Panama Pics for the non-facebookers

 For those of you who aren't on facebook, here are just a few of the pictures that have been posted lately. Since my mother had two cameras with her and Raul had ours, we have a total of 6,000 pictures from the trip. Luckily, my mother will be the one who gets to sort through all of them and edit them. Enjoy!

http://s1119.photobucket.com/albums/k630/thegizzos/Panama/

Feelin' the love

Well, the Gizzos have officially been the Gizzos for a year, now. Yesterday was the anniversary of our civil marriage at the courthouse in Waukegan. What a crazy ride we have been on, but I am still very much in love with the man I call my husband. Though Raul did not remember that it was our anniversary yesterday, I assured him that he had one more chance to remember our anniversary before I would be upset. Here's hopin' that  the April date goes better for him...! :) Poor guy, he was thinking we were married on the 23rd of January since the April date was the 23rd.

Though I just returned from my Panamanian vacation, I am now busy planning my next vacation to Mexico in March. Just when I was afraid that funds were running too low to visit Raul another time, a couple from our church offered to buy my plane ticket to Mexico for Spring break. Now that was an offer I couldn't refuse! This time, I will be flying into Mexico City and Raul will meet me there. We will probably stay there one or two nights and then head to Puebla. From what I have read online, the city of Puebla is supposed to be nice and has a lot of cultural tourist attractions. Raul says that if I'm on my best behavior, he will take me to Santa Monica to visit his family and see where he lives since it is only 3 to 4 hours away from where we will be staying in Puebla. He is estimating that one day there will probably be as much as this white girl can handle. I am excited to see where my love has been living these past few months.

We continue to be amazed at the generosity of our friends and family and we feel very blessed to have so many close friends. In addition to my upcoming vacation, I have been spoiled by friends for my upcoming birthday. Their thoughtful gifts have meant so much to me, and I know Raul appreciates my people here taking care of me since this is the first time since I cannot even remember when that he will not be able to celebrate my birthday with me. Even when we were on a "break" in our relationship, he somehow found a way to take me out for my birthdays. I did get the chance to celebrate my birthday with his family today and it was nice to hang out with them again.

Thank you to all of you who continue to pray for us and encourage us with your thoughtful words and acts. Please keep February 10th in your prayers as this is the date that Raul travels to Juarez to submit our waiver. Then it's waiting, waiting, waiting. Much prayer is needed for that part as well!

Happy New Year!

There is so much to share about our Panamanian adventure, I do not even know where to begin. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and praying that our trip would go well. Praise God that we had no major catastrophes on vacation. Everyone stayed well and we had safety on the crazy roads that we traveled daily. We did have many "minor adventures"  that were anxiety producing in the moment but easily laughed about later in the day. Among those were people being locked out of bathrooms, people being locked in bathrooms, more than one person getting pooped on by birds, a jelly fish sting, and a car sliding off the road.

The view from our backyard

We stayed in a 3 bedroom house with a beautiful view of the ocean. A nice beach was within a 10 minute drive and we took the opportunity to enjoy this luxury on multiple occasions. Our taxi drivers went above and beyond the call of duty and were our own personal tour guides on multiple occasions. In addition to our beach time, we walked through a nature preserve, toured the Panama canal, and saw monkeys hanging out in the trees. I was glad that I had packed dramamine for the plane ride because I used the extra pills for car trips since the roads are so full of twists and turns that most of us felt at least a little car sick at some point.

Our friendly taxi drivers for the week. The guy in the middle declared himself to by my mom's personal security service during our stay. She was in good hands.

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Raul and I had a great time just hanging out together again and it was really hard for me when it was time for him to leave for the airport (he flew out earlier in the day than we did). It seems like each time I say good-bye it gets harder, and I'm looking forward to the day when the last day of vacation does not mean saying good-bye to my husband. But, God is good and it's amazing that I have been able to see Raul on two separate occasions in the four months he has been gone. I'm also hoping to visit him again in March.


We are looking forward to what 2012 has in store for the Gizzos. Though we  had a lot of growing experiences in 2011, I can honestly say that I've never been so thankful to see a new year. Our next big thing is Raul's waiver appointment on February 10, and then it is more waiting. Though this is a scary place to be, Raul and I are both comforted by the fact that as long as we seek God, there is nothing we can do to mess up his plan for us. I'm just hoping that plan includes both of us being in Waukegan by the beginning of 2013! Happy New Year!