Update: September-October, 2021

Paraguay is beautiful!

There has been a lot happening in the last month: finding out more about the culture of Paraguay and Ciudad del Este, progress with Simmy’s eosinophilic esophagitis diagnosis, progress in learning and using Spanish, and school starting back full-time in person.

We (Stephen and Sarah) are continuing with our Spanish lessons, and Stephen was able to preach in Spanish for the first time at church. It took A LOT of preparation and a sermon that was fully written-out, but the congregation understood and appreciated the message.

The kids’ school started back full time in-person this quarter. After about two years of online learning in 3 different countries, Anna Belle and Simeon weren’t ready to jump right in; so we are currently doing a part-time in-person schedule for them, with Gracie going full-time.

Simeon had a gastroscopy to determine whether or not his esophagus was reacting to the wheat that we reintroduced months ago. Even though he felt bad for several days after his procedure, his results were very good, and he is going to be able to continue eating wheat and try reintroducing rice!

We were able to do a little more exploring around Paraguay as a family, including seeing some hiking trails and waterfalls, driving through the countryside, and visiting our eventual destination city: Ciudad del Este. In Ciudad del Este, we visited several schools, including one that we really liked, and we were able to have authentic Chinese food for the first time since arriving in Paraguay (yum)!