First Week in Asuncion

And just like that, we were off again. 

 Coming in for our layover in Panama. I couldn't get over how mountainous and tree filled it was!

 Signs of being in South America. I give you: The mayo aisle. 

 Along with: Grill full of meat right in the middle of the mall food court.

   Lots of at-home play. These kids have been playing SO well together since being here. Night and day difference from Jakarta where it felt like they were constantly fighting. Not sure what has changed, if it's the bigger apartment (amazing what a little extra space can do for a person--me!), bigger table (with no rolly chairs!), kids attitude/behavioral changes overnight, lots of prayer and fasting (thanks for all the prayers from family!) We'll take it. Most days they spend at least an hour, if not more, playing with play dough and these little Pokemon together (those Pokemon that a sweet girl at church gave us in Jakarta but that became one of the biggest sources of contention in our home there. To think I almost didn't even bring them here!)

   Burnt 3 loaves of bread that first week, and haven't tried again since. Our oven temperature is clearly not the temperature it says it is. I've tried lowering it little by little. On the last loaf, when it started to get brown on top, I took it right out but the bottom was still completely soft! Maybe I'll try again someday. Maybe I won't. I did make a Cinnamon Roll Cake for Easter which turned out (still cooked super fast and was more done on top than the bottom, but it worked!), and lemon bars this last week. Making anything edible come out of the oven feels like a huge accomplishment. 

 Walking around the neighborhood and the kids saw this house and immediately started talking about who would be the big bad wolf to blow down the "straw" house.

The pool is much smaller than the one in Jakarta, and insanely chlorinated (like, the smell is so strong it's kind of hard for me to get in). It is also really cold compared to the water there so Belen barely gets in, but it's a pool nonetheless! We're grateful we have it, although I doubt we will use it too much as it has been rainy and as temps lower into the 70s in the next week (I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to cold water). 

Love Shae's big happy smile so much. (Belen is becoming quite the photographer).

 Making herself a little imaginary picnic on the towel sounded better than swimming.

We have a really great park that is closeish to our apartment. So grateful for this! This is something we can do in those lovely 70 temps next week. It's about a 20-30 minute walk (depending on speed of kid legs :), so a little far, but we discovered a bus route that takes us right there, so we'll for sure be taking that after playing and exhausting ourselves in the future (if not on the way there too).

I took a nice walk around the path with Shae.

We discovered a massive spider.

 Played on the exercise equipment a bit. 

  So happy that there is such a lovely shaded playground!

Belen was so excited to meet this little girl and that they got to play together. We have gone a few more times over the weeks and sadly haven't run in to her again which has been a big bummer for Belen.