Home Sweet Home?

Costa Rican Kitchen


Master Bedroom




Our sweet friend and fellow missionary with BMDMI, Lynda Gregg, is in Costa Rica now at The Language Institute. This house in CR is one the language institute is considering for our family. Although Lynda is very busy with studies of her own, she walked down to the house yesterday and took a bunch of pictures for us to see what it looks like! Thank you, Lynda! : )

This house is only a block away from a park for the children, has more space than most Costa Rican houses, and is about a 10 minute walk from the school. No hot water in the house, which is pretty typical of Costa Rica--although there are widow makers in the showers. Widow makers heat the water really fast where the water comes into the shower. Lovely name, widow maker, huh!

Cool Quote of the Day and Hymn

Each morning, I receive a quote of the day in my e-mail inbox from another blog, Of First Importance. This morning's was written by a 19th century Scotsman who wrote many hymns along with Christian books. I was intrigued by the quote and looked for hymns he had written to see if I recognized any. Enjoy!


Self or Christ?

“Self has no claims upon us, for it has done nothing for us. It has been a wall of iron between us and Christ. Is that a reason that we should serve it? It has been a mountain of ice between us and the world to come. Is that a ground of claim over us?

No, brethren, self has done nothing to make us either live to it or die to it. It never can do anything; shall we then bow to it; shall we serve it; shall we do it homage?

We ask on the other hand—What has the Lord not done? What indissoluble, innumerable bonds are there between us and him, as the living, the dying, and the rising one.

The whole of our life is to be his, as his life was for us. Surely he has earned this, if he has earned anything at all. The least that we can give him is our life; the undivided service of our being, in every part; in our doing, in our speaking, in our planning, and in all our daily round of business, so that every part of our life shall be a witness-bearing for him.”

—Horatius Bonar, “Self or Christ; Which Is It?”




"I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say"
Hymn by Horatius Bonar, 1808-1899


1. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down,
Thy head upon My breast."
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.

2. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink and live."
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.

3. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"I am this dark world's Light.
Look unto Me; thy morn shall rise
And all thy day be bright."
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that Light of Life I'll walk
Till traveling days are done.

Stoudemayer Brothers Paint Company

Our oldest two boys are doing summer internships--meaning hard work for no pay, but valuable experience. : ) They are loving it right now (of course, it's new, and not 100 degrees outside yet). Trey is working at a small dairy goat farm for a veterinarian who is now a stay-at-home mom. Well, her own animals, friends, and neighbors who drop by keep her plenty busy with vet. things. So far, Trey has gotten to examine a goat placenta, look at coccidia under a microscope and stomach tube medicine into the goat who had it, and he is really looking forward to training some horses there this summer. He has an incubation project with some chicken eggs going on right now, as well. Timothy is working for another local farmer, who uses a lot of Amish farming practices. He got to drive a horse drawn hay cutter two laps around the field. Quite a thrilling experience for both boys!


This left the younger boys in want of fun summer work, also. Quickly, I decided they could paint the deck and if all went well, Luke, our 10 year old, could become my official painter, hence The Stoudemayer Brothers Paint Company. It was really fun the first day, the second day it got a little older, and now, we just have a little bit to finish, but I couldn't get anyone interested today. Oh well. Luke wanted to claim a workman's comp injury and be paid with double desserts for the blisters he sustained while rolling and brushing the deck. Unfortunately, we told him 10 year olds aren't entitled to workman's comp.

Tully's Heart

After having an ablation procedure Friday, Tully is feeling great and recuperating nicely! I don't think he realized how often the arrhythmia was bothering him until now that he is feeling better. It fascinates me that we have the technology to pinpoint cells in the heart that are misfiring and then be able to "barbecue" them, as his doctor put it. : ) His doctors assured us that this problem is completely benign (more annoying than anything) and does not increase Tully's risk of mortality at all. We are so thankful for that!

Important Papers

Well, today was a day of important papers. First, I sent off the girls' passport applications. We had to wait until now to get their passports because of the re-adoption process here in the States. Their readoptions were final a couple of weeks ago (more important papers). Expediting their passport applications was a must because several of the original documents from their adoptions had to go along with the applications. Can't wait to get those back into safekeeping!

Secondly, I sent off our language school applications. The August trimester class is filling up quickly, so we were advised to go ahead and get those in right away. So much of our lives is tied up in those two sets of very important papers!