Happy Birthday, Heidi!

Yes, it's Heidi's birthday today and where is she? Working at the Hospital Buen Samaritano.

We feel pretty fortunate that she was able to go today. It wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion yesterday.

We took Steve and Justin to the airport yesterday morning. Martin had fixed our truck the night before and it was running great.... until we got about 1/4 of the way to the city. Then it started to smoke again and the maximum rpms we could get from the engine dropped to 3000. Then 2500. Then 2000. By the time we got to Guatemala City, we were limping along at a maximum of 1800 rpms. Any of you who drive stick shifts know that this is a major problem!

So we didn't even get as far as the airport. We basically coasted into the Mazda dealership and called a cab to take us to the airport. When the maintainance guy initially wrote up the work order, he scheduled the work for today. We told them that that was no good - that we lived four hours away, needed to be back that night, and had nowhere to stay in Guatemala City anyway.

So the maintenance guy called his boss, who gave him permission to try to get us in that day. We needed to cool our heels for the day and call back at 4pm to see if we were going to get to go home or have to look for a hotel.

Heidi had already missed two days at Buen Samaritano to go to Zona Reyna and was not too excited about missing another, but we put the job in God's hands and prayed for an easy, cheap, and fast repair job.

Then we jumped in the cab with the boys, dropped them off at the airport, and went to our OB appointment. We were about two hours early there, so we had breakfast at McDonald's (YEA!), walked around some, and then got seen by our doc.

Remember that the last time we went, some of Isaac's measurements were not coming out just right. This time we saw the specialist, who confirmed that the measurements are still not exactly what we'd like to see, but are closing the gap and he was completely unable to find any more signs of trouble - and he looked for about 30 minutes. So please continue your prayers for Baby Isaac. God has limitless power and we pray that He will use this power to give us a perfect, healthy baby.

Anyway, the rest of the day found us looking at baby clothes in three of the very modern shopping malls in town, playing air hockey, eating ice cream, and basically enjoying each others' company - alone for the first time in a month - and nearly the last time until Isaac (and whatever brothers or sisters he has) move out of the house about 40 years from now. Well, hopefully not QUITE that long!

We called the Mazda dealership around 4pm, as directed, but got an "out of service" message on the phone. Not good news. So we hopped another cab out there to see what was going on. No power. (Welcome to Central America.) The maintenance guy told us they were working on our truck (good news), but couldn't get any of the parts they needed without electricity (bad news). So with a little more praying, the lights came on, they finished the truck, and we were on our way home for less than $100.

The truck made it all the way back home without any problems. It may sound like a weird request to you, but please keep our fuel system in your prayers. Being stranded in some of the places we drive to would not be fun.

Please also pray for Heidi's health today. She's starting to pick up the cold Matt had earlier this week. Matt kicked it in three days, but Heidi's luck doesn't usually work that way. She could be sick for weeks...

Tomorrow is clinic at ASELSI and Carrie comes in to help us prep for three straight weeks of teams. We're looking forward to having so many energetic and spirit-filled people here, but it does certainly affect the tranquility that usually surrounds our house (like a baby won't, right?). Guess we'll have to get used to a little different noise level for...well...at least 18 more years!