What a week it has been

What's that saying? "TGIF"-thank goodness it's Friday.  Well, in Spanish, it's "GDEV"-Gracias a Dios es Viernes!  I actually love Fridays, but not just because it's the weekend.  In Atenas, Friday morning is the weekly fresh market.  Farmers from the surrounding areas bring their fruits, vegetables, plants/flowers, breads, etc to sell in town.  So, I head to downtown Atenas out in front of Escuela Central (central school) and do my produce shopping for the week.  I love the sights and sounds there.  This morning, there was lively music playing, and everything was bustling because this Sunday is Costa Rican Mother's Day or El Dia de la Madre.  Here, this is one of the biggest holidays of the year.  The mother in Costa Rican families is highly respected and has pretty much all the responsibility for the household.  It was funny to see something a little familiar also.  Normally, a bunch of flowers at the market is about 2,000 colones, or $3.50, but we have a pretty smart florist I guess because this morning, they were almost double that.  There people clamoring around the flowers trying to pick just the perfect flowers to arrange as a gift for their mother or grandmother's special day.  Kinda reminded me of Valentine's Day in the states when all of a sudden a dozen roses is outrageously expensive.  Of course, outrageously expensive in this case is only $7, but still:)

This week, there has been alot going on.  One of the staff wives, Beth, gave birth yesterday to a healthy baby boy, her first.  It was the first time I have seen a baby on the day of it's birth, and boy was it tiny.  I've seen infants, but I can't ever remember seeing a baby literally the day it was born.  He was so cute!.  And I am so excited for Beth and Micah as they begin this new season of their lives as parents.  I'm also excited because part of what I do here in Costa Rica is member care and family development which means I am super excited to be able to serve our friends however I can, including planning meals, laundry, cleaning, and pretty much anything else they need.  It was a little funny when I discussed my ideas with Beth a few weeks ago.  I guess they don't do a whole lot of the bringing-meals-to-the-house thing in northern Washington, where they're from.  I told her, "Listen, I'm from the south.  This is what we do."  We both laughed about it.

Also, another family returned from a visit with their family in the States.  Still in another family, the wife, Michelle, had her birthday yesterday.   They live at the orphanage where I volunteer, and we are going there tonight to help celebrate her birthday.  So, overall, it's been a pretty eventful week, and we're loving it!