breathing deep where the air is thin: dia de las mamas

Just want to be clear here.

"Dia de las Mamas" - is Mother's Day.

"Mamas" also is the word for certain body parts that mamas (and all women) have,

if you know what I'm saying......

It isn't a day for those things.

Being Sunday, we all went to church.

They had roses for all mothers and all those who "mother" others.

They had buckets and buckets of roses.... but being that we are in Ecuador, it really wasn't that extravagant.... considering you can get 2 dozen roses for about $3!

After church we headed home and picked up some cupcakes that I made on Saturday.

Fifty, to be exact.

Yum!

And we headed out to Casa G.

While we were hoping for more, we were pleased that two of the guys' mothers came to our Mother's Day celebration. There were also a few siblings and other family members that came.

After a great lunch, we headed outside for a little "presentation".

They guys gave their mom's little gifts and flowers.

And our kids gave us little gifts and flowers too.

Well, actually, one of my big "kids" gave me my gift!

And then we had cupcakes.

The night before, my friend Karen, whom I haven't seen since our Canadian wedding reception back in 1994, arrive for a two and a half week visit. She is beside me in the brown shirt.

Even though it has been almost 17 years, it feels like we have just picked up where we left off.... so good to see her! And she wasn't even insulted that I didn't stay up to greet her on Saturday night. I was completely exhausted from the last two very busy weeks and just couldn't last, bad friend that I am!

It seemed like everyone had a nice time.

At least I think everyone had a good time....

Not so sure with those faces!

Happy munching.

We had one other very special mother at Casa G. as well.

Phil's parents arrived a few days earlier to do yet another medical missions trip.

These people are amazing.

They were missionaries in Ecuador for years and while they retired a long time ago, they still come back often to do medical trips.

He is a doctor, and is 89 years old. This past summer, soon after we arrived, they came to do one such trip. Even with their age, they took a 8 hour bus ride, followed by a 3 hour canoe ride into the jungle to get to their location (it was a trip that Casa G. also did). Then they stayed in quite primitive conditions for a week or so.

Let me just remind you - he is 89 and I believe she is 87.

I don't know if I have ever met a better example of serving the Lord without excuse.

Extremely impressive people; extremely impressive passion.

We ended our time at Casa G a little earlier than usual as we wanted to play tour guide with Karen. So finally, even though we have lived here for 10 months, we went to Mitad del Mundo - the middle of the world.

Yes, we stood on the equator.

(its about a half hour drive from our house)

And Karen and I.

While we had not actually stopped at Mitad del Mundo, we have driven past it several times and Cade has been quite fascinated with this monument for the last little while.

So he just had to do the I'm-so-strong,-I'm-holding-up-the-globe-on-the-equator picture.

And then of course Lucy needed to do it.

And Mia

And Maddy.

I kept telling Lucy... "Okay, move your hands a little closer together. No, no, not so close. Okay that's too far. That's better, but you have to straighten out your hands......." Finally I just gave up, so it really doesn't look like she is holding anything.

And then poor Maddy, by the time I got to her, I had pretty much given up, so she's not quite getting it either!

They were having a big mother's day celebration there as well, so the place was pretty packed.

They had some live music going on with hundreds of people around enjoying it. Enjoying it here means most people are moving and dancing to it - which I love. So there is this huge crowd of people all moving and dancing. Very fun.

Cade and Lucy decided to get in on the action too.