oops!

I had a minor car accident on Saturday! I think it was my first accident ever, and thankfully no one was hurt.
We were all in the car (3 staff and 6 kids) going to a park for the afternoon. As we approached the full parking lot, the traffic lane we were in turned into a line, waiting for a parking space to become available. We slowed to a halt, also waiting in line for a few minutes, until I realized that it could be hours before the owners of those cars decided to leave!
So that's when I decided to continue on down the road and find somewhere else to park. The only problem: the cars coming in the other lane weren't about to stop to let me back into the flow of traffic. But that's normal for Bogota traffic; you often have to just go, and the cars are forced to slow down for you. The hand-out-the-window also works well to alert others that you need them to give you room to merge (except for the "intentionally oblivious" -- a.k.a. rude -- drivers), but on Saturday, nothing was helping. The motos, buses, cars, taxis, and vans just kept on coming as fast as ever! I inched forward and a little to the left with my arm hanging out the window, hoping to see my chance and take it. When I finally tried to pull out, I was closer to the car in front of us than I realized, and scraped his bumper a bit!
I reversed, got out of the car, and went to apologize and see what we should do. The driver and his girlfriend were pretty nice, we exchanged contact information and just today I met up with him to take care of the damage. Thankfully, there was no dent, just paint damage, so the mechanic (who helps with all of our ministry car needs) only charged me 100,000 pesos (about USD $55). Painting a bumper in the States would be way more expensive than that, right???
So, I'm grateful for the little discount that he gave me, for how minor the damages were, that no one was hurt, and that my car is a beast -- a little red-paint smudge on her side just gives her more character!

craft ideas

In other news, I'm in a Christmas mood, barely resisting the urge to bold-faced listen to holiday music (charlie brown Christmas doesn't count... it's jazz!)
That being said, we're definitely making this craft to decorate the house/tree, or for the kids to give as gifts (it's also the solution to all the incomplete puzzles we have!):

The problem is that close to the holidays we all get crazy busy and my best intentions don't usually work out. We should get on this now... maybe it can be a Thanksgiving Day project, after the meal.

I really want to make fresh evergreen garlands or a wreath. Any tips on that one? Won't the branches/leaves/berries get all dried out?

solitude vs. companionship

Some of you may know that over the last year, God has been teaching me to live in the present, to enjoy life, to take today for what it is and all that it has to offer.

That being said, my good friend, Ingrid (from Canada) gets to Colombia tomorrow evening. She's just completed her DTS with YWAM, and is coming (back) to Colombia to work with us again. She'll be staying at my house, at least for a couple of weeks. I am very very very happy to see her again, and to have an adult in the house! But then I wonder if I've taken advantage of these 3 weeks of solitude as I should have... if I have learned what God had planned... but in order to live in the present, I'll have to stop second-guessing and just enjoy each stage whole-heartedly!