In Which I Become Well Acquainted With the Guatemalan Medical System...

Well, then. O.K. I give. I thought I'd learned before that my expectations were just that, mine. But apparently, I'm holding onto them much more tightly than I thought.

We made our plans for yesterday and had quite the to-do list. However, we realized that Shelby needed a trip to the doctor (something minor but that just wouldn't go away) so I thought, OK, we can do this, no big deal. Ahem. Wrong. Around 8 in the morning, we drove to the doctor's (recommended by another missionary). I found out that their hours for the day were 11-12 and then 4-6, so we'd have to come back, and there would be a line waiting. Here's how the rest of the day went:

1. Shelby and I went back at 10 a.m. to wait.
2. The doctor saw us at 11. He was very, very nice, spoke beautiful English, and wanted to run several tests. No problem. Except we'd have to go to the lab.
3. Shelby and I walked a few blocks to find the lab. It was #15A, but there were several #15A's. We found the right one, but I seriously felt like I was in a movie, because it looked like it was someone's house.We communicated in some Spanish, and the nice lady asked us to come back at 2 p.m. No problem.
4. Shelby and I walked (and got lost) and walked and found the Bagel Barn (the cafe and wifi spot I'm at now). We had a sweet time eating bagels with cream cheese and nutella, chatting, playing Webkins, having girl time.
5. Shelby and I walked (and got lost some more) and found the lab again. The nice lady did the necessary tests and sent us away with a request for a stool sample.
6. Shelby and I walked (far) to the Bodegona (grocery) where the boys picked us up. She was such a little trooper and never complained.
7. At 5 p.m., I dropped off the sample. On Saturday morning, I'm supposed to go back to the lab, pick up the results, and take them to the doctor at 4 on Monday for his diagnosis.

Whew. I started to feel sorry for myself and this "wasted" day, until I realized that maybe, just maybe, God had His own expectations for my day, and maybe they were less about doing and more about the gift of time with my girl. Amazing how that changed my perspective!

But wait, there's more....Steve and I took Matt and Ale Watkins and Amber Watkins to dinner to thank them for their help. We had a great time and great food, and headed home around 8. When we got home, we found a very concerned Nancy, because no one had seen or heard from Mike for 2 hours, and he was very late getting home. When she finally reached him, he told her he'd been in an accident on his Moto, but he hung up before giving her the address. Steve, Amber, Nancy,and I jumped into the car and began looking for him. Finally, Nancy got ahold of him, and he was in an ambulance being taken to the hospital. He'd been hit by another moto (someone ran a stop sign) and had broken his ankle in a few places. He had surgery today and will need lots of prayer during his recovery. Pray for Steve, too, as this means he'll be jumping into things sooner!

We had a huge gift today....a team from YWAM had an open afternoon, and so all 8 of them came and started painting our house! It's amazing what a little color will do. They got the downstairs mostly done and started on the upstairs, and saved us so much time. What a blessing God gave us.

In the midst of our tiredness and temptation to yield to frustration (which, oh yes, we have done!), we are reminded that God is very near, is very good, is so trustworthy and gentle with us. This is so real to us now. Keep up the prayers, and we are praying for all of you, too!