Today marks the end of our first month in El Salvador.  As I am writing this I am actually sitting on our couch! We have been living in our new place without furniture for the past few weeks so it’s nice to have a place to sit down again! This week has been very productive so far. Our container arrived yesterday with the things from our house that we packed back in July. The kids were so excited to see their toys and furniture. We are now surrounded by boxes but hopefully we’ll be done unpacking soon! Our garage is also filled with donations for El Salvador. So many of you were so generous to donate everything ranging from clothes to bikes to medical equipment. The donations are going to orphanages and a rural medical clinic. Thank you so much! The teenage guys from La Casa de mi Padre (My Father’s House) helped us unload yesterday. Our teammates from YWAM El Salvador came and helped as well. It was such a blessing to have so much help. I definitely felt some homesicknesses when I was unpacking – missing my old kitchen, my old house, and my old neighborhood. But I am glad to be getting settled here and making Final Calle Arturo Ambrogui home!

We also are very blessed to have been able to have our paperwork for residency accepted. We spent a big part of today at the immigration office getting things in order to get residency here in El Salvador. This is a long process, but things actually went incredibly smoothly for us. Amazing and definitely and answer to prayers! So, we are officially residents of El Salvador! It’s all part of the process of making San Salvador home.

After a month there are many things that are very different about El Salvador that we are still getting used to…roosters crowing at 4am, the lady coming down the street selling bread around 5 each day yelling “Pan! Pan!”…putting bars on our truck to keep from getting dinged in traffic…our lights not working half the time…fireworks going off all night to celebrate Christmas. Reflecting on our first month also leaves us with many things to be grateful for…God providing us with the finances we need to do this…travel and immigration going incredibly well…great kids who have shown themselves to be more patient and flexible than us…new things to laugh at each day…Salvadorans who are the warmest and most welcoming people I’ve ever met…every morning waking up not knowing what adventures we will face. We are definitely looking forward to finding many more things to be thankful for in the coming months.