The Story Behind the Graef's Furlough

The Mess!
About 3 and a half years ago, we landed in San José, Costa Rica with our three kids and as much luggage as the airlines would allow. We immediately began the process of seeking legal residency, and had already prepared several copies of every necessary document to do so. Our team had hired a lawyer to handle this legal process, but time would show that he was not an honest, nor capable man for the job. Before turning our papers in to Immigration, he misplaced an important document. Fortunately, we had extra copies. A few weeks later, he misplaced another document. Again, we supplied him with another. The actual day that he delivered our documents to Immigration, he lost yet another document. We supplied it yet again, and he assured us that he had ALL documents in order. He didn't. The problem was then compounded by his lack of honesty. Immigration notified him that a document was missing, and that he had 6 months to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, he did nothing. He did not even tell us the document was missing. (We had extra copies.) Even further, from time to time he gave our team reports on our legal status. He would say that everything was going great and that we were a few steps closer to getting our residency. He was lying.

After the 6 months passed, Dave's residency request was rejected for lack of the important document. Since the residency of the rest of the family was dependent upon Dave's, they were rejected as well.

The Good News
The character of our team lawyer eventually came to light and was fired by the team. We have since hired a new lawyer who is a trusted friend. He is a Christian who works for Word of Life and attends the Piedras Vivas courses taught by Dave. Since then, the team has received a large portion of the money back for services not rendered by the first lawyer. Our new lawyer will be filing our documents again as soon as we can get them in order. This process is complicated, but we are moving on the right track now, and with an honest lawyer.

The New Law
The immigration laws have changed for the second time in 3 years. Under the new system, we should have an answer to our residency request around 6 months after we re-submit our documents. If we can get our documents in order by January, we could reasonably get our residency around June of 2010. As many of you know, we had planned on starting our furlough around that time. Under the new law, we must spend the first year of our residency inside Costa Rica or we lose it. (There is a 90-day limit outside of the country.) So, if we continued with plan A, we would lose our residency as soon as we got it. As such, we have had to change our furlough plans.

The Plan
Our new plan is to continue the process of re-submitting our documents in January and petitioning legal residency once again. We will take a shorter furlough while our paperwork is in process at Immigration (around 6 months.) We will then return to Costa Rica around the time that we should receive our legal residence. We will spend a full year in Costa Rica following the new rules for immigration. After that year, we will return to the States and finish our furlough.

Obviously, this is not what we expected to happen, but all things considered, we cannot complain too much. In the last 3 and a half years, we have seen God do some pretty amazing things. We have seen Him start a church from nothing (Roca Viva), and have seen constant growth in the Leadership training program (Piedras Vivas). I am certain that the timing of our furlough, though it wasn't part of our original plan, it is a part of God's perfect plan. God's timing is always perfect! With this in mind, our spirits are high, knowing that God is in control. Our hearts are saddened to some degree because we will dearly miss our Tico brothers and sisters, but we are looking forward to reuniting with our American brothers and sisters as well. We thank you for your constant prayers! We know God has been answering!

Where in the World are the Graefs?

Just a quick note to let you know where I've been since our last post. In July, Dave took a trip to the United States to speak at 2 supporting churches. By coincidence, his 20 year high school reunion was the same weekend, so he was also able to catch up with some friends from long ago! While he was away, we found a house 5 minutes from our church plant and newer (to help with allergies) that was cheaper than what we were currently paying in San Jose. The day after he returned, we saw the house, signed the contract, and a week later we were moved in!

Unfortunately, we had quite a challenge getting internet for the last couple months and only now have dial-up (at the cost of damaging our phone line!) The speed for now will not let me upload much but I just wanted to give you a quick update since it had been so long. As for where we find ourselves... I am a homeschool Mom now, Dave continues with the church plant and leadership training ministries, we're discipling a couple and I meet weekly with a wonderful lady from the church. I am also working on teaching the ladies to take over the children's ministry and we are in the process of determining our furlough dates. We'll keep you posted and hopefully find a way to upload a few pics!

Happy Birthday Abby!

This month we celebrated Abby's 7th Birthday! Where does the time go? We took a group of Abby's friends to the Museo de Niños, a.k.a. the Kid's Museum to celebrate her birthday in style! I could hardly keep up with the group, being the group photographer! Below is a picture of Abby with her friend Isabel.

Here's the gang in front of the kid's museum entrance, with Olivia.

Abby posing on the letter "A".

Olivia wanted me to take her picture so badly but couldn't quite reach the hole where you put your face! What a cutie!

We attempted to get everyone leaning the same way, and then staggering them, but we just couldn't coordinate 6 girls to get everyone in the photo! The girls are sitting on a painted ox cart - a traditional symbol of Costa Rican culture.

Isabel on tin can stilts.

A fun day at the museum! The museum itself is actually a renovated prison with other exhibits as well.

Abby opening a rainforest book I found here in English and Spanish.

Unfortunately, I made Abby's cake the day before while babysitting a friends three kids. One of the twins decided to turn all the burners and the oven knobs on high while I wasn't watching and burnt the cake! So, we settled for an overpriced Entemann's chocolate cake with a little sugar "bling" from Mom.

Happy Birthday Olivia

Olivia passed a few milestones this month - potty training, her third birthday - our little "baby" is no longer a baby! We celebrated by having a BBQ to say goodbye to our friends, the Depuys, who are leaving for Mexico after a year of language school. We also had a cake to celebrate Olivia turning three. Above, she patiently waits for the chorus of singers to finish Feliz Cumpleaños so she can dig in!



Olivia eyes her piece of choice and gets ready to blow out the candle. She changed her mind between Dora and Diego at the last minute so we went with Diego.



Olivia manages to beat the wind and blow out her candle first!



Livy's present from Grandad and Grandma - a talking rocket ship from Little Eintsteins. It was coveted by all!

From Grandma Rose - a talking "Jungle Book" book and a search and find Nemo book!

The weather was great so we broke out the kiddie pool and sprinkler for an awesome afternoon!

Fun in Florida

March has come and gone without an entry! Well, I thought I'd share a little about our recent trip to Florida to visit Grandma and Granddad. We were graciously invited to spend a week or so with Ron and Irene in Bonita Springs. A wonderful family gave them 6 weeks in their condo, free of charge, to escape the Indiana storms. We joined them for the last week, celebrating Aidan and Dave's birthdays at Disney World. Since they have a birthday promotion this year and Livy was still under three, we didn't have to pay for a couple of tickets either! We also had airline tickets we had to use from last year's mess up with immigration, so overall, this was a pretty inexpensive vacation - what a blessing!

Three generations of Graef men - Aidan, Ron, and Dave spending the day at Epcot!

The Graef girls - we spent the day at Magic Kingdom!

Here we are on the balcony of our condo in Orlando - a chilly and unseasonable 38 degrees! We went to Walmart the night before to buy some pants and warmer clothes!



We actually celebrated Aidan's birthday at the Zimmer's house on the way to Orlando. She made a great Mickey cake for Aidan and her kids drew us adorable pictures to welcome us. It was so good to see Kellie and her parents drove in also to visit with their former Pastor and his wife!

Despite the cold in Orlando, most of our time was spent in beautiful Bonita Springs. We enjoyed attending a Bible study in Spanish, watching the sunset over the Gulf, and the great weather. Mom and Dad not only spoiled Aidan, Abby, and Livy with Reese's Puffs cereal, Moose Tracks ice cream , and all their favorite goodies, they spoiled Dave and I as well. One of the perks of being so far away sometimes - coming home is always a celebration!

Piedras Vivas Leadership Brunch

This month Dave will starting his leadership training ministry, Piedras Vivas, which literally means "living stones." The title comes from the Old Testament where the Israelites would erect standing stones to mark the place where God did something miraculous, something worth remembering. By the New Testament, they became known as "living stones." Peter calls us to be living stones, demonstrating to others the remarkable work God has done in our lives. Dave's desire is to use this ministry to train and equip local pastors with education and resources that might otherwise not be available to them.



Saturday, Dave had a "kick-off brunch" inviting leadership from our church plant, Roca Viva Iglesia Bautista, as well as some pastors and contacts from other local churches in the province of Cartago. Max, our lawyer and friend from another church plant spoke with Dave.



We had 9 men who attended the brunch and hoped that some of them would be interested in taking the one year leadership certificate program consisting of 6 bimonthly seminars. To our pleasant surprise, all of them signed up for the program which will be starting next week! Some of these men have little in the way of Biblical training and it is Dave's goal to provide education and resources through the ministry of Piedras Vivas. Each man was also given his choice of 2 books dealing in areas of spiritual growth, family, and faith. Also, two men won an illustrated Biblical study dictionary in Spanish.



The winners of the Spanish study dictionary of the Bible, Jeffrey and Luis, with Dave.



We were blessed to have the brunch in the restaurant of one of our church leaders, Alfredo and his wife Mara. Like many small business owners, Cafe Mara is the converted home of Alfredo and Mara. They live upstairs and renovated the main floor, garage, and backyard to have their own business. They graciously serve the church and our ministry with their hearts. We so appreciate having generous couples like Alfredo and Mara to work along side of.

Fun at the Finca!

Saturday we spent the afternoon with a man named Coto, who attends our church in Paraíso. He is a very generous man, always giving us new fruits and vegetables to try that are native to Costa Rica. He has a "finca" or small farm on a piece of property outside the city and invited us to visit him there. Here is a picture of Abby and Aidan inside a large plant that he had set up for us to take pictures!

The property itself was carved out of the jungle with all the variety of plants growing everywhere. Aidan enjoyed climbing on the volcanic rocks and just being a boy!

"Is that Mario?"

"Toro, toro!"

Unfortunately, I did not carry a pen with me to write down the names of all these plant that Coto showed us. Coto mentioned that this particular fruit that Aidan is holding was poisonous if eaten.

We have these flowers in our backyard too, but ours are not red like these. They are very waxy and collect the water in their petals when it rains. Coto took me on a tour of the property and wanted me to take pictures of everything!

The plant that Livy is holding was used by the indigenous to paint their faces and skin. The outside resembles a sycamore nut but it has an orange wet flesh inside that dyes whatever it touches.

There are even plants growing on the rocks!

Coto mentioned he had a small pool for the kids - well, it was actually a plastic storage container filled with water and buried in the ground! Still refreshing on a hot day!

Coto's view from atop his property.

The man himself! I made Coto get in one of the photos - here he is with his lemon tree. He also grows cas, sugar cane, chayote, - possibly more! His house is made out of concrete, bamboo, and scrap wood with a dirt floor and wood stove. Very rustic!