We hope that you are all well. We are here! We are well! We are thankful for all your prayers and support. These past few days are rather blurry but I will try my best to jot down all those first impressions that are always fun to laugh at later.
Let me start with the kids. They are doing so remarkably well and it is so amazing to see this bright and vibrant new world through their eyes. As you can likely imagine, Mexico City is hugely crowded (pop. 23 million) and as we walk down the narrow, traffic hazardous streets we are all blown away by the colourful apartment like houses that are sandwiched together.(Ziko and Hizee are getting to see their share of orange and pink buildings to satisfy their favourite colour cravings.) Zam is particularly keen on the trees, which look rather Dr.Sueussish and lush. We are told we are in a middle class neighbourhood, and while it is crowded with shops and houses and the like, it is also quite lush and green with trees and various forms of vegitation (we didn´t expect to see this).There is also a very cool park within walking distance that we have visited each day, and it just so happens that it is also a dog park and we´ve seen tonnes of very beautiful dogs of every breed imaginable.
We have tried a lot of yummy Mexican food already. Today we went out for tacos with the MCC reps. The tacos were not at all like the tacos we eat in Canada …I liked these much better. They bring tiny, round corn tortillas to your table together with a plate of meat shaved off a huge skewer (this meat was pork). Then they bring a plate with pineapple, onions and cilantro and you put that on top of your taco, along with some red or green salsa (and you can squirt some lime on it if you wish). What a yummy combination, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Zam is astounding us with his ability to try the new foods that are being offered to him. While he does not like everything he tries, at least he is trying it. Hizee is also eating well, but Ziko is eating the best…he eats and drinks everything that he is given (and in abundance)!
The country reps (whom we are staying with – the upstairs of their apt´is a large room with two sets of bunk beds and two double beds that we have to ourselves) are great people! They have a little girl named Isabelle who loves the kids (especially Ziko). Isabelle is 21 months old. We are having a lot of fun playing with her!
Today we will be travelling to Olinala (our future home) on an overnight bus—we leave here in the evening and get there in the morning (about a nine hour ride). We will stay in Olinala until next Wednesday or so. After Olinala we will go to Cuernavaca ( a city about 2 hours from here) for language study for one week. We will stay with a Mexican family. This is great news as we are feeling a little lost without having even the basics in Spanish. After the one week language study we will come back to Mexico City for a few days before flying to Chihuahua for our team meetings (Sept 16-21). We will then come back to Mexico City before heading to the Chiapas for language school. We have decided to break up our language schooling a bit and only take part of it now (with more to come later). Hence, we will be heading to Olinala on November 1^st or so, to finally settle into our new home.

Ziko and his good friend Isabelle.
They are super cute together! Isabelle is a spectacular Spanish teacher, too! Whenever we want to know the Spanish word for something we ask her. Ziko, on the other hand, can be a stubborn pupil...the other day she was showing him a toy horse and kept repeating the Spanish word for horse. Ziko´s response each time she did this was "no, horse!"

In just three short days we will be heading for Mexico....yah!!! We have had an action-packed summer filled with cousins, friends, and all things fun and summery! However, after leaving our home in Yellowknife on June 30, we are now really geared up and ready to head to our new home in Mexico. We leave for Mexico City at a head-spinnig 5am!!! on Tuesday morning accompanied by our whopping 10 pieces of luggage (any prayers/positive energy that you might have a chance to send our way would be very much welcomed!). Upon arriving in Mexico City we will have a bit of in-country orientation (2 weeks) before heading to Chihuahua (in Northern Mexico) for MCC team meetings. After the team meetings we will travel to a city called San Cristobal de las Casas (in the Southern state of Chiapas) for three months of language study. Once our language study is complete (and we are competely fluent in Spanish...ha, ha, ha....the language study will definitely never be "complete" but rather always ongoing) we will then head to the town of Olinala (Guerrero state) which will be our home for the next three years.
I realize this all sounds kind of overwhelming and I guess it really is. I try not to think of it all in one chunk like this hence I pass out...however, we truely are taking it "one step at a time" (as cliche as that sounds)! The kids are great stabalizers for us during this whole process as they really are taking everything one moment at a time...kids are so phenominal at living in the moment.
Thanks to all of you for all of your prayers and support during this time of transition. We will try really hard to keep this blog updated so you can watch the kids (and us) grow!