God's country?

These following pictures are to give you an idea of the

beautiful views we see around us all the time...

Tristan and Sean went with Tim and my dad up to a special

Father's Day cookout at one of the little villages furthur up in

the mountains. There was a sheep there that was the

prize to the winners of the soccer (futbol) tournament.

So Sean asked if he could ride aforementioned sheep ...

Tim said, "I don't know, can you?". Sean walked up and

calmly sized up that sheep and felt for the best hand hold and

jumped on! The sheep was tied, so it was more of a bullride

than a race, and he would've won if it was a contest.

Tristan gave it a go as well and they provided much

entertainment and laughs. I guess our kids brought a little

USA rodeo to the people out there! There is video to

document this, but it'll have to wait until we get back...

The ladies cooking at the Father's Day celebration

What a precious little girl!

Some guys watching the futbol tournament

More from Peru

A couple of these guys were our room-mates the first couple nights.

As scary as this spider looks, no-one has ever heard of them biting anyone.

We did dispose of them after we got a good picture, though.

Check out this guy's dish network right over his livestock shed!

And he was playing classical music as we passed his place. Class and

culture survive even here...

Our family walking out to my parent's place during the strike.

This is the little village where they live.

Tim got this picture of a landing similar to ours. Just to show how close

they come to the mountains. This is considered a very difficult landing and take-off.

My dad built this well on his property based on a biblical design.

You can go down into it on a spiral staircase. It's really pretty neat

and keeps them going when the city water is turned off, which is

fairly often. They are also able to provide water for a neighboring orphanage.

Tristan and Sean playing in Grandma's willow tree.

They were swinging from the branches and doing Tarzan

yells... I'm sure you are surprised!

This is my parent's home. They have been slowly working on it for

10 plus years now. It is still unfinished. Tim is hoping to help them get

it closer to being done this summer.

One of the views from their home. Really a beautiful country!

We have arrived!!

Yes, we are here safely and the trip went very well, so thanks to all of you who were praying! It has taken me a while to get on here as we have been getting settled in and dealing with typical things such as electricity outages and strikes. We have moved into our home for the next couple months and are mostly settled. Our place is a little town home in a tiny little block long gated community which goes by the prestigious name of "The Olives". We are woken promptly at 6:30 each morning by firecrackers set off in front of the large Catholic church on the main plaza. They use to just ring the bells to anounce morning mass, but apparently people were sleeping through them so they now use the aforementioned firecrackers. They make a great alarm clock! Just across the street outside our gates is a little stable/farmyard and the boys get to see the cows being taken out and brought in. Yes, people keep cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, and guinea pigs (for eating) all through the city. So much fun for the kids.

My dad has taken Tim on errands all through the city to get him somewhat oriented and I have enjoyed the market with my mom. Today there were strikes due to the major national lp gas company being sold to Mexico. The prices on this lp gas have now gone up so the people are quite upset. The strike basically involved no-one being able to drive vehicles anywhere in the city. So no public transportation and things can get ugly if you try to drive. So we walked out to my parents place and then hiked up to see the 16 acre property my dad has bought. There are numerous possibilities for this property, but their hopes are to use it to get the orphanage and themselves self-sufficient and not so reliant on the sometimes unreliable support of churches in the US. It was a beautiful hike and more pictures will be coming soon!

A work team will be arriving on Sat. so things are going to get busy very quickly here. Thanks again for all your support and prayers, and I will do my best to keep you all updated. So far we are all in good health and the kids seem to be adjusting well, so off to a good start! Enjoy the pictures...

These are some typical veiws/sights in Peru

(the mountains in the distance are 16000 to1900 ft.!)

This peaceful sleeping on the drive to Miami must be thanks

to your prayers!

Too cute

Katie getting a bath with her aunts (my adoptive sisters).

Their names are Ellie and Emma, and they are Quechua

(the people group my family works with)

These following pictures are of the market where we will be doing

much of our shopping. It is smelly and dirty and for some reason I

love it! It's so colorful and full of character and life...

I think their tables full of fruit are beautiful..

You buy the most amazing things out of these huge sacks.

anything from flour and rice to dry dogfood!

Another beautiful table

Beef anyone? Yes those are cow noses!