The twelfth seven days

Movin' on up! I'm continuing to share my "happy" moments from the week, inspired by the #100happydays movement.

August 3: This was the day that my mom had to go to the hospital. I'm happy that she didn't have to be admitted, and I'm happy that I was able to go over and take care of her while my dad caught up on sleep. This was the start of a week of abundant food, which was one positive thing about my mom being sick. I got to spend a lot of time with her, and she fed me well. It was nice to have a variety of things to eat instead of toast and sandwiches for every meal.

August 4: Today my first letter from Eduardo arrived, and it included an extra picture! It made me very happy to finally get a letter from him after six months, one week and two days of writing letters, and extra photos are always a blessing. However, I am tremendously burdened to pray for Eduardo....I think he must have some really tough stuff going on in his life. So while I was happy to get the letter, I also felt sad reading it and looking at the picture.

August 5: Much of my happiness this week was food based. Today I left work at 1 and went straight over to my parents' house to sit with my mom. I picked up some fast food on the way, but as a special treat I stopped by the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen and got pie and cookies for my family. The Pie Kitchen is a local chain of stores around my city, and as their name implies, they sell ice cream and pie...and cheesecake and cookies and upside down cupcakes (which have frosting poured over them!) I got peanut butter Reese's cup pie for my mom, chocolate cherry pie for me, and giant football-shaped cookies for my dad and my brother. I hope they liked it! It was nice to have a sweet treat.

August 6: I wasn't feeling too well today, and was happy to settle in with my laptop for a bit and watch some Netflix before Brandon came home and I had to go to work. I started watching the show "19 Kids and Counting" (which started as "17 Kids...") and it made me really happy. I have loved the Duggar family since I first found out about them- before I got married I watched all their specials on TLC, but I only caught their regular show periodically in the little while between its start and the time I got married. I am really enjoying watching the show! It's fun to see what all the Duggars are up to (like meeting Dolly Parton!) but I also think they're a pretty great family. The dad, Jim Bob, is really involved with his family and has a lot of fun with the kids, and is so supportive of them. He also mentors other kids who have lost their dads. Michelle, the mom, is such a peaceful person- she just sounds like someone who should spend all day reading children's books. She's so gentle and loving with all the kids, and even sounds sweet and kind when the kids are being disciplined. Anyway, I had a good time watching that this morning. And then I went out to the mailbox and found letters from Patricia and Jayid!

August 7: Today was my last day with mom for a while, but the happy thing is that the doctor says she is getting better and won't have to be hospitalized or anything for her infection. She can go back to work soon- she has some swelling left over and the pain isn't constant, which is good. I also got my first letter from little Erick today, and my mom got two letters: one from Karen in Nicaragua, and her first letter from Herlan in Bolivia. I want to share Karen's letter here, because it was so pretty:

Hello esteemed sponsor Karen: 

I hope you are in good health together with your beautiful family. I want to thank you for your faithful sponsorship and for the letter that you sent me where I found words of encouragement for my life. 

I want to tell you about the weather in my country. We are in winter. The climate is a little bit cool. The leaves of the trees are green and there are pastures for cows, horses and other farm animals. It is cloudy and the sun does not come out. Nature looks beautiful when the sun is hidden; all is cloudy. The road with ponds and mud; the birds sing in the morning for water. Winter is beautiful. Thank God, the rain is a blessing from God. 

I always pray for you. I ask you to pray for my family to be always together; this is my greatest desire. You are a very important person that God placed to light my path. You cannot imagine how grateful I am. 

I say goodbye to you with love, Karen Nathalia

Last year I did a blog post of waiting kids who had the same names as the members of my Bible study group at the time, and Karen was on there. I'm so glad that my mom decided to be her sponsor! 

August 8: Tonight I went upstairs to try to cool off a bit. Brandon's cousin brought over a window unit air conditioner for us to borrow, and it has been keeping our pets safe and cool in their room. I was trying to get some cleaning done, and the heat was making me feel sick. Anyway, my husband was up there playing with the animals (the rats and the bunny get an hour of playtime every night- not at the same time, though!) and since I went up there, I got to spend some more time with him, and my pets! I cut up the remains of a big cucumber I had bought and took it to the animals, and they really enjoyed it. Seeing my animals happy and being able to provide them with a special treat made me happy. 

August 9: Today was the summer reading finale at work, so it was really busy and crazy. And it was also my last day working with my best friend. Neither of these things make me happy (although it is always nice when SR is over.) However, not long after I got home, our air conditioner was working again!!! It's been out for about a month, and the timing couldn't be better, as it's supposed to be about 100 degrees several days next week. I'm so thankful to have the air again- I can sleep better, we can turn on the lights, and it will be so nice to be comfortable in my own home again. And a big shout out to cousin Wayne for working so hard to fix all three problems our AC unit had, giving up so much of his free time to come do work for us! We'd be lost without him!