Remember how I heard Francesca Battistelli's song while I was typing my last blog entry, and it was perfect? Today the song Yesterday, Today, Forever by Ryan Stevenson came on. The line repeated throughout it is:

"Yesterday, today, forever,

all may change but You will never.

Glory to Your name!"

I thought this was perfect for all the changes going on in our house with two new sisters! Changes for me, sure. For example: My brain is beginning to hurt from an even deeper level of Spanish immersion. I am now positive that I will be returning to the States completely fluent in my Spanish, just because of Roxana and Noemi. Also, I'm loving being able to just hang out and talk with my sisters. (I'm loving being able to say "hanging out with my sisters" almost as much as actually doing it!! ;] )

Thing is, though, the changes for them are a lot more than they are for me. They've never had electricity, never had running water, and tend to live on tortillas, beans, corn, rice, etc. My family, on the other hand, has always had electricity, always had running water, and almost never have meals of just tortillas, beans, corn, and rice. Because of stuff like that, their first day was very interesting.
Last Thursday they came over for the first time, with their mom. We were planning on going out to eat with them for lunch before school. Knowing that they never have choices, and not wanting to overwhelm them with too many choices at once, we decided we could go to Eric's for pizza.
Noemi, Roxana, and their mother had never even heard of pizza.
They seemed to really like it, though. After lunch, the girls went to school. Since they'd been getting over the flu, they went back home that night afterwards. We had the same arrangement Friday, too.

When their mom picked them up that afternoon, though, she was in tears. Her husband, Orlando, is very sick. The situation is pretty grave. We don't fully understand everything that's going on with him; some kind of palsy in his face, maybe? Possible even some problems with his mind? Regardless, we got them transportation to the clinic and hospital. I'd like to ask all of you to please keep him in your prayers. Things aren't any worse, but they aren't really better, either.

The girls' first full day here was Monday. The running water was so intriguing to them both. Roxana asked me how it was able to come out and shut off so quickly. In the kitchen sink, there's hot water, which was even more interesting to them. And the microwave we used for lunch? They'd never heard of such a thing, were completely entranced at first. To start off with something simple, kind of ease into things, we had what we call Rapiditas for lunch. (Mom has a blog about them here.) During this, we talked some with them about other foods. Neither of them had heard of peanut butter, and one had heard of hamburgers, but neither had tried them. So many simple things to us, Noemi and Roxana had no idea about. Since then, we've tried to go slowly on introducing new foods. Chicken sandwiches, soup, stuff like that. I'm kind of excited at the prospect of them showing me how to cook the typical El Salvador foods!

Another new thing for them is a shower like we're used to. Since most people don't have running water, people use bucket baths or sponge baths, etc. A shower like ours was a little interesting for them to grasp, I think. They caught on to all the changes quickly, though. They're both adapting pretty well, actually. School is going well, too. We found out that my friend, Yoselin, is their cousin! Here's a picture of me with the two of them and Yoselin.

Roxana and Noemi and I ended up watching a couple short episodes of the Penguins of Madagascar last night before we went to bed. I think they had a lot of fun with that. I know I did! :)

I'm really enjoying having them here. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, there are so many changes taking place in everything we do. But, the verse that Ryan Stevenson's song is based on, Hebrews 13:8, says

"Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday and today and forever."

Lots of things change. I definitely know this. In less than a year, a whole bunch of new things have taken place. New country, new language, new friends, new sisters... But one person will never change. :)

More to be posted soon. Love,

Erin