Caleb Jonathan Fraze... Mi sobrino!

Just 5 days after returning to the States, on July 16th (a week earlier than the due date), at 8:43pm, my beautiful nephew, Caleb Jonathan Fraze, was born into this world! After nearly 24 hours of labor, my sister-in-law, Kendra, gave birth to a healthy baby boy that weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and stretched out to 19 inches long! Que belleza de muchacho!

I just happened to be in Boulder the day that Kendra went into labor. We had planned to hang out and get coffee that morning, but my brother woke me up early to inform me that Kendra had been having contractions all night, and asked me to come over and be with her while he went into work! It just so happened that Jason had a HUGE meeting on Wednesday for which he had been preparing for weeks, and his boss threatened him that his baby better not decide to come on that day! Well, it's funny how things work out... and some things you just can't plan for! I spent a few hours with Kendra at their apartment. We played some scrabble and she called various family members to inform them of her progress. After an intense contraction Kendra started to feel nauseous and texted Jason in his meeting. He called a few minutes later and after talking with Kendra for a few minutes in the hall, his bosses gladly urged Jason to head home to care for his laboring wife!

We headed into the clinic to get Kendra checked out. Their midwife assessed the situation and informed us that Kendra was dilated to about 5cm! The midwife said that she could go home and wait it out for a couple more hours, or go ahead and check into the hospital and get prepared for the fun evening ahead! I stayed with Jason and Kendra for a few more hours in the hospital room. After Kendra and the baby were monitored, Kendra spent some time in the bathroom hot tub and the doctors urged her to allow them to install an entry port into one of her veins just in case an emergency were to arise. It turns out that Kendra has some pretty stubborn veins... and after about 10 tries and three different people, they finally managed to find a vein! Not surprisingly, the good little Boulderite granolas that they are, Jason and Kendra decided to do everything completely naturally! A little later the contractions started getting really intense, and I opted to leave the happy couple alone... not to mention the screaming was starting to scare me. I waited in the hallway for a while, but then my parents arrived and I joined them in the lobby to wait to meet our new family member.

Around 9pm I was getting really impatient, and dying to know what was going on! I begged the receptionist to go find out if there was any news of a new baby yet. She said that she wasn't at liberty to leak any info to us, but she went to the room to put a little guilt trip on the expecting dad to come give us an update. Around 9:20 Jason finally came out to tell us that he was a new dad to a beautiful little boy!

It's so incredible to be an aunt! And I feel so blessed that I was able to be here during this exciting time! I have already spent several days with little Caleb and am really enjoying getting to know him! Praise God for his faithfulness and provision! What an incredible gift!

To see more pictures of Caleb, check out my brother's online album at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jdfraze/CalebSBirth

Final Thoughts

I returned home to beautiful Colorado on Friday, July 11th. It's hard to believe that this experience has already come to an end! It's amazing how fast time flies. Before leaving Costa Rica, I was required to complete a large packet of debriefing questions. I wasn't too excited about it, but at the end, it turned out to be a great way of reflecting on my experience and recognizing all of the ways that the Lord has changed me and grown me. Here are a few highlights and conclusions from the debrief.

Dominant Themes that God is revealing through my time in Costa Rica:

*God is BIG and Faithful
-He cares about the big and small issues, loves me more than I could ever comprehend, and loves everyone else more and better than I ever could.

*Following Christ (being His disciple) is a serious commitment
-It requires effort, time, discipline, and serious lifestyle changes (against the norm)

*Following Chirst (being His disciple) is a group effort
-I can't run the race on my own, I need a mentor in my life to challenge & encourage me, and I need to be pouring into others.

*Family is important, a gift from God
-I have a great (Christian) family and I cannot take that for granted. My family should be considered in ALL big life dicisions, and I should rely on them for fellowship, encouragement, prayer, counsel, love, friendship, and accountability.

*Kids (& old people) are a gift from God
-Life is so much richer when it is lived close to people of ALL generations!


Practical Next steps for following through on what God has shown me:

*Commit to daily morning quiet times
*Commit to finding a Godly female mentor
*Commit to purity & righteousness in all relationships
*Commit to making family a priority
*Commit to finding a place to volunteer my time
*Commit to being plugged into a church and involved in a small group


It is absolutely amazing to look back and testify to all that the Lord has done in and through me during my internship in Costa Rica. Thank you to everyone for your love and support and encouragement! I hope and pray that all of these lessons and convictions from God will have a significant and lasting effect on my life. God Bless!

"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his peole and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." (Hebrews 6:10-12)

Red, White and Blue... stripes, but no stars.

It's always an interesting experience to celebrate America's day of independence in a different country. This happens to be my 3rd 4th of July in 23 years out of the country. The first was when I was 10 years old on vacation with my family in Europe and consisted of our crazy drunken Scottish tour guide lighting off fireworks (with beer and cigarette in hand) somewhere in France. The second occured 2 years ago during my internship with Youth for Christ in La Paz, Bolivia (can't currently remember how we celebrated).

Here at EMI Costa Rica, we did not take the 4th off as a holiday, but we did however clock out 2 hours early for some fun and patriotic activities! We headed over to my boss Tom's house around 3pm. His 3 young kids had a whole afternoon of events planned. We started things off with an indoor obstacle course (it was pouring outside), then moved on to the revoluntionary war trivia contest, followed by a flag design contest. We then ate yummy grilled hot dogs, german potato salad (so good!), baked beans, and salad! After filling our plates with patriotic cake, we sat down to watch 'Facing the Giants' (a good football movie produced by a church in Georgia).

My host family picked me up from the 4th of July celebration to head to the next party. It just so happens that my host family brother turned 3 years old on the American independence day! We sat down together for dinner (which I skipped out on), then sang 'feliz cumpleanos' and cut up the cake that Lucy brought home (which I did not skip out on). A little later we broke out the 'funfetti' cupcakes which I had baked the night before for Walnercito (which I partook in as well, making it my 3rd type of cake for the night!). Lucy and Walner bought all sorts of new toys for Walnercito at the American toy store! The coolest (but unfortunately not the best for a 3 year old) was a 700-piece Lego set with directions to construct some awesome construction site equipment - a little office building, a dump truck, and an excavator. Chris and I spent about 2 hours assembling the new Lego toys (by choice... fun, frustrating, and addicting), while doing our best to fight off Walnercito and his urges to grab a hand-full of tiny pieces and half-assembled trucks and soliciting the help of the adults when necessary.

A fun 4th filled with good friends and 'family'. It would have been great to spend the holiday with my very loved and missed friends and family back home, but this was a nice substitute, despite the severe lack of pyrotechnics! Cheers.