We arrived in Costa Rica on Monday and have already had a lot of “firsts” for us. Here are just a few of them.
1. I, Nate, killed a scorpion and a tarantula…in our house!
2. I had my first Spanish mishap. We have a very sweet lady that has been checking daily on our house, and spends 1 hour a day cleaning it. Apparently I fired her the first day that we were here. Obviously my Spanish needs a lot of work. I only meant to tell her that we were done working for the day. The next day she didn’t come, but our landlord called to ask if I meant to fire her. Much to our delight, she’s back.
3. Laura tried a new fruit called Mamon Chino. Actually, we pulled off the side of the road to buy what kind of looked like strawberries. We ended up buying 1 kilo of this fruit. When we arrived home, Laura got instructions from a Costa Rican PPM staffer on how to eat it. Moments after eating a few, Laura’s glands were swollen and her throat began to close up. After some water and benadryl she was back to normal. But it was a very scary moment!
4. I now can pretty confidently drive stick shift. I still stall out and freak out, but we get where we need to go pretty smoothly now. Laura took her turn learning today and she’s doing great!
5. We went to our first Costa Rican waterfall. Yes, I said first. Costa Rica has so many beautiful waterfalls, and Llano de Cortes is just 15 minutes from our new home. The kids loved exploring and swimming. We even saw monkeys!
norman missionary adventures 
Loved reading this! Written so well! Keep killing those nasties for your family Nate. Sounds like you are adapting and learning to navigate well. Glad you had Benedryl Laura! Anyway, you are doing so well for only being there a short time. Keep on trucking, and keep focused on Jesus through the tough moments. Proud of all of you! Barb Dufner
Wow! An exciting first few days. Wishing you all the best. Praying for you all.
Wow! You fired your first help. How american…lol I’m glad that Laura is okay, but was the fruit good? I guess there are no automatic driven cars in Costa Rica ? It’s nice to no the kids are right at home. Lol!!! I thank God that ya’ll are okay and settling in.
Wow!!! Love the stories of all your adventures!!!! (Except for the spider and scorpion) Can’t wait to write to you in Spanish. … Siempre estamos orando por ustedes!! I did say I couldn’t wait. I also wanted to share with you that Emily started working as a receptionist in a dealership… She loves it! Chris Tatnall and I are engaged !! Planning a wedding for September! We miss you all. God bless you and keep you Love Maria
Praying for you guys!
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What a week!!! Guess scorpions & tarantulas are CRs version of our houseflies & stinkbugs?? Crazy!! So funny about Laura firing the help!! Not so funny about Laura’s near death fruit experience!! Love reading about your adventures…keep the posts coming!! All our love to you all!