Weekly letter

March 25, 2006
Dear Family,
It has been a very long time since I wrote you all together. We have had an extremely busy month. First was our trip to Costa Rica to renew our visas with Grandma and Grandpa in February. It was very fun and enjoyable. Grandma fell a couple of times which worried us but I made her see a doctor friend of our in Managua which reassured us. When was the last time you spent less than $20 for a doctor's visit?
We returned home with a truck load of people on March 3. The next two weeks were totally taken up with nursing and construction groups. Clint was not able to come home on Friday after taking the group to Puerto but got home safely on Sunday.
Monday morning we left for a 3 day stay at Tronquera. We returned the next morning for the rest of the week, after checking spending a night at home in Francia and making sure the mission here is operating smoothly. We got a good 5 days of work done. We currently have the floor and framing for a small piece of our house. It is only 10 ½ x 19 feet. We will live in that working on the rest of the house a little at a time.
Because of other responsibilities, etc. We won't be moving until closer to the middle of April.
Good new is that Clint is supposed to pick up his resident visa in Managua on April 7. We are very excited. Getting our resident visas is a big step that is also very expensive. We will work on Visas for the rest of us as we have the money.
We have decided on a name for our new mission: "Wings over Nicaragua Mission" (WON). In Spanish: "Mision Alas Sobres Nicaragua" (MASN). In Miskito: "Nawa Nicaraguara Purara" (NNP). We are excited to have a name finally. We are going to be posting our Mission plan and statement on our web site so check back in a couple weeks to see if it is posted yet at www.hanleymissions.com.
Brandel and Bethany are having a hard time adjusting to all the trips, visitors and new locations. They enjoy Tronquera but don't understand why we keep going back and forth.
More later,
Love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

quick update

Dear Family,
It is early in the morning and the children are still asleep, so I thought I would drop you a quick note. Things are going well here. Last Sunday and Monday we worked at our new land in Tronquera. We were there on Sunday, then I went to town to do some Christmas shopping. I met the director of the government hospital who demanded our presence at a meeting on Monday. Since I needed to return to Waspam on Monday, I dropped off Clint at Tronquera to work another day. Clint figured out the amount of land that they "gave" us (they can not give any land away permanently, just lifetime lease). It is almost 160 acres. We found a place not too far away that has good soil for a garden and plantation. We won't be able to plant that right now because there is no one there to tend it. And when we arrive in April it will be the dry season so no planting then. Next June we will be able to plant.
Grandma says she mailed of CD's of pictures and video's to the rest of you so you should get them soon.
The puppies are growing fast but Princess still has them hidden under the porch.
It is raining again.
We put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Now we just need to decorate it. We will take pictures when we get it done. I need to make a few ornaments first. There is plenty of craft stuff here so that will not be a problem.
We made Christmas cookies the other day. They didn't turn out so good. I made a batch of blonde brownies to make up for the poor cookies. That seemed to settle everyone. Anyone have some good cookie recipes from scratch? No mixes down here. :)
Got to run and get Breakfast.
Love
Marilyn