Gavino and Olinda

This is a photo of Gavino and Olinda at their house, that I took in 2008, with their oldest 3 children.

Here is Olinda with her baby, Juan David, in Nov. 2009.

Here is Gavino, helping me dig out the foundation for my house in Tacllapampa, last year.

Summer Vacation - in January!

The last few weeks we have enjoyed time at the Martins, (though we forgot to get our camera out then! Having too much fun to remember to take pictures I guess.) then the Kropfs, (Thanks to both for Wonderful hospitality and fellowship!) Now we are enjoying a wonderful visit with Mom Howe and Mariah! This is the summer vacation time for all of us here in Peru, and we are enjoying it a lot!

Charlotte Kropf with Isaiah

Papa and Elisabeth helping Isaiah walk as we wait in a bank.

Susanna Wenger 4, and Pravitha Kropf 3 1/2

Elisabeth Wenger 6 1/2, Esther Kropf 2 1/2

What fun! Susanna and Elisabeth out in the country at friends of the Kropfs. They had lots of fun in this chicken coop - or whatever it was.

Happy brothers! Samuel is enjoying a funnel cake that Gordon made!

Sleep Over! The Kropf girls spent a night with our little ones when their parents went out to the country to work on their potatoes.

The children didn't quite stay under their covers!

Fun at the Kropfs with Pravitha and Esther.

Mama was left holding two ice cream cones when Papa rented trikes for the children to play with at a park in the city.

What could get better? Sunshine and ice cream cones and tricycles!

THANKS HELENA!!!!

Those brownies are YUMM!

Helena and Becka - remember the good "American" breakfasts here? We miss you!

Gordon and his boys in their matching outfits. . . Thanks!

Breakfast time. . . today - Jan. 26th.

Isaiah starts eating. . . with banana!

Not so sure about his first foods. . .

Biking in the Park

This is for you Lydia!

Puppies!!!

The children have been having such fun with their puppies and kittens. Yesterday we sold several of the puppies - 10 soles or $3 each! But here are a few pictures we took when we still had all 6 of them.

Samuel had lots of fun one day trying to keep as many puppies as he could in the box at one time! Kittens!!! Elisabeth's cat had kittens . . . again. So we have kittens too, much to Elisabeth's delight!

Susanna was busy playing "boat" when I took these pictures - but don't let these pictures fool you, she is certianly the one that plays with the puppies, and even the kittens, more than any of the others! "Mama! I'm tired of sitting here all by myself!" "Now that's better!"

"Osito" or "Teddy Bear" is the puppy that we are keeping for a few extra months for the children to play with. I call it Isaiah's puppy, and often bring it to him to keep him company when he is bored. Sometimes I think he has more fun than the puppy does, though!

Happy New Year!!! Enjoy a picture tour of our life, Nov.-Dec.

Happy New Year to you all! Well, I did it - in between washing clothes I ran upstairs to the computer to upload a couple of pictures, after making lunch I ran upstairs to upload some pictures, before nap time story I ran upstairs to upload a couple of pictures. . . well, you get the picture! Nearly everyone in town is at the New Years bullfights, so the internet cafe is empty, which means we have a faster line than normal, and Gordon is gone to work on our house in Tachllapampa, and to share the Good NEWS on this New Years day, so the "office" and computer are free, so I took use of the opportunity to give you all a picture tour of our last two months. . . sorry it has been SO long since I put pictures on. . . Well, I did it again though, uploaded everything in backwards order, when will I ever learn? So, you can scroll to the bottom of this long post, and read up to see what we have been up to for the last couple of months. We love you all lots and lots, and hope you enjoy! God bless your new year with a closer walk with Him than ever before!

"See my dolly?" beams Elisabeth.

Susanna's dog Monkey had six puppies right before our trip, and they are just at the right age to play with! The girls enjoy dressing them in doll clothes! Here is Maria with a puppy - our neighbor Fran, Nelly's 5 year old son, is playing to the right.

Our house!

This past Sunday Charo, Jessica, Nadia, as well as Marco and Mickey, (Charo's 5 and 8 year old brothers) all went with us out to Tachllapampa for a Church service. We had a special time, even though no one else came. . . as happens half the time :( Here is the view from our "Tachllapampa house" as we call it - so much prettier now that the rains have begun and everything is green.

As school lets out for summer vacation, and people travel back to Velille for Christmas/New years, there is a lot more time for visiting. We have enjoyed all the visits from friends this last week! Here are, L-R Charo, Nadia, and Maria.

Gadiel and Isaiah - with a happy Gordon.

Nadia!

Charo!

The funny thing is that it is summertime in the mountians now, but since summertime is also the rainy/wet season, it is the only time we ever get snow/hail! You can see my garden in the back by Mickey, Charo's youngest brother, who was at our house lots this week. Lettuce, beets, calandula, onions, parsely, barley, quinua, I have a little of many things in my small garden plot.

Well, Velille weather is quite different from jungle weather, as we were reminded by a hailstorm that made the yard look like we had snow~ Gordon brought a bucket inside and the children had fun making a mini snowman! (Nice to have a dirt flor that absorbs liquids!)

. . .Playing with our babies, etc. . .

Gadiel, her son, is only a couple of weeks younger than Isaiah. They sure have grown up since they were last together 7 months ago!

Home again, Home again! And thankfully Charo WAS there. . . and we spent a happy week together, cooking. . . .

We enjoyed the tropical flowers and butterflies we saw during that stop.

Our children proved again that they can make friends anywhere. . . Here they are with the policeman and road worker at the roadblock in the jungle that we stopped at for hours.

Since I, Betsie, usually take the pictures, there aren't many of me here - but Elisabeth decided to try her hand at picture taking on the way home when we were stopped for hours at a roadblock. Here is one she took of Isaiah and me.

"Who? Me?" Isaiah seems to say, caught in the act of emptying my diaper bag.

It WAS hot in the jungle - the first night after bathing with cold water and climbing into bed, none of us slept well, so the second night we not only bathed ourselves, but rinsed all our clothes in cold water, then went to bed wet - then we slept!

Susanna enjoyed the monkey at the hostel we stayed at. . . It was QUITE a surprise however, to find out that Charo had left for Velille the DAY before to SURPRISE us!! But we enjoyed visiting with Hipolito, who works as a boat ferryman at the river by their town. Gordon was able to talk with him as we had hoped and prayed. With Gordon feeling nearly back to his old self again, we decided to take our long-awaited trip to the jungle to surprise Charo and Hipolito with a visit. . . . The heat, the water, the green-ness of everything delighted us!

Isaiah liked the clean floors and freedom to explore there in the Rich's apt. and began scooting around and standing a lot! I like how this picture shows how his hair likes to stand up! (Here he is ten months old!)

The children all really enjoyed playing with Sister Noel Rich's puppies up on the roof, (3 stories high! - gulp!)

"Great Job Papa!!! Yummy!!!"

Pepe, a young brother from the Church there in Arequipa joined us to enjoy the funnel cakes. Our nearly two weeks in Arequipa were not only restful to the body, but a great encouragement Spiritually. The Brothers and Sisters that attend the Church there at the Riches, who have adopted us as one of their own over the years - and especially during the nearly 3 months we were there last Jan.-Apr. loved us, prayed for us, and encouraged us these two weeks!

. . . He started feeling better!!!! Praise the Lord!

So, he made us all a very special treat - funnel cakes!

Dec. 2nd we finally decided to go to Arequipa so that Gordon could get some medical attention, since he just wasn't getting better. Praise the Lord, the test all came back that he was on his way to recovery. After a week or so of lots of rest andrelaxation, like this picture above shows. . .

Sweet Samuel planned a tea party for his puppy and teddy, then kindly invited Susanna and Isaiah as well. . . I'm not sure where Elisabeth was. These were all taken the last few weeks before we left for our trip - busy weeks, full of sickness and weakness. :(

Elisabeth lost her first TWO teeth on the same day! A happy 6 year old!

Olinda with 4 month old Juan David

Back in November, I took this picture, telling Olinda that I wanted to send in to Helena and Becka - so here you girls are! My garden is in the background.