The Yauns In Spain: Time Flies!

As I write this, I can hardly believe that our time here is coming to a close. We board a plane 5 weeks from today. We are still in full swing with activities here and probably will be until we get home, and we are trying to make the most of our time left here in Spain. A note for prayer--sometimes doing the things we want to fit in gets complicated by these awful pregnancy headaches I've been having. Please pray that they might lessen! We are planning a trip (maybe two) to other parts of the country. Micah has been teaching the adolescent Sunday school for the last 5 or 6 weeks or so and will continue through the end of this month. We have started a weekly youth group for the adolescents (instead of the monthly one we started out with). This group has now coincided with a "parents of adolescents" group that meets on Friday nights to hash out ideas and to encourage each other as they raise their adolescent age children. Something cool with that group is that, in the town of Camarma, there is negotiation as to whether the church can use the old town hall building (or maybe this youth center building currently not in use--still government owned) to be able to meet and open it up to the community as well! We look forward to how that unfolds. We also are involved in the praise team at church. There is a couple that both of us are doing a language exchange with for the remainder of our time here, and Micah is meeting with a college guy from our church as well for language exchange. There are also things around Madrid that we would like to do before leaving, like meeting with people from various churches around the city as well as see some of the historical/cultural sites we have yet to visit. Phew! Sounds like a lot, right? Well, we still have to plan some of it! Please pray that God would give us the clarity of mind to plan!

Transition is quite difficult we are finding. Somehow it is much more difficult on this end because we are still interacting on a daily basis in Spanish. I'm sure the pregnancy complicates things as well, trying to figure out what records I will need, insurance at home, setting up prenatal care all over again, etc. Things are quite hectic around the Yaun house! Speaking of which, our landlord graciously let us use our security deposit on the apartment for our last month's rent, meaning that we didn't have to move out until the end of this month. We will spend our last two weeks with friends who have offered their home to us. So these last five weeks will be crazy, I'm sure, but filled with good things. We dread saying goodbye to our church here, which we have really come to love. It is truly a wonderful group of people who have taught us so much about what a church should really be. I'm sure we'll be writing more about that later. But please do pray for us as we try to fit in the many activities still left for us to do. Also, we would appreciate prayer as we pack up our house to move in the next 2 1/2 weeks. We honestly don't have much, as the furniture is not ours, but we still will have to do some luggage workaround. Basically, we have a LOT of details to work out and not too much brain power left to do so.

Our growing church that we have come to love

In good news of time flying, I am now halfway through this pregnancy! It has truly flown by, and I can't wait to hold my little guy in my arms. (For those who haven't heard...it's a BOY!) Aside from these headaches, I really haven't had much trouble at all after those first few weeks of the first trimester. We are praising God that as far as the doctors can tell, our little guy is healthy and growing well. I'm enjoying feeling him kick and move around more inside me, and Micah has been able to feel quite a handful of kicks now! It has been a crazy time, but at the same time it has added so much joy to our lives. We are definitely looking forward to enjoying the last trimester of my pregnancy with family and friends as we prepare for this new addition to our family to make his appearance.

Getting bigger every week, here I am at 20 weeks...halfway!

Spain is gorgeous this time of year. It is so sunny and clear most of the time, and ranges between highs in the 70s and lower 80s. We're not sure if this is super normal or not, but we sure are enjoying it!! We can leave our windows open most of the time, soaking up the fresh air. We have also been able to enjoy one of our towns biggest fiesta times this weekend! Alcala prides itself in being the birthplace of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. There are all kinds of festivals in honor of him, but this week is the largest. From this past Friday until Wednesday (tomorrow) there has been a HUGE medieval market and fair spanning through dozens of streets--making it the biggest medieval market in all of Spain (and maybe even in Europe). There were tons of artisan booths, awesome food, a luthier exhibit showing old instruments, shows for children, a section of "wild" animals such as chickens, owls, ravens, vultures, etc. There was even a little parade featuring Don Quixote himself! There was music being played everywhere. It was a fun time! (admittedly it was a bit rough by the time we got home having walked this pregnant lady around for 3 1/2 hours...but worth it!) Spain certainly knows how to have a good time.