Reflections

Sarah: Reaching the 30-year old mark is a crazy milestone. I've thought about my 20s a lot recently and realized how much happened in these 10 years. So to say goodbye to my 20s, here is my list of 20 (big) things that happened in the last decade of my life:

1. Graduation from Northwestern College in Orange City, IA, with a major in Spanish, minors in Cultural Anthropology and Religion, a Career Concentration in missions, and a Coaching Endorsement
2. 1 month spent in Taiwan
3. 1 summer spent in Brazil
4. 1 semester spent studying in Costa Rica, with trips to Nicaragua and Guatemala, through the Latin American Studies Program
5. Meeting the love of my life while studying abroad
6. 2 years teaching high school Spanish at Iowa Christian Academy
7. 2 years teaching 5th and 6th graders Environmental Education at Mission Springs Outdoor Education, outside of Santa Cruz, CA
8. Playing varsity volleyball in college
9. Leading 2 mission trips to Brazil and one to Mexico
10. The purchase of our first house - a rental home in Spokane, WA
11. Coaching junior high basketball and volleyball, JV volleyball, and helping out with varsity volleyball and basketball at Iowa Christian Academy
12. Buying my first car - a Saturn Ion
13. Getting married to my best friend, David Charles Hille
14. Giving birth to my beautiful daughter, Adele Marie
15. A tattoo with my sisters
16. Becoming an aunt to my niece Gracelyn, and nephews Gabriel, Benjamin, and Asher
17. My first cell phone and first laptop computer
18. Getting my braces off
19. More trips to Brazil (with stops in Argentina and Paraguay), more trips to Nicaragua and Guatemala (with a stop in Honduras) and a trip to Panama
20. Moving to Costa Rica to work as Field Station Managers at the Quetzal Education Research Center

Here's hoping my 30s are just as good!

Cinco Meses!

Sarah: Adele has now reached the 5-month mark! Sure seems like she's in a hurry to grow up these days. She wants to be doing everything mom and dad do, and thinks she can drink out of a glass, talk on the phone, take medicine from a spoon. Here are some highlights from the past month:

~Adele rolled over for the first time! (causing the need for closer watchful eyes...)
~Has found her LOUD voice and went through days of extremely noisy chatter
~Prefers to be with mommy but watch daddy all day and smile huge when he looks at her
~Lots more giggling and laughing
~Prefers to be outside and loves to watch the hummingbirds
~Sleeping by herself all night in her crib (a few nights only...but those were encouraging nights!)
~Loves trying out her sippy cup with water and a very small amount of juice
~No solid foods yet, but she likes to lick our fingers after a meal
~Enjoys trying to suck the juice out of cantaloupe and watermelon
~A doctor's visit - 70th% weight, 95th% height (which explains why sh's growing out of her 3-6 month clothes...)
~2 shots, followed by a day and a half of fever and clingyness to mom
~A new found love for being naked
~No teeth yet, but a high increase in drool and frantic behavior to put everything in her mouth
~A new love for dancing with the students
~Has learned how to give slobbery face kisses to mom and dad

Here are some pictures from the last month:

Quetzal Jubilee

Sarah: Arizona State University has been working on a project called The Transcendent Icon: The Resplendent Quetzal for years. It's a multi-disciplinary approach with the purpose of collecting information about the quetzal in the context of history, religion, science, politics, and art. The overall goal is to connect interested parties so there is good networking for conservation work. This year, ASU is holding a quetzal conference called the Quetzal Jubilee in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. The Costa Rica portion of the Jubilee was divided into two parts: one in San Jose at the University of Costa Rica, and the second at QERC.

David went to San Jose to participate in that part of the Jubilee, and he also gave a presentation about the research and education taking place at QERC in the name of quetzal conservation. He really enjoyed presenting, and it was a great opportunity to network with professionals within Costa Rica.

At QERC, the conference lasted all day Saturday with a variety of guest speakers and participants. We had a number of members from our community and guests from around Costa Rica show up. Presenters included Leo Finkenbinder, the original founder and director of QERC; Maarten Kappelle, director of The Nature Conservancy for all of Central America and the Caribbean and expert on montane oak forests; and Arsenio Arguero, director of Los Quetzales National Park. ASU also presented a video about their project. It was a great day and fun to host the event at our facility. It was good to connect with people and share ideas that will hopefully develop into better communication and more collaborations in the future.

Touring Costa Rica

Sarah: David continues to be extremely busy, so I'll do the reporting for him. For 3 weeks, David took our crew of 10 students and teamed up with the Latin American Studies Program with their professor Trevor, 3 LASP students, and our former boss from California, Scott Smithson, who also served as a professor. The entire group traveled together on an ecological and sustainability tour of Costa Rica. This is easily (and obviously) one of the major highlights of the whole semester for our students. It doesn't come without work though; all of them would agree that the 3 weeks are strenuous both physically and educationally and with little sleep. Yet again - totally worth it!

The group started off their travels by heading to Earth University, where they learned that the mission of the university is to equip their students with the knowledge of sustainable agriculture and environmentally-friendly practices. The university is open to all countries in a tropical setting. From there, the group headed to La Fortuna, where Arenal Volcano is located. Naturally, they studied volcanology and were excited that they had incredible views of the volcano (see picture) and were able to see plenty of lava rocks rolling down the volcano during the night. Here they also had a close encounter with an eyelash pit viper (next picture), and many were very excited about that. :)

From La Fortuna, they traveled to Palo Verde National Park to study the dry forest. While everyone was skeptical showing up to an incredibly hot, dry location, they were reluctant to leave in the end because of all the wildlife they saw - agoutis, howler monkeys, white-faced cappuchins, deer, crocodiles, anteaters, and jabirus (the largest stork in the world). The first week of the trip wrapped up with a couple of nights in Ostional, where they studied sea turtles nesting on the beautiful beach and all got to see this process in action.

After a night in San Jose for a chance to take their first test, the group headed out here to QERC to study cloud forests. They got some great looks at quetzals (picture) and our students in particular enjoyed being "home" for a few nights. (I was personally happy to have David back for a short time - Adele is good company, but I also like to have some 2-way conversations once in a while!) During their time in the cloud forest, the group hiked over to the next valley over and spent some time with our friends, a family who runs a large organic farm. The group harvested bananas, helped in the coffee-making process (picture), ate a lot of vegetables, and milked cows.

Finally, the group spent the last week down on the Osa Peninsula, one of the highlights of the trip (as if the whole trip wasn't a highlight...). They were at Campanario Biological Station and got to do some hiking around the station, collect bats at night, hike in Corcovado National Park, and do some snorkeling around Caño Island (picture). As if this wasn't enough, the remote location they were at allowed them to spend their free time playing in the waves in the water right outside the station.

The group came back from their travels just in time for Easter Sunday. The visiting professor this week, Marty Michelson happens to be the religion professor and pastor, so he led our group in an Easter morning fellowship time. This week he is here teaching a class on Biblical Theology and Global Stewardship. It's a great follow-up to their travels, where they learned all about sustainable practices and now are able to talk about how it all applies to their faith. These pictures are of Marty and Adele, and Adele dressed for Easter.