The Lord has had me in Romans 12, considering the value of each individual part of the body of Christ. This has been sweet to me as I spent the last few days setting up our cabin and working out our game plan of what to make for breakfast and dinners. Lunch is made for us by the Tias, and far outstrips what I can do with rice and beans. We can’t tell them enough “La almuerza estaba muy rica!” (The lunch was really good!) Given that they are spoiling us at midday, I decided to cook North American for dinners. Shopping at the supermercado was so much fun for me! Trying to figure out which Pasta de Tomate is actually what we would call tomato paste (it’s the one that’s labelled Concentrada) and how to buy meat from the man behind the counter. I sent Matt to do that and then quizzed him later–Dos kilos de hamberguesa, por favor. (Four pounds of hamburger, please.) They keep it all fresh and package it to order. The kids had fun picking out jello, cookies, and chocolate with Matt, too, while I scouted the aisles to look for things that I might use in my recipes. A far cry from my Excel spreadsheet grocery list diagramming the items I buy at Walmart by aisle location!

Eliana has had some rough spots today with her stomach. She is taking liquids and jello, and we are praying that the worst has passed through. We were giving her some soy milk that we think had lactose in it. There is some at the store that is lactose free, so we’ll try that soon. Over and over the Lord keeps pressing on my heart how precious my children are to me. Eliana has been such a trooper. Elijah misses the familiarity of home, but also loves to play with the kids here and his sister. The two of them are like peas and carrots. He is doing a great job with the cabin and changes in most areas, and is beginning to use a few Spanish words here and there.

And as I look at our three days here so far, they have not seemed very spiritual. Cooking four pounds of hamburger and freezing it in portions to make future dinners is not very exciting. Yet I know that the Lord is pleased with our setting the foundation for our time here and he’s calling me to value my contribution as well, as an organizing-and-cooking-Mommy/Wife part of the body of Christ.