We Made it to the States

By the grace of our Lord, we are in the States. We began our trip on Monday at 10:00 AM and flew from Trujillo to Chiclayo to Lima. The airline LAN had cancelled many morning flights the week prior. So thankfully the Lord allowed the plane to leave Trujillo. When we arrived in Chiclayo, Abbie asked if we were in the States yet. Still another 24 hours to go!

When we got to Lima, we rested at a local hotel. Then we eased our way back into Norther American culture by eatting at Chile's. Everything was going so smoothly until we went through the immigration line. Apparently we had neglected to update our residential visas and the immigration agent told us that we could not fly. He said we need to stay for several days and resolve this problem at immigration downtown Lima. Arrgggg!!!

We asked to talk to the supervisor. As we waited, I asked Sandi to look really big and pregnant. Tears would have been good as well. We waited for nearly an hour, to talk to the supervisor. She asked us why we had not prolonged our visas five months ago, and told us that it would be illegal to let us leave the country. I explained to her that Sandi is 36 weeks pregnant, making this the last week to fly. Also, I explained how this past year I was a silly new missionary who did not know Spanish well enough to figure out the visa policies for my family. Our girls visas were not outdated, so I asked if we could just send the girls ahead of us. Of course, I knew she would decline. Her countence did not change until I promised that I would immediately mail our carnets (residential cards) back to Peru once we got to the States in order to prolong our visas. Like I said above, by the grace of God we made it to the States!

Right before we left, our car back in the States died. Sandi sent out an email to many of you, asking for your prayers. We had an amazing response. Drs. Tim & Grace Shumaker had an extra Toyota Sequoia SUV to lend us. Wow! This was much more than we were expecting and certainly more than we deserved. What a gracious God we serve!

Since our arrival to the States, we've been seeing family and setting up house in Madison, MS. We haven't had internet access until today, Friday May 25. We are now in Ferriday, LA; Sandi's hometown. It's been great to eat some down home southern food. We'll be celebrating Memorial Day with the Beasley clan. Abigail and Adeline have already gone fishing with Poppa.

Here are some pictures of our time in the States so far.




Thank you very, very, very, very much for your prayers!

Avocado Season

One of the many wonderful things about living in Peru is the fresh produce that is available. Not just at the market, but in our backyard. We have an avocado tree just steps away from our backdoor that produces an abundance of tasty avocados this time of year. Abigail has come to love guacamole and calls it our guacamole tree. She has assumed the chore of gathering our harvest. We have learned that it is better to pick them right off the tree rather than wait for them to fall (it can cause quite a headache if one falls on you). Last Saturday we had a Peruvian friend over and he offered to climb the tree and gather the ripe ones, of course expecting a share of them :-) We wish we could bring some back to the US to share with you, but I don't think customs would allow it. But, we will be able to share them with our friends coming down from Belhaven College, a group of musicians arriving next Monday night. Hey Belhaven, we hope you like Guacamole!

Mary Allen falta 7 semanas (she lacks 7 weeks)

Here is Mary Allen at 32 weeks. In the sonogram today, we were able to see her eyes open and as you can see, she also has some hair. She is already a real cutie! Because the doctor will probably schedule the c-section at 39 weeks, we have less than 7 weeks until we get to meet her.

In just two weeks (May 21st) we will be traveling back to the US for our three month visit, please pray for a safe and peaceful trip.