IN SAN JOSE - WHOLE AGAIN

We are finally all here and all together. I am sitting on the rear patio area of our hotel typing this. D.G. just came out to pay me a little visit and check out the smells. I finally feel whole again. We all feel that way. We ate at Denny's last night and just caught up. Due to the Hurricanes in the Gulf we have been getting a bit of residual rain over the last few days. I thought that was going to hinder the girls flight but there were no problems. D and I are talking about how thing are going to be set up at the apartment as we watch D.G. check things out in the hotel yard.
Whole again!

Finally Online

Sorry it has been so long...  No internet and busy weekdays makes it difficult but we are back!

So much has transpired within the last few weeks I am not sure where to begin. The boy and I are down here trying to get both our new home and restaurant started. The gals will be here soon and we can not wait! The boy actually misses BOTH of the gals. Crazy huh?
Well, last week found the boy and I along with Rodrigo and Justin (the cook and the neighbor) in the river in the dark shrimp hunting. The shrimp run in the river here as well as the sea and are approximately 6" (15 cm) long. No luck for us that night so we have traps set tonight. The boy went with the neighbor down the street and brought home at least 8 dozen limes (which are orange in the middle). After we got the kitchen cleaned out we used our commercial juicer and juiced 4-5 mandarina oranges (grapefruit sized super sweet oranges picked off the tree) along with some of the limes and a little coconut milk. Very nice. The cook cut opened up a coconut that was sprouting already. The milk at that point turns into a spongy like substance but is sweet and really cool to eat. It truly is a different world down here. Our water was out for the day today (water main repair) and there are sudden short blackouts regularly but we are beginning to acclimate. Today I saw a large howler monkey crossing a small road like he owned it. That is a brief update of our lives up to this point. I know... I haven't mentioned the huge waves, daily rain, lizards up the wazoo, the extremely loud crazy sounding birds in the mornings or the washed out roads but hey, I can't fit everything into a single post.
More soon...

Chicago Adventure Coming To A Close

The month of July is almost over and Chicago is coming to a close for us. 

 

We have been pretty this past week with visits from friends and sight seeing all over the city.

Last week we visited Icosium Kafe for crepes and craziness! 

The turkish coffee was well worth the nose umbrella display.

A lot of people are threatening to head south to visit us and we couldn't be happier.

There are really some amazing people in our lives.  We are truly blessed.

All the real work will begin for us next week as we gather all of our stuff and figure out how to get it all down south. 

Hot Dog! New Title

Well, due to overwhelming demand the blog title has been changed.  I guess using your actual name is not always the best way to go.  Anyway, we are now known as Central American Yoopers.

Time is moving along at a steady clip here in Chi-town.  The men leave for CR in 23 days!  Man where is the time going?  We experienced Hot Dougs today.  This place is the ultimate hot dog joint and has been recognized by both The Food Network and Fodors as the coolest hot dog place in the midwest if not the entire planet.  Doug's is "The Sausage Superstore and

Encased Meat Emporium ".  We had fun and broke our table.  You can't beat that for a great lunch.  

More soon,

-TF

Sick in Chicago

Okay, so since the last posting a few milestones have been met.  I am self-unemployed now as of 6/30 and totally homeless and car-less.  (That's car-less not careless)  We are here in Chicago still and have been dealing with some illness.  I (joe) have been sick for the past two and a half weeks with some sort of Martian virus.  A few days in the hospital in Macomb and a visit to the emergency room in Chicago has left me sick of being sick.  Things seem to be getting better though.  It has been a bit difficult being here at JPUSA only because we are so used to doing tasks and jobs.  So since we've been here we've been dealing with a little bit of cabin fever.  But the Lord is trying to show us something while we are here and we are hoping to hear His voice.  We spent a long week at Cornerstone Festival.  It would have been better if I wasn't sick but it brought back some old memories nevertheless.  I have never been to the festival with a wife and kids.  The kids were blown away by all of the music and crazy people.  D and I were intrigued by their reactions.  All in all it has been a log couple of weeks but we're hanging in out here.  God is good and faithful and has not brought us on this journey to fail.  Thank you Lord for friends/family but most off all for your peace through your Spirit.  Amen. 

Chicago adventure....

We are into our next phase of our move, in Chicago at Jpusa. We got in Sunday, late afternoon. Abigail and I ended up taking the train from Ann Arbor to Chicago, which was a lot of fun with all of Abigail's excitment. Joe and Noah drove with all of our "stuff". You would think after selling everything we own, we wouldn't have much left...but we do.

This week was Joe's last week of work, they picked up his car today. So we are officially homeless and carless :) It is nice here at Jpusa, meeting all kinds of new people, the kids are making new friends and we have had a quite relaxing week. I believe it is the calm before the storm, as we get on a bus this Sunday to head down the Bushnell, Il for the 25th annual Cornerstone Musica Festival. We are really looking forward to it, so much going on there. Joe will be working on one of the stages and I will be working in the Artrageous tent for the kids. We will post again after it is all done and we get back :)

Still Waiting for Consistency

Well, I'm still working (joe here) and we're still waiting to have some sort of solid spot to live without having to get our clothes out of a suitcase or bag of some sort.  However, we've been blessed to be able to stay with our friends the Banfield's (family really) and have somewhat of a sense of home.

  

God has truly blessed us throughout this journey.  Where to begin is difficult.  I will try to bring all of the events and happenings and feelings together in words as our journey continues to unfold.

I guess it all began with a feeling.  Something the Lord birthed in our hearts.  I can not say that Costa Rica was somewhere Danette and I felt that we would be going to.  We really had no deep desire to move there at all.  We were looking forward to visiting and seeing something new but I can say moving there was never on our minds.  Moving somewhere however, was.  Going somewhere and doing something else was on our minds and hearts but not CR.  It appears that God had plans for us that we did not know about.  

Funny how he doesn't tell us everything huh?