Trip to Panama!

Panama! Let me tell you about Panama! Wow! What a fun adventure!

So our whole purpose in going to Panama was to be able to attend the temple. Plus the flights and lodging were cheaper there than it would be to travel anywhere else. I will say the MONKEYS were a HUGE added bonus!

 TERMS:

Temple=A beautiful building, that we consider to be the most sacred place on earth. It is more special then a church building. It is dedicated to the Lord. Anyone is welcome to visit the temple, though there are moral and religious requirements/standards necessary to enter.

Ward=Large congregation of members, that attends church service at the same time, and are from the same geographical region. 

The city of Panama is quite the opposite from Saba! Skyscrapers, tons of traffic, several lane roads, business, lots of lights, and signs and people! Haha You get the idea.

We were overjoyed that the apartment complex we were staying in had a Christmas tree! Yay! (We used AirBnB). We arrived on Saturday and attended church on Sunday. The only English service near us was actually right next to the temple! So we were able to walk the grounds as a family, see the Nativity (set up at the church building) and share with the kids why the Temple was so important. 

Monday we enjoyed the city a little bit. There was a park just down the street that had a huge playground, and huge nativity characters. We enjoyed our pool and even got some Dunkin Donuts! Yay!

We made an effort to go back to the park nativity one of the evenings, as it was lit up and beautiful! The kids were in awe! This was the 1^st Christmas lights they had seen this season. I’m really glad we got to go, because it ended up being the only Christmas lights we saw this year. [When we got back to Saba, the power was out across the island. And when the power came back on our car wasn’t working… so we couldn’t drive and see lights, and we didn’t have any. ]

During the week Matthew and I would each take turns going to the temple. While one person was gone, the other person had the kiddos at the indoor play place the apartment complex had. Then we connected with a ward member we had met on Sunday and she offered to have her girls babysit for us! Matthew and I were able to go to the temple a couple times together!

Another day we made it an effort to visit Monkey Island!! I took so many pictures, only to find out that my phone had maxed out on pictures and didn’t save the last bunch I took. But we had monkey’s eating out of our hands! Even Sadie fed the monkeys!

 (We rode on the actual panama canal, and saw some large cargo ships come through!)

Sadie thought the fruit pieces were for her. Just as well. She thinks she is part monkey. 

It was so much fun, being together, as a family, attending the temple after so so long, exploring new places, and letting down our hair after a full semester of hard work.

Christmas & The WiseMan Day

We found a new place to live! This was a tremendous blessing, and the Lord knew where we needed to be when we needed to be there. This new home is significantly smaller, but it’s perfect. It has a yard with turf, and a cement wall. Its further from the road and busy cars, and is significantly safer. I can still walk Hannah to school, or take the kids to the park too. 

Plus, a seriously amazing view!

It was also a miracle and blessing of the timing of the move. We were able to move during Matthew’s last 2 weeks of school, and then we went to Panama for a vacation, while the Landlord was able to purchase a new fridge (it stopped working) and then we came home and had Christmas in our new place with time to go up and clean the old place.

(Sadie was all to helpful while I cleaned the fridge) 

Christmas was wonderful! And many could say quite interesting!

While we were in Panama (don’t worry, that fun post will follow), Matthew and I both felt impressed that Christmas  & Christmas Eve, we should only pull out one or two gifts, and focus those days on the Savior. It helped that we are here and away from the commercial Christmas, and celebrating by ourselves....Not to mention our only Christmas decorations were home-made snow flakes, and a felt Christmas tree taped to the wall.

When we got home from our vacation in Panama we learned the presents we ordered (that were supposed to have arrived 2 weeks before Christmas) still hadn’t arrived, but were due 3 days after Christmas. So we had a Christ-Centered Christmas!

 Christmas Eve we baked a cake so that on Christmas we could ice it and celebrate the Saviors birthday. Then we watched some Mormon.org Bible Videos portraying the story of Christ Birth. Before each segment we told the children the story they were going to watch and after we testified of what we had watched. Then we drew pictures to give to Jesus and put them on our tree. After which we went and got something that was special or important to us, and put it under the tree to give to Baby Jesus for the night. I was touched by the thought that went into these activities and how sincere the kids were.

  (Thomas gave his prized water-bottle, Sadie her shoes that she never wants to take off, Hannah her "baby", Mommy my phone and scriptures, and Daddy his tablet)

Santa had visited some other people on the island (student family who was done with school & leaving) and gathered a few small gifts to give the children. So on Christmas they were able to get those (one each & one to share). Then we finished the cake, sang a very peaceful happy birthday song and celebrated the birth of our Savior. We talked about the presents we gave him the night before, and how the greatest gift of all has been given to us. Then we just spent the day together. It was nice!

Later in the week, we learned that the packages had been delayed yet again, and wouldn’t arrive until January 10^th. So when January 10^th rolled around we had a “Wiseman Day”. We used it as an opportunity to talk about how it took the Wisemen longer to get to the Savior, but that they came bearing gifts.

 Merry Christmas! 

...And Happy Wise-Man Day!