The Bartons made it to Shell

Gracias a Dios, we made it to Shell safely and our boxes are now unpacked and we are mostly moved in!  We were met with great pomp and circumstance upon our arrival complete with a cook-out and fireworks in our back yard!  Really it was the Shell community 4th of July dinner that met in the pavilion across the street from our house.  We arrived in Quito on July 2nd around midnight.  The following day we spend running errands and, at 6pm, we began to pack the moving truck.  We had purchased several items from other missionaries who live around Quito and had some trunks stashed in yet another home.  Thus, a simple pack and move became a gathering of piles of stuff at 5 different places around town!  The following day we readied our car and drove the 5 hour trek to Shell in time to enjoy the 4th of July party.  We are thankful for an uneventful trip to our new home.  Our moving truck arrived the next day and filled our house with piles of boxes and trunks.

Over the past 3 weeks I have been on call about 1/2 of the time where I have shared the work load with my colleague Dr. German Suarez.  I have done about 10 cases to date.  This is a bit light but I’m thankful for the extra time to get settled into things here and move into the house.

As you can see from our photos we have quite a bit of scenery right out of our windows!  Samuel and I have visited a local “casa de arbol” or tree house which is like the Swiss Family Robinson tree house on steroids.  Atop it’s 12th floor balcony that peeks out over the surrounding jungle canopy, we enjoyed a great view of our local community!

Kim is doing remarkably well and adjusting to life here as well as to being 8 months pregnant with our 4th boy!    She however, does not have the diversion  with work to get her some “professional” time away from the house and kids.   She is making friends here, mainly other missionaries.  Recently, our baby has moved to a head down position so we are anticipating a normal delivery.  Please continue to pray for us as the birth date approaches and our continued transition to life here!   More to come and check out our recent pictures from here on this site!