Alone on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day.

This year will be spent alone as Liz is on a class trip to the Caribbean coast.

So my day is planned with work, workout (alone), order in food (too depressed to cook- actually, i am too lazy to cook for one if it not Mac n' Cheese or a ham sandwich), borrow a movie from a friend, buy a rose & chocolate for myself, talk on the phone for the five minutes (if Liz gets a chance to call), and fall asleep at 5:30pm.

Just thought you might like to know what I am doing today, even though I stayed up till 12:30am this morning because of a poker night at my place with five other guys. It was fun, but I am feeling the tiredness today.

I hope you enjoy your V-day.

Two Celebrations

This past week saw two celebrations which Liz & I attended. I want to share them with you now.

The first was more of a memorial celebration. Ben, husband of Sarah, lost his mother on December 29th to throat cancer. They had the burial & service in the States. Ben's mother had worked here at CNG for many years, and it is customary for CNG to hold a service for those served here. The service was on Thursday and was attended by a good amount of people. It was amazing to see all of these people from around the world share their memories about Linda. I met Linda one time at a dinner and had the pleasure of sitting next to her. The memorial service was a sweet celebration of a life lived and an educator remembered.


The second celebration was a wedding service. Actually the wedding already took place in England this past summer, but the bride's family was not able to attend at the time. So the newlyweds had a celebration to honor their wedding for their Colombian family. This was a very international event as people from 3 continents were at the party. Liz & I had the privilege of praying for our friends i the service. Liz prayed in Spanish & I prayed in English.

We celebrate life & love everyday. I just wanted to share a couple of moments with you that meant a lot to both Liz & I as well as to Ben, Sarah, Anthony & Maria.

"Corre! Corre!"

"Corre! Corre!"

This is what I hear as I am running towards the edge of a cliff with a man a quarter of my height strapped to my back. I am wearing a helmet that pay homage to a boy who flew to close to the sun only to have his wings melt and plummet to his death. I see the cliff edge, I see the tree that will make its mark, and all I want to do is sit down.

"Corre! Corre!"

So I run. I run because I know I will not be the champion standing if I meet the tree. I run because that cliff is coming close & I want to survive. So I run. It is against every instinct in man to run off a cliff, especially with a "little person" strap to one's back. I am praying. I am singing ("I believe I can fly"). I just remembered that I needed to go to the bathroom.

"Corre! Corre!"

And I am off. My feet are not on the ground. I am above the ravine being lifted up by a midget who is holding on to a handful of strings attached to a "parachute" not big enough to use as a cover at night. But we are flying/floating over the Andes. It was beautiful. This was a birthday present given by my wife in conjunction with a b-day gift to Andres by his wife. Ben was also there for the fun of it. The three of us enjoyed roughly a 40-50 minute flight of Para-penting, basically hang-gliding with a parachute. My "driver" Jose gave me a great ride of swinging, swooshes, and the mother of all swirly spirals that left me speechless & my wife thinking I was going to die.

It was awesome. It is better that any roller coaster I have every been on in my life. It was tranquil, peaceful, & acrobatic all in one. I think the spectators even enjoyed my ride. But, it was good to return to earth. I know now why God didn't give men wings & why we call Earth "Mother." I look back now & see what I have done in the past couple weeks. One week ago, I was diving in the Pacific petting tortugas & swimming with eels. Now I am soaring with eagles & seeing man's creation nestled in God's work. Amazing!!!

I feel that I will not have this opportunity again. Better yet, I know that I will not have this type of opportunity again, but I will have other adventures before me. I have a child on the way, & eternity to live in a paradise much better than this one here today. I know that I will strive to always make the most of life. That is the way I can truly worship Him, the One who created this place.

All I can do today is...

"Corre! Corre!"

Parapente Pics

So here is the deal. I only wrote about my story below. I need to add in Andres & Ben's story too. But first, the pics. Top & Bottom: Me para-penting with Jose. Ben, Andres, & Myself after our flights. Jose Norberto & Me.

Andres went first & stayed up in the air for 45-50 minutes. He didn't wave as he passed by, and his hands were the color of a new-born baby's skin. Why? Because he was holding on for dear life. He had an event ride and loved every minute of it. It did seem that he had problems landing, but he finally made it to the ground intact. He gave it a 10 out of 10. This was coming from a man who flew in helicopters in the Marines.

Then it was my turn. It had the amusement park version of the ride. I gave it a 9.5 because the seat seemed a little small for my legs.

Ben followed and came back calling the ride lame. Now let me preface. All of us are adventurers and enjoy a thrill. Ben went up and went out for about 45-50 minutes of sight-seeing. What he really wanted to do was take the parachute & camping gear and go exploring the land where vehicles cannot go. Ben gave it an 8 out of 10.

I personally agree with Ben. That would be a fun time to fly & camp. It would be like a poor man's Star Trek show or like Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. However it is not to be until we take ten weeks training and shell out around $5,000 bills to put this together.

All in all, it was a great day. I hope you enjoy the pics & I hope you have a chance to do something like this in the future with some friends.

Baby Carter at 12 weeks

Well, here is our little one and we are so thankful:). We know that unless you are a doctor or have had a baby in the last few years, these pictures are either completely impossible to make out or kind of scarey. But, just so you know, he/she is 6.7 cm long, has 10 fingers and 10 toes, two arms, two legs, both hemispheres of the brain, a heart, liver, bladder, stomach....all of the important parts in these little pictures...hard to believe, huh? Alan had not seen the baby for 6 weeks, and man was he surprised at the change. He/She is also very active...jumping around and waving Hi to us. We also think we might have seen prt of the male genitalia:) Enjoy the pictures and thank you so much for your prayers- we are all feeling very blessed and healthy! We are quite speechless...God is the awesome creator!!