~Our trip to Uruguay Part 1~

PLEASE PRAY!! 
Phillip has been given the privilege to speak to the Chinese youth Sunday (TOMORROW!) afternoon.  
He will be talking in Spanish (not his native language) and then another man will be translating from Spanish (not his native language either) into Mandarin for the Chinese.  
We want God to be Glorified!  Thank you!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
THANK YOU for praying for my unspoken request and for our trip to Uruguay to renew our Argentine visas.  God helped us....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here's part 1 of our trip to Uruguay.
 ~On the Saturday before we left...I made 180 or so Oatmeal Raisin cookies and took them to church on Sunday to share with the Chinese Church after lunch.  (We always eat lunch together after church at the Chinese church.  =)
Everyone seemed to enjoy them and were very grateful that I had made them.
(I have a small oven here, with only one rack, so the cookies were baked 12 to 16 at a time. =)~

RUSHING OFF TO URUGUAY!
~After having a water problem last weekend, on Monday we were catching up on washing the laundry, and getting things ready so we could leave ON TUESDAY for our trip to Uruguay.
Only to find out at 5:00 P.M. ON MONDAY NIGHT...that it was much cheaper to LEAVE THAT NIGHT!  
So, we quickly got into gear, threw things together and left our house just a few hours later headed on our "vacation!"  
I put vacation in quotation marks, for most people's vacation doesn't involve as much effort or STRESS to make it happen...but Jesus helped us and gave us strength!  =D

 ~Here's what I mean by STRESS AND EFFORT!  

We left our house at 9:00 P.M. hauling all of our things and:
1. walked to find taxis,

2. took 2 taxis for 10 blocks, 

3. then a train ride for 45 minutes, 

4. Hauled all our things and walked 10 more blocks to the boat,

5. then got on the boat at 11:15 PM and rode that for 3 hours, 

6. Got off, went through customs in Uruguay around 3:00 A.M.

7. Then got on a bus at 3:12 A.M., and rode for 2 hours...finally arriving in Monte Video , Uruguay at 5:15 A.M.  

8. We then sat in the bus station for over an hour waiting for it to get light outside, then took 2 taxis to TRY to find our hotel where we stayed last time.

Whew! It was quite the race, but Jesus helped us!!!

Before we left Argentina, Phillip couldn't find the business card from the hotel where we stayed last time (it's been since December 2011 and THREE countries / THREE moves ago, so I'm NOT surprised we couldn't find it! =)  

He couldn't remember the name of the hotel, nor the name of the road,  he just could remember that it was in downtown Monte Video, Uruguay.  

So, while still in Argentina, Phillip googled and found where he THOUGHT the hotel was.

Once we got to Uruguay Phillip had the 2 taxi drivers take us to the corner where 2 streets met, knowing the hotel was sort of close and we could walk from there.

Wouldn't you know we girls arrived first, and we were RIGHT IN front of the right hotel.  

Praise the Lord!  

(Phillip was pretty happy with Jesus and himself for finding it on Google.  =)

~Here we are in the 45 min. train ride headed to the boat.~

~In the boat.~

~Phillip took some of the kids up to the top of the boat.~

Since we got on the bus at 3:12 A.M...I didn't get any pics of the 2 hour bus ride!
~Here we are inside the bus station in Uruguay, at 6:30 in the morning.  The kids are eating yogurt and granola for their "breakfast" before we left to go find the hotel.~

Once we got to the hotel it was only 8:15 in the morning.  I was SO AFRAID that they would say we couldn't get a room until 11:00.  But, THANK THE LORD...they let us get into our rooms right then!!!!
So, since I was BEYOND EXHAUSTED (for I barely slept on the boat or bus) I laid down and slept until 1:30 P.M.  Thankfully, The kids fell asleep in their room too. =)
Then we got up and went in search of some LUNCH!!!
~We were happy to find this restaurant right down from our hotel.  ~

~Then while Phillip found a place to exchange money, I took the kids to this park.~

~Most of the time we ate in Uruguay type restaurants to enjoy the culture, but we did eat at McD's once or twice. =) ~

~One evening we went to a restaurant for I wanted to drink some tea and the fam wanted to enjoy a little treat.

Kimberly and Sarah saw "Apple strudel" on the menu, and asked us if they could split a piece.  (The younger kids enjoyed hot chocolate and rolls.~

~Here's K and S's apple strudel and coffee.  I got a slight taste of the strudel and it was DELISH!!! (The little glasses of orange juice were "on the house!") ~

~Since I'm trying to include a lot of FRESH veggies in my diet, My sweetheart went shopping and brought me all kinds of fresh veggies to our hotel room.  So I made this big salad for baby and my breakfast. (We did share some with the fam, for it was quite the LARGE salad!) ~

~We bought fresh fruit and yogurt and enjoyed breakfast in our hotel room each morning.~

~Our hotel wasn't anything fancy, but it was nice and clean.~

~Kimberly and Sarah.~

~We were happy to find this FUN SALAD FOR TWO at that nearby restaurant.
This salad was sort of funny, compared to American salads.   
There was cooked rice, cooked diced potatoes, a couple spoonfuls of mayo, peas, corn, sandwich ham, a tad of cheese, onions, red peppers, palm hearts, boiled eggs, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, grated carrots, and they brought us extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the dressing. =)
It was very filling, and yummy, and perfect for Phillip and I, and one day K and S shared one too.~

~Our younger kids enjoyed toasted cheese. =) ~

~The whole fam. =) ~

Part 2 of our Uruguay trip coming up.

1. PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR PHILLIP TOMORROW AS HE SPEAKS TO THE CHINESE YOUTH.
2. PLEASE PRAY FOR SOME CONTACTS IN URUGUAY THAT PHILLIP TALKED TO ABOUT JESUS.  THEY SEEMED SO RIPE FOR THE GOSPEL.
ONE ELDERLY MAN SAT THERE WITH HUGE TEARS IN HIS EYES WHILE PHILLIP TALKED TO HIM ABOUT JESUS LOVING HIM.