Be thankful

"Be thankful."  Those two words are nestled almost like an afterthought in the 17 verses of Colossians that we covered in the Ladies Bible Study this week.  They were the ones that jumped out at me the most....and I probably should have taken even more note of that than I did.  I had a pretty self focused weekend.  But, that is on the mend, partially because I finally started to take notice of those words, so, here are some things. :)

-Thursday night Bible study-- I was starting to get a sinking feeling of insecurity about Spanish, feeling like I had already left the honeymoon period of growing in my Spanish skills and was now hitting a plateau.  Then Letticia started talking to me.  I was immediately encouraged and warmed by her.  I hadn't even asked God to help, and He gave me her.

-I have the kind of family that I can miss!  Even when I don't love those feelings.

-Abigail and Eli

-I did NOT want to go to this picnic thing yesterday...and then it was a wonderful time of chatting with some people my own age.  The time flew, I made people laugh...they made me laugh (most often in these adult circles I sit on the edge of the conversation, participation is minimal)

-We didn't go to church yesterday and I really missed worship songs, which I told the Lord...at this picnic thing I didn't want to go to one of the guys randomly said he wanted to sing church songs.  So we had a super impressive guitar player that can accompany anyone just singing, and a chorus of 8 or so voices.

^This one is the kicker.  I have written all of my "woes" to the Lord in my journal.  I finished with "please help me know what to do for You with the rest of my day".  Alright, instead of Him asking me to wrangle my attitude or go out and be amazing despite how pitiful I felt on the inside, He gave me that easily enjoyable wonderful time with those people...and the opportunity to sing worship songs.  He was very gentle with me, unbelievably kind.

Food for thought

The title of this post is slightly oxymoronic.  I am purposefully not writing anything thought provoking, because I've been a little melancholy the past 3 days, so I don't really trust what would fly off of my fingertips at this time!  But, I have been wanting to mention a few foods, and there is no danger in that :)  So there you go food for thought.

Kinotos--tiny oranges about the size of a cherry tomato.  You pop the whole thing into your mouth, the orange peel and everything!

Choripan--amazingly delicious.  Chorizo sausage is a mix between a salt cured ham and a bratwurst.  You grill that up and put it inside a hollowed out piece of bread (like a french bread) and eat it with all sorts of toppings.  I prefer "american type" mustard and lettuce.  Yum!

Locro--this is a pumkpin based soup, there are a thousand variations but Bethany makes it with white beans and corn.  It is thick and chowdery.  I love it, especially on these cold days!

Lomito

Pizza--...yesterday for lunch we had this at Carlota's house..then we had it cold on the drive home at 10:00.  This pizza had a normal crust and sauce, then it had a layer of cream of corn, bologna/ham stuff called fiambre, then their version of mozzerlla cheese, and then...crumbled up boiled egg.

Asado--this is SO Argentina.  Basically it is a huge grill out of all kinds of meat.

Lomito--this is what Eli loves.  It is a thin strip of sirloin, a fried egg (they put egg on so much stuff here), fiambre ham, cheese, mayonnaise, ketchup, tomato and lettuce sandwiched between a thick white bread.

Medialunas--sweet bread croissants that they usually stuff with dulce de leche

Facturas--these will be the death of me.  Any time you go over to someone's house they have all kinds of cake, bread and facturas that they expect you to eat for the merienda, while you drink mate.  They are all sweet, some are filled with dulce de leche, other's with cream, the cara sucias (dirty faces) are like cinnamin rolls with black tops and brown sugar

Torta de Milhojas--"thousand pages" cake.  It tastes like baklava, that is what the pastry is like at least, instead of honey they use..of course...dulce de leche, then there are nuts.  This picture is topped with a crocante (crunchy meringue), and sweet cream, which is really typical too.  I think this cake should be called, "how many ways can we put sugar on this thing?!"

There are cake and sweets everywhere.  Anytime a group of more than one person is around there has to be some kind of desert.  It is insane, my sugar levels are off the chart.

That is actually a little tricky, because the Argentine eating schedule is breakfast, lunch, then merienda at 5 ish and dinner at 9.  We don't do it that way at Bethany and Roman's house, so when we go to other people's houses, usually about a 2 hour drive away each weekend, at 5 or 6 I am really hungry for food...and all that is there is a TON of sweets.  If I don't eat that I won't eat anything all the way from lunch until 10 or 11 when we get home.  So the question is:  how do I not sugar crash and/or gain a million pounds?

This family

I really like living with this family, there are so many moments to smile.

Today at lunch Roman was asking me how people talk in Kentucky.  I gave him a couple of examples and then he had me in STITCHES with his impersonation.  The only phrase he said he "knew" from the south was "thankee kindly"  Oh my goodness, if you could have heard the way it sounded coming from him.  A complete scream.

If you want to see what Abi, Eli and I did yesterday feel free to click on this link :)  A Princess Story

Tonight we are going to Deaf Club (I'm excited :) and then tomorrow we are going to Rio Tercero for the day to visit Roman's mom...and whoever else decides to come.  On Sunday we have a churchwide picnic.  What this really boils down to is a lot of time today baking sweets in the kitchen with Bethany...and two little helpers.  Its going to be a good day.  But first, I have to take a little siesta!





Here are two pictures from Eli's birthday celebration.  We had pizza relleno and her favorite cake.  When you ask Eli what she's going to do when she grows up she always answers "buy pizza and lomitos and icecream!"

Clockwise around the table starting with Eli....Eli, Bethany, Agustine (Tia Adriana's son), Giselle (his novia), Abi, Eutar and Tia Adriana, Bethany's best friend

Up next:  Most likely a blog about last night at the Ladies Bible study.  That post will surely have more substance.

I can't talk to you the way I've wanted to

Mari and Eric came over today to do translation work and Roman let me sit in on the meeting!  I LOVE this.  I love it.  Here are some reasons why :)

-Eric and Mari are not Christians, so watching them pour over the Bible and dissect it to discern the meaning and figure out how to interpret it into sign language just makes me feel glowy inside.  They may not know it, but they are part of a Bible study :)

-Sign language is so animated!  I love watching it, I think it is a beautiful language, and it is so interesting to me.  The ways you express differences with direction changes, facial expressions...its so complex and yet so simple.  I love it.

-When I am just listening to Spanish I can feel like "ah!  I don't speak this, I speak English!" but when the choice is between Spanish and sign language I feel like "Ah!  I don't speak sign!  I speak Spanish!" and that is a great feeling.  When I get lost in Spanish someone will explain in English, when I get lost in sign language, it gets explained in Spanish...which makes me feel closer and more kindred with that language...does that make sense?  I'm not sure I explained it well.

I am super glad that Roman and Bethany taught me the alphabet and numbers, because I could follow along so much better, Roman and Mari spell words to each other because Roman isn't 100% fluent yet.  And then, while we ate merienda I was able to talk to Mari and spell things to learn new vocab words :)  I love it.

I payed extra special close attention to Mari and Eric and I memorized 2 Timothy 3:16.  Here it is ...in what is most likely extremely silly Erin-Argentine sign language :)

"Gonna take a walk outside today...."

 

I have been inside many Catholic churches, but never in my life have I seen one so enormous and ornate!  It took them 200 years to build it!

 

Yesterday was a "let's show Erin around another part of downtown Cordoba.  I tried to take pictures of things that were not only pretty in and of themselves, but holistically representative...so that hopefully you can get as close to having walked there with me as possible.  Of course that is an impossible goal, and I have never been one to give good overviews or summaries, I get caught up in wanting to share delightful and specific details, however...I will try :)

Also, thank you for praying for me surrounding the topics in my last two posts.  Work in progress, but I am feeling lighter inside again.  

Cobble stone streets!  OLD cobble stone streets :)  And Eli wanted you all to know that this is her "rock-star hair" :)  I braided my hair wet one day and then took them out, so she wanted to try it.

The purple tree is a Jacaranda...I love them!

This city is so stacked on top of itself, and yet you can find in the middle of the buildings these hollowed out places where they have open air restaurants and fountains and all kinds of beautiful things.  You duck into these places, get all turned around and then end up somewhere completely new!  Alice in wonderland.

This, I just loved, Cordoba's hallway :)

Plaza...

...proof I was in the plaza.  Happy, Mom?

The picture below is of the most prestigious highschool in all of Cordoba.  Anyone can go, and it is free.  You have to take a test and only the top 200 students are admitted.

...And this is Bethany's dream car.

One of the things I am really wanted to get a picture of to show you all is the kind of cars you can see here.  It is adorable!  There are a lot of old Renault, Peugots and other small metal European cars that are just delightful to see driving around.  Very fitting for a "day dream about the past" kind of girl :)

So what did you think?  Do you like it as much as I do?

Paula

This is Paula, she's 13 and has endured more in those short 13 years than I have in my whole life.  I spent most of the wedding talking to her, she was patient enough to put up with me!  To be honest I think she was just drinking in the one on one attention...her mother is almost 60 and has had a string of live-in boyfriends, she is still living for herself, as if she has not children at all.  Paula, who is somehow still sweet despite her life experiences has been pretty much ignored, because she flies under the anger radar.  Talking to her I felt so convicted. 

I think everyone who has met someone from a third world situation has wondered "Why did You decide to give me the start that you did?  Why was I born into cleanliness, financial stability, a hope for a future, a loving two parent home, a place where I was taught about you and encouraged to grow?...when so many haven't been given that?"  I felt so unworthy and so thankful.  I think it is good to feel that way, to realize how blessed we are, how unjustly kind He is.  It made me hurt badly later in the day, when I reacted in prideful defense to the words of a friend.  With how much I have been given, how can He not look at me and be completely disgusted, or at least frustrated to the point of giving up on me, when my faith and obedience are still so small?  

Marcos cross-referenced the parable of the servants who where given the talents today in church.  I want to be one of those that takes what he has been given and invests it, being able to give even more back to the Lord.  I have been given so much.  My own self-focus this past week, viewing it through the lens of blessing that Paula's life reaffirmed for me, just about broke my heart.  I am not being melodramatic.  Church was hard today.  "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty."  That word hits me like a two-by-four.  Holy. 

It is probably good for me also, with my "haven't made any HUGE mistakes, grew up in a Christian home" life to get a good dose of perspective now and again on just how far I am from that standard of Holy.  Today I am trying to get back to the place where I can simply rejoice in His love and forgiveness, instead of being focused on myself and how worm-like I feel right now.

I now pronounce you....

This weekend was huge.  We had Eli's birthday Friday (I will throw a little blog blurb out there sometime soon) and then Dani and Alejandra's wedding on Saturday.

As an official wedding photographer I had no choice but to do
and "artsy" picture of the wedding invitation.

Yep, I put a kissy picture on my blog. 

For those of you who do not know, Dani and Ale, who have been living together for the last 2+ years became Christians within the last year and decided that the first step to getting their lives on a good track was to get married.  They are the only Christians in their families, and Ale has 3 children (remember Ezekiel who is 13?)  They have made a very public stand for Christ and Satan will certainly be attacking that with ferocity.  They could use your prayers.

"Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel--rather let it be the hidden person of the hear, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God."


I was very busy taking pictures, and not exactly paying attention to what was being said when all of the sudden something feel out of the sky right into my arms....the bouquet that Abi had made for Alejandra.  Some kind of metaphor about love coming along when you are not looking for it should make itself fairly present here.  I caught the bouquet, and I didn't have to knock down a hundred other flailing single ladies to do it.

These two were being so lovely all day :)

 At one point during the day Bethany came over to me and pointed at Roman, who was talking to a group of men.  "Sometimes," she said "I look at my husband and I just think, 'wow.'"  His willingness to push himself out of his comfort zone (he is not naturally inclined to talk to people he doesn't know or mingle in social situations) in order to reach people with the saving news of Christ made Bethany speechless....which doesn't happen often.  It was wonderful to see the respect and admiration in her eyes.

Dona Tere and baby Alejandro.  His parents don't know
Jesus yet.

 Two days ago we found out I had lice, which I most assuredly got from the kids at the campo.  I hate admitting this, but it made me a bit nervous about yesterday.  The girl in this picture, Julia, had them...so big I could see them.  I am happy to say that the Lord helped me see the need for her to feel loved as more important than my own desire to feel clean and be bug free.  Her tearful hug goodbye was worth whatever consequence may come.  Don't worry, I will do a full detox before I come home and hug you :)

This is Paula, I spent most of the wedding talking to her, and I started to write about it here...but I'm going to cut and paste it and put it on another post...it started getting long :)

     

It is an Argentine tradition to have the bride and groom pose with the cake for every single family to get a picture with them, so as to catalog everyone who was there.  I was not planning on being in a picture but after had everyone had gone Ale yelled "one more!  We have to get a picture with our American photographer"  I felt very accepted by both her and Dani (who teased me the whole day about being too young to be a photographer...he is 2 1/2 months older than me)