broadway, and Charlottesville visiting friends and family. From night skiing in about 18 degrees one night, to watching Brandon and Nicole canoe down the river with 2 ft of snow on the ground, to Christmas parties, playing with neices and nephews, homemade food and Christmas treats, caroling with our traditionally pots and pans, to having a variety of clean clothes to choice from everyday, clean beds without bed bugs, it was awesome to be at home!It was honestly a bit hard coming from Nicaragua where the people did not know where their food was going to come from each day to hopping right into the middle of Christmas here in the States. At first I was repulsed but sad to say, I quickly turned back to the materialistic side of Christmas and was out shopping and buying gifts without thinking twice. I have to admit it scares me how quickly I forgot about what we saw down south, as far as materials, or lack there of, and jumped back into life in America at Christmas. All that to say, we are pumped to be able to go back down and serve and are really excited about being stationary for the entirity of the trip. Our home base will be Santa Cruz, Bolivia but the first 3 weeks we will travel to Cochabamba for language school where we'll live with a Bolivian family and volunteer in a clinic. The remainder of the time will be spent in Santa Cruz with the team from South America Missions. The Masseys are the family from Trinity that we are hooking up with. They have been so encouraging to Joe and I via email and we can't wait to get to know them and serve with them. Please pray for our long travels today and that we can easily transition back in life in Latin America...and for my Spanish skills! We love you and it was great to see you all!