Ecuador Day 29

Well, we have been here for four weeks today. Whoa. On the one hand, we are really antsy to get home for many reasons, most of which I have mentioned here before, so we won't go there again. However, on the other hand, there are benefits of being here and spending so much time together. In addition to the time we get to spend getting to know Flor, we also get to spend all of our time together as a complete family. It's been years (okay, our entire marriage) since Devin and I have spent this much time together. I, for one, am really enjoying it. It has deepened our relationship and has definitely helped us grow closer together. I know this blog isn't meant to be sappy, so we will just leave it at the fact that I love my husband and am so blessed that he is such a good match for me. With him, teamwork is easy, handling the kids is easier, and best yet- we aren't sick of spending time with each other yet (just kidding...!) Our growth as a family is definitely a plus of our time here.

So we hope to be home three weeks from today...we will see how that goes. Things better get moving in order for that to happen! We didn't hear anything today about court, but then again we didn't really expect to. We'll see how the week pans out. Prayers still appreciated.

Today we woke up and saw that it was a nice morning, despite the fact that the weather.com forecast for ten days looks like THIS.

We decided to take advantage of the warmer morning and headed to the Old Town part of Quito with our friend Erin and her daughter Adriana. We made it almost there when Erin got a phone call from our in country rep saying that she needed to meet her in 15 minutes for Adriana's doctor appointment (one of the requirements for getting out of here). So Erin got to take a lovely taxi ride with us and then got to turn around and take one right back. So fun for her.

We pressed on and saw some of the sights of the historical district of Quito. We walked around for two plus hours and saw a lot of fun things. I really enjoy looking at all the buildings, the stores, and people, the street vendors, everything. The old town has little tiny streets, packed buildings, and crowds and crowds of people. Anything you might possibly want to buy can be found in the little shops here. Some examples we saw were wedding dresses, pots/pans, shoes, suits, baby clothes, food, backpacks, Chinese trinket stores, etc. etc. etc. There are also a bunch of traditional little restaurant there where you can eat a whole meal for $1.50. We opted against that as a few of our members have been battling the big D and we have had traditional meals in the last few days, which may have contributed.

We caught a taxi and made it home after about 45 minutes. It was the slowest, longest, priciest, taxi ride yet. I don't know what was going on, but we sat at one red light through three rounds of green before we finally made it through. Traffic was horrible. By the time we got home, it was 2 pm and so the kids were starving and super tired. We fed them a quick lunch and then got them to bed. Devin and I have been watching the series Castle on Netflix during the kids' naps and both of us are getting quite into it. This is a large surprise for me, for as most of you who know me know, I pretty much only watch Reality TV. I actually quite like Castle though! Totally random info...surely you need to know what we are watching. ha. That's the extent of our excitement sometimes around here.

We stayed home all afternoon as the promised rain, along with lightening and thunder, appeared. It was quite the storm. Devin and Hallie did make a little trip to the Maxi (the "Megar-Maxi" as Hallie calls it. She is funny) as we needed a rack to dry our poor clothes. Mission accomplished.

Well here are some pictures from our downtown tour today for your viewing pleasure.

Hallie is really getting into hailing taxi's these days. She is serious about it and does a great job for us.

Here we are in the Presidential Plaza. There was something going on there today for sure as there was a l a large crowed, along with a stage and speakers set up. Someone must have been coming to speak or something. We didn't stick around long enough to find out.

Not the greatest picture, but here is the Presidential Palace.

See what I mean about Flor not liking her picture taken? Little turkey!

This woman was playing the accordion and singing on the street. She was really good! It looked like she was blind also. We gave her a little bit of money. I'm such a sucker for this type of thing. I can't help but feel bad for people and want to help them. We saw another lady later who must have been 80 selling spices on another road. She was crippled and looked like she could not see well either. It always puts things into perspective to consider the lives of others. Don't worry, we bought some spices too.

Another building in one of the main squares.

What a sad, sad Hallie.  She was so tired and ornery at this point, but luckily we found a bon ice man and got a treat! This was our first bon ice of this trip! Definitely needed to be documented, even with a crying child.

The buildings are just so cool. Pink, Blue, Green, Yellow. Colorful!

Wanna take a walk up that road? Looks fun, right?

Old Town is really close to SVP, the main orphanage I worked at as a volunteer here. These hills make me nostalgic for SVP as we would look at them through the big windows there during our shifts. This is another view I have in my mind when I think of Ecuador. I sure do love these place. It has such sentimental value for me. I wish you could all be here to experience it with us.

We passed the Presidential Palace again on our way out and it was heavily guarded, as you can see. Something definitely going on!

Well, another day down. Forward progress this week, we hope!!!