Get ready to laugh...

So this morning we went with my friend Mariselle and her daughter to a store to look for some things for Bree and Gabe's birthdays (which are coming up in a couple weeks!). I was at the checkout counter when I look over to see our cart go crashing to the ground!! I caught a little bit of it which hopefully took away some of the blow, but yes, it landed on Bree and Gabe hit the ground. The next few moments were like slow motion... I reach down and pull out Gabe who of course is crying...the woman behind us in line (who had already saved me when Gabe almost grabbed and dropped a bottle of wine while we were waiting to check out!) keeps reaching for Gabe like she would hold him, but speaking in Spanish that isn't registering at all...I'm kneeling on the ground and reach over and pull in Bree with my other hand, who is also crying...sweet Mariselle is kneeling next to me helping pick up my wallet and purse and stuff that has fallen...and what do I do? Normally I'm pretty sure I would just comfort my children, gather up our things and smoothly and calmly pay and leave. But no, I start crying!! Seriously, it wasn't even embarrassing, it was just plain pitiful. And now really quite funny. Three poor Americans sitting on the floor crying. Oh I can just picture it. And the sad thing was I couldn't stop! We got up, I looked at the cashier who was also almost crying herself and said, "Lo siento" (I'm sorry). We started walking out and one of the guys who works at the store had a plastic frozen bottle of soda and told me it was for Gabe's head. I learned this the other day when we were at our other friend's house, I guess in Costa Rica if someone hits their head they need ice. Ya, like Gabe is going to let someone put ice on his head :) But I said gracias and he put the bottle up to Gabe's head which lasted all of five seconds. It was a sweet gesture though. Then as we walked out of the store another man ran after us and told me to make sure to put ice on his head. Maybe they thought it was swollen? No, my child just has a large head thank you. And yes, all this time I am still crying. (Gotta love this time of the month.)

Needless to say I was completely at a loss for words. English or Spanish.
At least I can laugh about it now :)

Here are a few highlights from the last two weeks...our first two weeks in Costa Rica: Here we have Mary and Joseph in the stable in our Christmas Eve Nativity reinactment. It was going well until Joseph decided to tear down the stable, which didn't make Mary very happy. They were sweet though, and Bree just loved singing Christmas carols this year! Since our children were still on eastern time (and still are!!) they arose around 5:00 AM Christmas morning...when Robbie went in to try and tell Bree she needed to go back to sleep she said, "Did Santa come yet dad?" Robbie said, "I think so..." and Bree said, "Oh good cause he's bringing toys for me and Gabe since we don't have any." She meant in Costa Rica...and it was true, I guess I thought she'd be fine without toys for a few months...but that broke our hearts and so under the tree Santa had written a note to them that said, "You get to go with your parents to pick out one new toy!" Since she hadn't told Santa what she wanted he didn't know :)
Funny thing though, Christmas morning she went past the gifts straight to the stockings (which were Robbie's dress socks!) And I was just grateful that she was excited about the fruitsnacks and fruit roll-ups that were in it! After a fun breakfast and morning our neighbors invited us over for Christmas lunch. The traditional meal for Christmas day is Tamales... and mmmmm were they good! It was so fun being with someone's family for Christmas (they had their aunt, mother, brother and his family and over)! It was a definately a different but memorable Christmas :)
The day after Christmas we rented a car and drove 1/2 hour to San Jose for the Tope! This is a traditional horse parade that happens every December 26th in several cities in Costa Rica. But the one in the capital, San Jose, is the biggest and horses from all of the coutry come! See the horses behind Robbie and Bree? That was before the parade started, once it started the street was FILLED with horses! It was crazy! We couldn't believe the horses didn't go crazy being so close together! And sidenote, if any of you ever plan on traveling in Costa Rica here is a tip...there are NO road signs! Even on the highways! Robbie did an AMAZING job navigating our way there and back home. I was so impressed with his sense of direction because it was crazy! On our way back we stopped in a town called Belen (which means Bethlehem) where the temple is located. There is a church right next to it. It was such a welcomed sight. We actually went to church there the next day (since we couldn't find the one close to us in Alajuela where we are going to go). Afterwards, we stopped to get dinner, our first time out to eat and oh so yummy! Bree LOVED dipping her chips in the black beans... delic! This is gallo pinto, the famous Costa Rican breakfast meal. (Beans and rice with eggs :) It was yummy too! Not like out of this world you gotta have it today yummy, but really good. Sunday after church we went for a walk around Incae (that is the business school Robbie is doing his exchange with) and outside of campus a little bit. Here we're walking up the hill just before our house, which is down at the end on the right. The flowers here are amazing!! Seriously, florescent pinks, oranges, purples, bright yellows... my favorite! I am such a flower person that just seeing these makes me so happy :) And remember how I said there are ants everywhere? Well, perhaps it's because they don't have ant hills, they have ant mountains! But we are really surrounded by such beauty :)


Onto week two: Here's just a funny picture, I had peeled this cucumber to slice for a snack for our trip to the beach and had set it down for a second and next thing I know she says, "Look mom! I have a cucumber popsicle!" We took a day trip out to a beach called Punta Leona. The drive out to the coast goes up, through, and down these huge mountains... it wasn't too bad except that poor Bree got super car sick and threw up all over on the way there! But, that didn't stop us, neither did a few wrong turns (which made a 1 1/2 hour trip into a 3 hour trip!), it was all worth it! We still had plenty of time to swim, and Gabe even made a friend (the little boy on the left just loved Gabe and played with him for a while! It was so cute!). The water was perfect and we hope to go back again soon! I'm just grateful my husband has converted to being a beach lover (thanks to our trip to Topsail in North Carolina!!)... being the cowboy mountain man that he is it took me three years in NC to get him to the beach there, but once he went now he loves the beach! A few days later we visited the Zoo that is just down the street from us. It was way more pricey that we expected :( but it was neat to see new animals, and even have them walking down the sidewalk with us! (Bree wanted to pet that peacock so badly!) We saw such neat birds, crocodiles, monkeys, and the huge iguanas that are all over we've heard.
Gabe was so good to sit in his stroller the whole time :) He couldn't see much, but was entertained anyway! We just LOVED having daddy all to ourselves the entire two weeks! (I was secretly happy that our internet didn't get set up until Saturday because then every evening was like date night!) We are definitely feeling settled and happy and we'll just see what happens once Robbie starts school tomorrow! Oh and we went to our ward today... SO GREAT! The people there are just the sweetest and everyone kept coming up to Bree and Gabe and holding their cheeks and kissing them. Gabe was eating it up, Bree wasn't so sure at first. The funny thing is there aren't any other little kids Bree's age so there isn't a nursery, but there are several kids like 5 and up. So they just have one big primary class and Bree was just right there with them! There was a little group of girls who were all like 7 and 8 who just gathered around Bree and were so sweet. She loved it :) I asked her what they did and she said they played games and sang songs, but she didn't sing because she didn't know those Spanish words :) Hopefully we will soon! Pura Vida!

Hola! We have been waiting since Monday for them to come set up our internet...so we haven't had too much access. Once we have it in our home I hope to be better about posting! But here I am and welcome to the grand tour of the Harmon casita. We love it! The back of our house faces the road, so as you walk from the road you come around to walk up onto our porch then into the door and you see this. Next to the door are some double doors that also open if you want. You look to the left and you have our kitchen. Tons of counter and cupboard space compared to Baity Hill!! Beyond the kitchen is the little laundry room. Here you see all our clothes nicely hung after the first time I did the laundry... and waited two days for the them to dry and then noticed they were stinky :) Now we have a clothes line to hang them outside and I am much happier :) Then you look to the right and see this nice familiy room. A little couch, couple of chairs, desk and a book shelf. PLUS a white board on the wall to write up our Spanish words! Directly up the stairs is our bathroom with a sink and shower... and warm water for the first one who showers, or for no one if we have done some laundry already :) On the right side is the kid's room and on the left side is our room. All the floors are tile (which is easier to clean up after meal messes than carpet!) and with this nice weather our windows are open day and night. Costa Rica just finished with the rainy season (where it rains every day!) and now the dry season is brought in with about a month of breeze and sunshine. Then in February it gets a lot hotter. But the major humidity shouldn't set in until late summer. So we timed this just right! We are at the end of a cul de sac with the playground right next door :) and have some GREAT neighbors! Just a five minute walk up the hill is the main campus with an exercise room, the pool, and the buildings where Robbie will have classes starting next week. The campus is all gated in with security guards in several places, so we feel so safe.

I just want to quickly say how incredible Jesika has been since arriving in Costa Rica. She has learned how to make delicious (and nutritious) meals with very different resources. She made Christmas memorable for everyone, despite being thousands of miles away from family and friends and a bazillion things going on for weeks beforehand. She is full of faith. She is determined to learn Spanish (writing down words she hears during the day and looking them up at night). The list goes on. She's beautiful...she's sweet...and she's mine, all mine! I love it!

Wow. Wow wow wow pretty much sums it up so far. As of December 22nd our home is here in Costa Rica. While I admit it hasn't all been a perfect happy vacation in paradise, there are some definite perks: The weather is perfect...cool in the evenings and sunny with a touch of humidity in the day time. We're surrounded by gorgeous greenery with bright beautiful flowers. We have a pool up the street, a nice little house all to ourseves with a playground literaly next door, and Robbie doesn't start school for another week still!! Bree LOVES getting to wear dresses and skirts any time she wants without leggings underneath :) I will be happy when Gabe starts walking though since all of the floors everywhere are tile...not super clean for a crawling child. Yes we have found all sorts of fun surprises in his mouth! But I think with all of the craziness of having a Christmas Dance concert with the four dance classes I taught all last semester, being in charge of our ward's Christmas activity, moving out of our apartment and putting all of our stuff in storage and saying good-bye to people and a place we have loved living for almost four years, oh ya and preparing for Christmas, I didn't get to properly prepare myself for this trip... let's just say there have been lots of surprises. Having been on a mission I was prepared to be discouraged about not knowing the language...but I knew I would hate not being able to speak and that I am going to learn, so that bit of frustration was to be expected. BUT, there are a few other things that have thrown me for a loop: Like our clothes take two days to dry (on a line) and if they aren't drying in direct sunlight they start to stink...it gets light at 5:30 AM and so both my kids are up then no matter how late we but them in bed...our legs are covered with mosquito bites...big red ants everywhere, especially in the grass... I can't find whole wheat pasta or flour anywhere :( ... and while we are grateful to have a stove I didn't think about how long it takes to make food, and warm things up without a microwave! :) All week I have just been waiting to go to church, knowing that with all of the unfamiliar, crazy transitions into a new culture at least I could go to church and feel that same familiar spirit, even if I couldn't understand what they were saying. I failed to remember however, that I have an 11 month old son, who can't sit still and won't stay in Sacrament meeting, Sunday School or Relief Society or Priesthood for more than about ten minutes!! (this was the age that with Bree I seriously questioned why I even went to church!!) Ah yes, and the halls in the churches in Costa Rica are tile and echo his sounds nice and loud. Robbie took him out during Sacrament meeting so during Sunday school it was my turn. I walked outside with him and almost broke down. The worse part about all of these "new things" was that it was causing me to have little to no patience with my children...and I really don't like that feeling. I wanted more that anything to pick up a phone and call someone...my mom, my dad, my sisters or brothers, in-laws, friends...ANYONE! But as has happened two other distinct times in my life when I have felt utterly alone and completely helpless, I knew that my Heavenly Father wanted me to talk to him. He wanted me to reach deep inside and let him help me grow from this experience. I plead with him to help me and asked forgiveness of my bad attitude. I hate even admitting all of this...because I feel like I am usually an optimistic person ready to take on any challenge life throws. But I know that the only way to learn and grow is through trials and challenging things. So I should be grateful right :) I came home and wrote down ways that I could overcome the little difficulties I was facing and goals for learning Spanish. I KNOW that I am going to learn so much here in these three months and that it's going to fly by and I'm going to love it. I'd better take advantage cause I'll never have this chance again! So, Pura Vida baby in Costa Rica :) Bring it on.

And don't worry, I will post pictures soon! This place is amazing!!

The older Gabe gets the more fun it is to watch him and Bree together. They seriously love each other so much! I love that since he is bigger and can crawl and stand up he can take it when his sister tries to pick him up (and kind of drops him), or when she plays a little too hard...now he just laughs! And then they both just start laughing so hard! I don't think there are many more beautiful sounds to a mother than hearing her children laughing together (well the soft silence when they are sleeping is pretty sweet too :)! And they get a kick out of the funniest things...

And then I had to add some of Gabe's latest: I was doing Bree's hair and I looked down and saw this! And I just discovered what was happening to the sides of the crib (notice the scrape marks!). All because of these bad boys! For some strange reason both of my children get their bottom two teeth, then the top side two BEFORE the middle two! And it happened for both of them right before Halloween. We should have dressed them up as vampires I guess!

If life is this fun with two, I can't imagine what it will be like with twelve! I'm kidding :)

First, I'll warn you that the picture with this post is pretty graphic. So shield your eyes if you have a weak stomach! We have had quite an eventful couple of weeks here in the Harmon family. It started two weeks ago on a Wednesday after Gabe went in for his 9 month check up. He has always been great at the doctors, but this time he hated everything she did...which she said was normal for kids this age (and Bree always hated the doctor) so I wasn't worried. He got especially worked up when he saw them coming in for his flu shot, but quieted down after they left. We came home, started having lunch, and after a few bites he just stared crying and shaking terribly. I got him out of his high chair and thought maybe he was tired, a tooth hurt, something that ordinarily bothers a small child. So I tried putting him down for a nap. After sleeping for maybe 20 minutes he awoke, but when I went in he still had his eyes closed and was crying and making these grunting sounds like something seriously hurt. My sister Lizzy was in town visiting (oh how I love you sister!!) and was taking a nap, as was Bree, so I tried to calm him down. But no matter what I did he was inconsolable. I tried taking him outside, walking in the halls, playing with toys, nothing helped. Whether I was holding him or if he was laying down it was the same crying in pain. So after a couple of hours I called Robbie who came home and gave him a blessing and I took him back to the doctors. He calmed down a little bit, but was still doing that grunting like he couldn't really breath thing. She checked him out and just said we'd have to give it a little time to see what it could be. He didn't have a fever or anything so she just gave me her cell phone and said call her if anything changed. Well, he ate ok that night and actually slept. Then Thursday he was fussy, but ate and napped and acted semi-normal. We had planned to head to Jacksonville, FL for my best friend Laura's wedding, and since he was doing better (and it was my best friend's wedding!) we took off. It was an 8 hour drive, and we planned to leave before dinner so the kids would sleep at least half of the drive. Well, it would have been a good idea except that our poor little boy cried 3/4ths of the way! No matter if I was holding him or if he was in his car seat it was that same pained crying. We got to the hotel around midnight and after getting Bree in bed Robbie told me that he was taking Gabe out (since there was no way any of us could sleep with him in the room crying) to calm him down. I argued that he had just driven the whole way so I should take him, but his adamant comeback was that since I was in the wedding, I had to look refreshed so I needed the sleep. I reluctantly went to sleep and woke up at 6:00 and Robbie and Gabe still weren't back?! I went out of the room, looked around, had no idea where they would be, then saw he had sent me a message...the sweet hotel manager had let them use another room for the night for free! So I went down there and sweet Gabe was still whimpering, kind of asleep and Robbie said he had slept for only maybe an hour! We decided he would call our doctor and take Gabe to the ER and then when Bree woke up she and I would head down there. Then I heard nothing for two hours! I was dying. Then Robbie came back in! His phone had died, but Gabe had fallen asleep in the car so he drove around to let him sleep and thought he would get us before he headed to the ER. Well, it was better that he hadn't gone to the hospital that was close by, because we found out that there was a Mayo Clinic (one of the best hospitals in the country) ten minutes away. It was good we went in the morning because we got right in. The sweetest, funniest doctor checked him out and decided to do an X-ray....and thank heavens he did!! Our sweet little boy had a hole in his diaphragm! A diaphragmatic hernia. Apparently it is congenital (he was born with it) and they usually only see this in infants. Gabe's must have been so small that it didn't effect him (he's grown quite nicely up till now!) but over time his stomach must have put pressure and pushed his insides up making the hole larger. Basically, his small intestine was up inside of his chest cavity. I asked the doctor how we could fix it and he said surgery. Ya, I lost it. My sweet little boy can't have surgery! Well, to make this super long post a little shorter, they suggested we do the surgery when we got back to Chapel Hill. We stayed for the wedding (Laura was GORGEOUS! The wedding was so picturesque on the beach! And Bree was the cutest little flower girl!), even though it meant that Robbie was in the hotel room with Gabe a lot of the time and when they weren't Gabe just looked awful. The only thing worse that all the pain my son was in was that all these people who had never met my family didn't even see Gabe smile once! Nor did they get to be around my wonderful husband. The miracle of it all though was Laura's uncle who was there is a chiropractor. After we got back from the ER he did a couple of adjustments on Gabe that he said moved his stomach down, decreasing the pressure. Gabe actually slept better that night and though he was clearly in pain the next day, wasn't crying near as much. We did take off Saturday right after the wedding ceremony to drive home, and Gabe slept most of the way, which I think was also a blessing from above because the moment we got home at 3:00 AM he started crying again. I stayed up with him this time (Robbie had been amazing the whole Jacksonville trip) and after three hours I called my doctor. She suggested we take him into the hospital now (he wasn't scheduled to meet with the surgeon until Monday) and she called ahead to let them know we were coming. They scheduled him for emergency surgery on Monday and said he couldn't eat anything until then. The poor thing had hardly eaten anything the past three days so it hurt me to see him in pain and starving! All of Monday he was so miserable, but past the point of caring. He was just limp and so sad. He finally went in at 5:30 PM the next day. As Robbie and I handed him off to the surgical team we felt so much peace and that everything would be ok. (Gabe pooped right as we handed him off and Robbie was proud that his son would have a surprise waiting for them :) 2 1/2 hours later the surgeon came out and said everything went as well as it could have. As you can see in the picture they stitched up the hole (top right). The bottom left is the small intestine that they had to pull out of his chest cavity (bottom right is the actual hole). Dr. Lange told us that she was able to do it all laparoscopically, with just four small incisions. We found out later that she was known for trying if possible to do surgeries this way so that the recovery is better and there is less scaring...even if it takes longer. So even though poor Gabe had to wait almost 48 hours to get into surgery, it was a blessing to be the last one of the day so that she could spend that time. I only write this much detail for my family history purposes (since this blog acts as a sort of family journal), but because of all the detail, as I am writing this I am overwhelmed at the place God's hand had in everything. We were so blessed! From Laura's uncle being their to ease some of Gabe's pain, to my sweet daughter who was SO good through this all, even with so much attention being on her brother and not on her, to having energy on such little sleep, friends who were so willing to help out while we were in the hospital for four days, to family member's prayers, to my mom being able to come out, to a pediatrician who was always on call (oh she felt so bad!! She started crying when she came to see us at the hospital!), to having just the perfect surgeon and getting in at just the right time...the list goes on. If something like this has to happen what a blessing to know that God cares. And if he doesn't take the burden away, he will make it seem lighter AND make you strong enough to carry it. I don't think I have felt this loved before. Really. SO many people have been SO wonderful. I have never felt so much power and strength from the prayers of others. Thank you everyone who was there for us. And I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who cares about us so much that he lets us experience things that will make us stronger. And it's only in recognizing his hand that we see how blessed we truly are. Gabe is doing so well now and I am SO happy to have my happy little boy back!! Don't worry, my next post will be happy pictures of Gabe!