In our new place at last! Everyone welcome!!

~After a long week with our wonderful new "family" (The Elkins), our apartment was finally ready.  Living out of a suitcase can only last so long. We were all starting to grab each others underwear as all of our "stuff" became a huge pile of clothing, toiletries, cell phone cords, books and baggage, and whatever else we needed for the day:/ It was bittersweet saying goodbye to our new "family" (Brian, Keli, and the kids) here in Puerto Rico and we will forever be grateful for our time spent with them. They say it was just has hard for them to see us leave after a week hunkered down together. We actually started to live like a real Puerto Rican family where several generations keep house together, and in a most wonderful way. My mother became "Nanny" to little Jordan, Jadon, and Jameson while also cleaning house and cooking occasional meals for us all. Keli says her house has never been so clean or the clothes all washed and put away at one time.  (Ah, the joys and struggles of life with little ones all under five! It was a pleasant reminder of the years with my little ones.)  Hunter, Naomi, and Wyatt were willing babysitters. Brian was so pleased to have Hunter around to help him with roof work and moving heavy furniture around.  We sat around several evenings together and pondered God's amazing grace in bringing our families together from so far away.  David not being with us is the only downside; however, I know he is secure in the fact that Someone bigger than himself is taking care of his family.  God is so good.
~So we moved in to the new apartment on Sunday. Brian helped us set up internet and cable connections so that we would be able to log right in Monday morning for the kids to do their school work.  Everything, I mean EVERYTHING, has been such a smooth transition; the realtor has become a good friend (especially for my mother), the landlord is going out of the way to provide all the furniture we need to make living easy (although it was suppose to be an unfurnished apartment), and we continue to find God's little provisions everywhere with everyone we meet from the supermarket to neighbors; everyone is so friendly.
~Hunter returned to his school in the mountain town of Cayey on Sunday evening. We arrived to a house full of Puerto Rican boys (about 15-20) who had driven from all parts of the island and were being dropped off by their parents for the week of school and baseball.  I say a "house full" because they stay in a house with two adult chaperone/assistant coaches at night. The house has an extra room built to house 4 rows of computers where they complete their online schooling each day.  Everywhere they go they must be in one of the school issued uniforms whether its for baseball workouts, games, going out for other public meetings or events, or simply completing their school online; there is a dress code that is representative of the school/team in the most dignified way. He reported to me this evening by text that his first day of school was "hard". I like it already:-)
~Not everything is beaches and baseball. I paid $6.00 for a gallon of milk today!  Everthing in the supermarket is two to three dollars more than what we pay in the states.  More on the culture and everyday living later. For now, still praying for rain and cooler temperatures to come your way. Love to all....

Naomi and Jordan Posing
Wyatt and Jameson (below)

                                       Fresh Guacamole! Look at the size of that avocado:)
                                             Avacado trees abound in backyards. Yummm...

                                                    Here's the baseball man!  Sporting his                                                    "going out for lunch" uniform. The entire 
                                                    team wears this. Looks sharp. PRoBaseall
                                                    Academy (Puerto Rico BB Academy-clever
                                                    play on words).

                                                           Outside our new apartment!

A Hurricane The Weekend We Arrive! Seriously?!!!

                                                   

Because we had been here in June, it was nice to arrive back to a familiar place.  The first 2 days were beautiful.  Friday was a full day of meeting realtors to view apartments.  FUN! I love the cable program House Hunters International! Now I was living it.  We viewed properties in the tourist area just outside of Old San Juan (where all the cruise ships dock...cobblestone streets, shops and cafe's). After viewing 4 places in Ocean Park/Condado area we had lunch and traveled to the other side of San Juan to the more family oriented, remote area of Dorado. All of these areas are along the Northern Coast of PR. Dorado is a golf course, resort type area on the beach with nice, separate subdivision/developments away from the ocean.  There were pros and cons to both areas we searched; however, being without a vehicle we settled on a place in Condado which is a fast-paced tourist area where we are walking distance to all the essentials: supermarket, restaurants, Walgreens, hospital, and BEACH!  Our wonderful friends, Keli and Brian, have loaned us their extra vehicle for the interim. (GOD STUFF!)
So the first 2 days were postcard weather.  I got David off to the airport amid tears (which began the night before) and rain...lots of rain.  We knew nothing about the impending hurricane, Irene, that was headed our way until we arrived at church Sunday morning. Orders were given out at church for everyone to beware and begin taking precautions for the worst tropical storm/hurricane to hit the island in 12 years!  I simply spoke to my Lord with a bless-ed assurance that He had already prepared me for what may lie ahead among all the unknowns set before us. After our accident last year, and His saving grace toward me and the three kids, I knew we had been spared for such a time as this, whatever the outcome would be.  Brian and Keli were well prepared for the storm and we woke up at 2 a.m. to the raging winds, but very little rain. They say this is common for being in the "eye", which was directly over us.  Generators kicked on as electricity remained out into the rest of the day.  Many parts of the island are still without electricity, but things are back to normal for the most part, except for Hunter and his school. We had taken him to the school Monday morning after the storm had passed only to go back and get him on Wednesday due to school closings in the mountain area where his is located. This has turned out to be a blessing, having him with us as we all live together at Keli and Brians, getting to know one another. Brian likes having a teenage boy around, and good for Hunt :)  Moving in to apartment this weekend!!! Continue to pray for our safety.  A little more "heads-up" is required in the tourist area where we will be living and walking everywhere.  Praying for all of you back home...the daily rains we get and all the green we see everywhere, to come your way. We are literally surrounded by lush, tropical greenery.  Also praying for those along the North Carolina Coast. Our friends, Keli and Brian, are from Carolina with family in the "bulls-eye" of the storm.  Please pray for them as well. 'til later.....

The Storm Coming In...

Wyatt, the Parrot Man!!

After the Rain!

The Best Burger in Town!!!

Our Journey Began at Home

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A birds eye view of our new home!

That's right, God began to show His almighty hand of provision weeks before we arrived in Puerto Rico. Getting plugged-in to a church family was #1 on my priority list, not for what the church could do for us, but for how we might follow and serve the Lord while living in Puerto Rico. Afterall, the baseball opportunity that is being handed to Hunter is only part of the equation, I just know it! While we have yet to see what fruit will come from the level of baseball training and time focused scholarship he will receive, we begain to see God's almighty hand of provision in the most basic way weeks before we arrived in PR. Isn't that how He always works, meeting our most basic needs first? An online search for a protestant church on the island (PR is 95% Catholic) turned up a North Point Baptist Church near the area we would be staying. A quick email to the pastor, informing him of our relocation, put us in touch with Brian and Keli Elkins and their three precious children, Jordan, Jadon, and Jameson. Keli and I formed a friendship online in the weeks leading up to our arrival as she and Brian "adopted" us into their hearts even before meeting us, and now into their home as we have been staying with them while waiting for our apartment in the tourist area of Condado to be ready for move in.  May I be a living witness to the fact that God is indeed a Father to His children who are in Christ, and as such we are brothers and sisters in Christ who need each another in order to serve and build one another up in the body of Christ (Mark 10:42-45). With the breakdown of the family being at the center of all social and national ills, it is refreshing to see God's plan for His family of believers still at work! Thank you Brian and Keli for being the very instruments and strong voice of the Lord in saying, "Come to Puerto Rico Harsh Family!" and as we arrived on your doorstep for dinner the second night here, and continue to visit in your kitchen every morning over breakfast, we continue to hear the Lords voice saying to each of us "BIENVENIDA!" 

As I inferred in the title to this post, His provision began before we even arrived and for those of you who were worried about our safety, being that David will not be with us on a daily basis, Brian is an FBI agent! He's checked out our location, given us pointers on how to be "smart" while living on the island, and provided a first hand account of the similarities and contrasts of what we think we know from television of the role of an FBI agent! :)

Harsh and Elkins Families (little Jameson was asleep)