Recap and what's to come.

Hi!

       I thought it might be good to just throw a quick recap out there for all of you who might be following us in the blog world.

     Suzy, Kaia, and I arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday, April 29th. That was 14 weeks ago. Crazy! Kaia has actually spent the majority of her life living in Costa Rica at this point! 

     While we've been here we have been learning spanish, building relationships, and plugging in to a few other things without overwhelming ourselves. As it turns out, learning a new language is kind of hard and takes a lot of time. (go figure...)

     We've been attending a local, spanish-speaking Costa Rican church. We've been leading worship on a weekly basis at chapel on campus. I've been teaching a Korean man how to play the djembe (while speaking spanish). Suzy has been attending a Bible study with Costa Rican & Nicaraguan maids-- all in spanish. We've been buying and cooking local food, studying, tutoring, reading, praying, running, caring for Kaia, and have tried to get out and see a bit of Costa Rica as opportunities have presented themselves. We even did a pretty aggressive hike a couple weeks back!

         So, what's next? 

     The trimester ends this coming Friday. I took my comprehensive grammar test on Friday and have an oral presentation on Monday. So, things are winding down. We have officially decided to stay here in Costa Rica for another Trimester to continue studying spanish at the language institute. However, there is a break before classes resume again on September 4th.

     Therefore, we're heading back to the States for 2 1/2 weeks. My parents have been living in Washington State for the past several years, and we haven't been there for almost 2 years now. Additionally, neither of my younger siblings have been able to meet their one and only niece yet! So, we'll be staying with my parents in Everett, WA and Rachel and Tommy will get to spend some time getting to know their niece before we abscond with her to Ecuador for years to come. We're looking forward to one last stop in the States to be with family, relax a bit, and decompress after 14 weeks of learning spanish.

     We fly out on Monday and will return to Costa Rica on August 31st. We'll continue to study spanish and will hopefully reach the level of 'Advanced Low' by mid-December. We haven't bought our plane tickets yet, but plan to fly straight from here to Ecuador the third week in December. 

     And that's our timeline from now until arrival in Ecuador-- a couple weeks in Seattle, a few more months in Costa Rica, and then on to Ecuador, just in time for Christmas!

     Pray for us as we finish up this trimester and as we travel to and from the States. Blessings to you on this lovely Saturday! And feel free to shoot us an e-mail with any questions, updates, or prayer requests that you'd like to send our way! Contact us at jimandsuzyolsen@hotmail.com.

 -jim