Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Ok, so I'm late on the Merry Christmas but I'm early on the Happy New Year!

May 2008 hold many blessings for you as you seek God.

Christmas in the Park

Christmas day in the park 2007

Christmas day we spent in Metropolitan Park with another family. They have two boys almost the same age as Joshua and Joel, although both are younger by a couple of months. We had an enjoyable time talking and watching the boys play together. It was almost a perfect Christmas day, for Quito.

You can click on the photo to go to the photo album.

I miss the snow that we had last winter in Vancouver...

Working hard!

Joshua and Joel take every opportunity they can to play outside. Joshua has been watching Art Attack, a good program for kids which gives really cool art ideas and shows some neat works of art. I'm sure he uses that as his source of inspiration when he makes some mud to "paint a picture" on the wall.

Joel tends to like similar themes, like playing in the mud! I need to hose them off before they come into the house but as I recall my childhood, I'm sure they had a ton of fun!

Birthday party!

Joel celebrated his birthday with his twin cousins (Matias and Natalia) since the twins' birthday is December 11 and Joel's is December 16.

They enjoyed a nice party with pinatas, cake, chicken and rice. Most of all, the four enjoyed a great time of running around and playing together.

Joel turned 2, and the twins turned 3, so between all four there is only a difference of 20 months.

Many times Joshua has asked us when he is going to play with Matias again. This afternoon he came up and wanted to call Matias on the telephone. So we placed the call and the two of them could talk for a few minutes. Joshua was then content to wait until Christmas day to see them again.

If you want to see the complete photo album, click here.

A day in the park

Last week we went to Metropolitan Park for a morning with Lucas and Levi, two boys from one of our neighbours who are very similar in ages to Joshua and Joel. All the boys enjoyed themselves and were quite tired by the time we got back home.

Flight to the edge...

November 9 (Friday), just after lunch, an Iberia Airbus 340-600 flew into Quito. It was raining at the time and the pilot was unfamiliar with the airport. According to reports, the plane touched down about half-way down the runway. This didn't leave a whole lot of stopping room.

As you can see in the photos, the plane did stop, but not before it had run out of runway and taken out the Instrument Landing System. Fortunately, it did stop before it left airport property. The next stop was a building supply store and then a neighbourhood soccer field.

ILS flights into Quito were stopped until Sunday afternoon (Nov 11).

The Ecuadorian Civil Aviation department is still investigating the incident, but they have already banned this airplane from reentering Ecuadorian airspace if it is refurbished to fly again.

A new landing gear assembly will be mounted so that they can move the airplane from where it is right now. They hope to have that done this week.

A cartoon in one of the papers had a bunch of Iberia passengers waiting for their flight and over the PA system an announcer says that the Iberia flight is now ready for boarding but by way of Maestro Street (the street where I took the first photo).

Buying a car - Part 2

Well, we were finally able to purchase a vehicle, and we just needed to look outside our gate.

After a few weeks of looking around at used-car dealerships, newspapers, and the internet, we had found a vehicle which we thought would be good for us. You can read all about that vehicle in Buying a car - Part 1.

About 10 days ago, we saw a Mitsubishi Montero for sale, parked outside of the medical building across the street and took down the number. When we called them, they were asking more that we could afford, so we left it until after the deal on the Grand Vitara fell through.

Calling the owners of the Montero again, we found that they were willing to negotiate and they came by so that we could see the vehicle. We liked what we saw, and more importantly, the paperwork was almost in order. We had the vehicle check out mechanically and then started the negotiations. Surprisingly, they dropped the price $1,500, which in the market here is extremely rare. Normally, the price drop is $200-500.

We did find out that they hadn't legalized the change-of-ownership to their name and so we told them that we couldn't buy the car until they had done this. They called us back in 1/2 hour to tell us that they would do this (a cost of about $250).

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this blessing a reality. It is very different being able to get out now and take a break from the city! God not only provided the vehicle, but He made it so that we didn't even have to go looking for it!