There's no place like home...

Well, we're back now. And although the trip to Colombia was so amazing, it feels great to be back. Even just arriving to the airport, I found myself suddenly so excited about once perceived common luxuries such as drinking fountains and endless supplies of toilet paper in the bathroom (that is free mind you)! It was quite wonderful. We had "American" Chinese food in the airport on our layover and it was delicious! It will be a little while before I bust out the beans and rice I think. :)

Now Joseph has started school and we are just getting back into the swing of things. We're almost all the way moved back into our apartment. And I am currently studying for my certification exam and looking for jobs. Finding a "real" job is kind of hard. But, I am continuing the search and I know something will work out the way it needs to.

Saying Goodbye

Well, I'm sad to say that our time here is coming to an end. We recently said goodbye to our 31 children at the foundation. I made little cards for each of them with a little note that I put on their beds before we left. I wanted them to feel like they were important as an individual. It took me quite a while to finish, and some of them will toss it into the trash right away I'm sure, but I hope it will mean something to someone.


It was hard to leave- we were sad to go and hope that they know that we love them and are not leaving out of rejection to them but because we have to. We are hoping to keep in touch and told them that we would call when we got back to our home in the States.

This last week we were busy at the foundation building a garden. As you can tell from this picture, I had to really hold them back at first from not all working at the same time (just kidding). They were actually not as excited about it at first as I was, but they still enjoyed it and when it was finished, I think they were proud of what it had become.


We plated carrots, lettuce, cilantro and beets. I am hoping that the vegi's will grow that that they'll be able to make salads with it. Here's kind of a cute picture that Joseph took. It looks like he's thinking to himself, "Please God, make this garden grow- it will take a miracle." That was pretty much my thought as we were doing it. I really didn't know what I was doing. But thank goodness we had one of the workers there help us out.



And here it is after we planted the seeds...


Anyway, Joseph and I are going to go to the LDS temple in Bogota tomorrow. We're looking forward to that. And then on Wednesday morning, we head back to the good old USA. We're getting pretty "trunky" as missionaries call it. We have already decided where we want to eat when we get there- Thai food. I think we've probably had enough beans and rice here in Colombia to last us the year. :) We are glad that we've been able to have the experiences we've had this summer. It has been amazing really.

Not The Most Gifted Athletes...

But we can run a 10k and here is our proof.


Well we didn't come in first...more like 8,607, but we all finished so that makes us winners!


So we totally thought we were in such great shape because at the beginning of the race everyone was walking and we were jogging through them all until we realized we hadn't even crossed the starting line yet. I guess everyone else didn't sign up for the 10.5k...more props to us!


I'm glad I brought the camera along to snag this great picture. I believe at this point we were more than half way done and still pumped! {This is Bianca speaking for myself...I must admit, I was not pumped. You can tell in the different faces I have in the first and the second picture here. Joseph was still so excited and all full of energy and all I could say to him is, "How are you not dying right now?! I usually always can run farther than him because I run more, but this day, he somehow had a ton of energy. I was very proud of him- he wasn't sure if he even wanted to do it. Now, he's talking me into doing the half marathon in Richmond! Way to go Joseph! It was a lot of fun- just a little rough for me at about mile 4 I think. I'm glad we did it.} Oh, and by the way I wasn't the only serious runner with a camera during the race.


Here we are at the finish line! Overall, it was a great experience and something I would for sure do again. For biacna this was her second 10k and I dont think her last. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to run the whole way, seeing our training consisted of about 5 runs none of which I was able to run a mile without stopping and I think I maxed out at a 1 and a half. And yes there was talk of a half marathon in Richmond, but we havent run more than ten feet since the race, but who needs to train anyway.

{And a shout out to Mandy for running with us. We miss you and love you and are glad we could have shared that 10k experience with you! Joseph says that you get the award for most fashionable runner with the styln' $3 gucci glasses. :) }