Happy Holidays!

The Holidays are here! Costa Rica is decorated with Christmas trees, manger scenes, and lots of lights. The weather gets cooler here and the rain stops, which is a nice change for all of us. We even have to bring out the sweaters and scarves at times.
Here is an update on what each of us have been doing lately:

DeLynn
He's been so blessed working with Raul in leading the VIDA220 discipleship school. We have 14 wonderful students that have dedicated 10 months to serving the Lord in Talamanca, Jaco and Omotepe, Nicaragua. We've enjoyed using our bed and breakfast hosting them once a month for a week. We've also enjoyed all the speakers that have put time into giving of themselves. We're seeing huge changes in the lives of these young people. This ministry is a dream come true for DeLynn.
Raul and Kimi, the directors of this ministry, are doing an excellent job with the students. They have sacrificed so much time, love and effort. We love them very much. They are getting ready to visit the States this week. This is Raul's first time to the United States. So if you see him, give him a big warm welcome!
Another highlight this year for DeLynn is being the leader of a men's small group at our church. He has been blessed by the friendships being developed.

Gloria
Gloria has had fun decorating the house for the holidays, first for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas. We enjoyed having a huge Thanksgiving meal and Christmas dinner with the VIDA220 students before they leave for their Christmas break.
She LOVES being grandma to Dylan. He loves when grandma reads him books and puts him to sleep!

Carmelinda
Carmelinda is taller than Gloria! She played basketball this past semester and loved it! Next semester she's planning on playing volleyball. When she's not doing homework, she's listening to Adventures in Odessey, doing some kind of craft project or playing basketball outside.
She is an excellent student and loves her friends at school and at church. We love watching her grow and continue to pray that God leads her as His disciple.

Katherine and Dylan
Everyday, Katherine is learning what it means to be a mom. If you are a mom, you know some days are better than others. The love she has for Dylan is obvious.
She has experience many new things in living with us like eating casseroles, baking cakes, celebrating Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas.
God is also doing an amazing work in her heart. It's rewarding to see the change that is being bought about.
Dylan is 4 months old now. He's starting to slobber! He's the cutest kid on the block! He gets lots of attention and love by our family as well as by the VIDA220 students. He's at the stage where he recognizes us and smiles and coos when he's happy!

We look forward to spending Christmas and New Years in Costa Rica this year. We always miss our families but we know this is where God wants us for now. Blessings to all of you this Holiday season.

Welcome Baby Dylan!

At the beginning of the year, a young lady came into our lives. Her name is Katherine. She's a beautiful 19 year old. When she came to us, she came confused, sad and unhealthy. Through some very unfortunate circumstances, she found out she was pregnant. She needed support emotionally, physically and spiritually. God laid it on our hearts to "adopt" her into our family and care for her and her baby that was growing inside of her. She has a family, but they are unable to care for her due to limited resources.

We have had the priveledge of watching her grow, not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. We took her to church. She comes from a Christian home, but through this tough experience she needed to experience more of God's love. We discoved she knows very little about the Bible. Gloria has a lot of time sitting on the bed talking with her and encouraging her. They prayed many times that God would give her courage as she atticipated becoming a mother.
It was exciting to see her stomach grow, knowing that there was a little one inside! Gloria was priveledged to take her to all her doctors appointments and ultrasound appointments. When we all found out it was a BOY, we cried for joy. Katherine wanted a boy and God granted her wish.
God took special care of Katherine and her baby throughout the pregnancy. He also provided clothes and other needs for Katherine and her baby. It was a miracle.

As the time came closer for her to deliver, we got more nervous and excited all at the same time! Katherine asked Gloria to accompany her in the delivery room, which Gloria was more than willing to do! When the day FINALLY arrived, Gloria, along with Katherine's parents, took her to the hospital to have her baby.
At 8:14am, August 24, 2012, Katherine delivered a beautiful baby boy, Dylan Samuel. Gloria had the JOY of seeing the miracle of childbirth. Read her personal blog as she describes her experience.
www.guatechic.blogspot.com
The next day, Dylan Samuel was brought home. It has been SO beautiful and wonderful to have him become part of our family. We have become the "adopted" grandparents and Carmelinda the "aunt" and his personal fashion designer!

Katherine and Dylan live with us. They are part of our family now and we love them very much. Some of you have asked us, if we plan to adopt Dylan. Our answer is "no." Our desire is to help Katherine raise Dylan however we can. Katherine would like to finish school and get a job. We want to help make that possible. If any of you would be interested in helping with this endevour, please contact us and let us know.
Continue to pray for Katherine and Dylan as they grow together. And we're sure you'll be hearing a lot more about them and seeing pictures of them in the future!

Baby Shower

On July 29th, we celebrated the coming of Katherine's baby boy and held a baby shower. Katherine is due the 26th of August. So we are getting prepared!

At her shower she was pleased to have friends from Nicaragua that her family has known for years. She also had a childhood friend, friends from her church, a family members that came. It was a special time for all of us present. We laughed and cried and laughed until we cried! Here are some pictures.

Center pieces.

Pin the pacifier on the baby!

Laughing with Katherine's mother.

Katherine with her parents, Samuel and Margot

And us! 

She has been blessed by so many people, from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, as well as the United States. Thanks to all of you who have given and helped us.

She told me the other day that at the beginning of all this, she was so confused and now she sees that God has a purpose and she's anticipating good things to come out of this.

Continue to pray for her as she gives birth to her son. We ALL can hardly wait to meet this little guy!

Katherine

We are talking more Spanish these days. A beautiful young girl from Costa Rica has joined our family, recently. Her name is Katherine. She is 19 years old. She is expecting at the beginning of September and needed a place to stay. We gladly opened our home and she's now part of the Hoovers! It's been fun introducing her to all kinds of new foods, such as, Subway and Wendy's. And then there is all the strange foods we make at home. We know she would rather eat rice and beans all the time, but she's taken the changes by stride. By the way, we do eat rice and beans, just not as often as the Costarican's do.

I (Gloria) kind of forgot what it's like to be pregnant! You know with all the emotions, nausea, and hunger petitions! But we've certainly have had fun going shopping and picking out clothes that she can fit into and taking her to her doctor's appointments. By the way, we found out on Friday, she's having a boy! Something new for the Hoover family! It's strange to think we'll have a baby in the house soon!


We ask that you pray for Katherine. She has encountered and continues to encounter some challenges. I can't go into it all, but just ask that you pray. Pray that God supports her, pray for the little boy that's growing inside of her, pray for her parents and extended family, pray that through this, Katherine would just know that God loves her so much.

Easter Activities

I tried to make a angle food cake, but it totally flopped! I was bummed since I was so hungry  for it! :(  I remember my mom telling me that making an angle food cake was tricky, now I know why!
We also made cookies, that DID turn out. :)
Carmelinda, along with her friends decorated eggs. 

My friend, Laura decorating the cake! 

Julissa and Willi

It was fun to see Carmelinda's creativity come out! 

There were many processionals that  went past our house. 

Processional on Easter afternoon. 

The neighbors decorated the street with red and white streams on Easter day. 

Love is the Air

Recently, DeLynn and I have started a dating couples group in our church. We have enjoyed investing in people's lives in this way. God has taught us a lot in our marriage and we want to pass on what we can to these young couples (pictures shown below, except for one couple). This is a small group that will be offered in our church for several weeks, several times a year. We look forward to meeting many new couples and helping them get off to a good start! 

Pete and Paola are a very special couple since we were able to do premarital counseling with them at the end of last year. They are the host couple for our small group. They are expecting their first child at the end of the summer. 

Special couples night that included.....

Romantic Songs!

More romantic songs!

We decided to have a little fun and had a fondue party. For some of the couples it was their  first time ! 

The fondue was a hit! 

One Sunday Morning....

About two weeks ago, DeLynn was talking to one of our neighbors and he found out that we could catch   the train very close to our house and take a ride to San Jose! We had so often heard the train go past our house, but we didn't know where or when it went. So we decided it was time to take an adventure! The train ride itself took 45 minutes, one way. We spent two hours in in San Jose hanging out and then rode the train back home! 

Probably the biggest surprise for us was how much more of the culture we saw and how much more there is  to learn. We saw things such as, beautiful, huge houses (we even saw a castle), we saw several slums that were terribly poor, because it was Sunday, we saw families hanging out together, lots of children, stray dogs, went over some very scary bridges and almost hit someone crossing the railroad tracks! 

All in all, it was incredible, perfect family day!  

We saw a lot of cute children waving at the train. 

Choosing

After meeting with the social worker at the children's services here, and taking two weeks to pray and process what we heard, Yesterday, DeLynn and I started filling out the adoption papers. It asked questions such as: "What ages, minimum, maximum." All kinds of questions about what we would be willing to take as far as emotional status, intellectual status, medical status, whether we would be willing to take a child who's parents were alcoholics, drug addicts etc. and so many more questions.

Carmelinda asked DeLynn and I the other day why we wanted to adopt. We have wanted another child for SO long, but now that the process has started, I guess I take that question more seriously. So the question has stuck with me. I've really thought and prayed about that, asking God to reveal the answer to me. Wanting another child is a good answer but I felt like I needed something deeper than that. Suddenly God spoke to me, "You want to adopt because you want to show someone else the love of God. I certainly don't know everything about the love of God, but I know a little. I want him or her to experience the love of their Heavely Father." Like DeLynn said, after I shared this with him, "It's called discipleship." That's what our family is all about! We are all in this discipleship walk together as a family.

As I've been filling out the paper work, God has given me joy and peace, something I didn't have before in this area. DeLynn and I are both excited and like to talk about it, another thing that hadn't really happened before. We also have a peace about the timing. We don't know when this will happen, but God is good and He knows. I am excited about the priveledge of choosing our child. Something that happened to me 40 + years ago.

I wish mom was here. I'm sure she could identify with me a lot in this experience. There are a whole new set of emotions and feelings in this part of the journey. But I'm SO glad my dad is here to share this experience with us. We ask that you continue to pray for our family and our future child.