This all still seems very surreal!  We left on Friday, July 6 after some weather delays at the Calgary airport and enjoyed a great week in Sosua.  The beach was awesome, the food was not bad, the sun was hot and our second room had working air conditioning.  We had several highlights of the week, but the two that stand out the most are seeing wild dolphins swimming by our boat and spending time with a new "amigo" named Jason.  He is a local boy, eleven years old with cerebral palsy.  His father has passed away but his mom is still around.  He would hang out with us on the beach and swim and he loved to be taken out snorkelling so he could see "mucho pescado" (many fish).  We loved him and were tempted to take him with us, but he has a good home and the whole town seems to watch out for him.

By the end of the week, we were all ready to get to our apartment and unpack, the excitment of living out of our suitcases for almost 3 weeks had worn off.  Paul Gibbs picked us up and we arrived in the apartment, I was very relieved when Michelle said she like the apartment.  We also received the keys to our Toyota Forerunner.  We did some light unpacking and then had our first grocery shopping lesson.  Trying to convert Pesos to dollars in your head is a challenge and will take some serious getting used to.  I also had my first Dominican driving lesson - the lesson was pretty simple - don't crash and stay with the flow of traffic.  It is bizarre to be driving in a system with no rules, just suggestions, but that is also highly effective.  It still makes me nervous though.

Spent most of the day on Friday finishing the unpacking and then we attempted a second shopping trip to get some more supplies and food.  Michelle was very excited to see a gluten-free section at Nacional!  Michelle got to drive home and she enjjoyed way to much, I am pretty sure she is part Dominican based on her driving skills. The boys and I went for a walk to a local park and threw a ball around for a while, there was a baseball and basketball game being played, but we drew most of the attention.  White people playing baseball in a park in Santiago - WHAT?!

Today is IKEA shopping day and they offer free delivery to Santiago from the Capitol, Santo Domingo.  Trying to translate the spanish website to find the right furniture is challenging (thank goodness for Google Translate).
Anyways, some pics are posted as well.

We are still in a bit of shock with all of this but very thankful and in awe of how God has worked.  Two days before we left our house (with multiple offers) was sold and we were free of the truck.  Everything came together - God is good!

Continue to pray for us as we transition as it is overwhelming and exciting all at the same time.