This past February we were graced with my entire family visiting us. Though to be fair my “entire” family consists of 3 people (five including Jon and I), while Jon’s family is many, many more… I would get lost if I were to count. 20 to be exact.
It had been almost two years since I last saw my mom and sister, and a little less since I last saw my dad, either way it had been way too long. I was pretty darn glad to see those familiar faces arrive at the airport and to be smothered in kisses by my mama.
In the end, they spent almost two weeks in Paraguay. We adventured out in an old rental van to do our explorations, the van may or may not have died on us 3 times during the trip, adding a bit more to the sense of adventure. We visited a waterfall, went to Encarnación to watch carnaval and go to the river beach, felt the hustle and bustle of Asunción, and enjoyed the tranquilo life of our town, while they got to meet some of our favorite people.
In addition they got to experience the heat. And man was it hot, over 100 degrees every day. Jon likes to joke that no matter where I am I will always complain about the weather, Seattle is too grey, Iowa is too cold, Paraguay and Puerto Rico are too hot… the thing is, that I am sure that somewhere out there is a place with perfect weather and I am on a mission to find it. 
I am unsure if I have explained the extent of how debilitating the heat in this country is, it’s not just one hot week with peak temps in the summer, it’s months of it that never seem to end, and the temperature never drops, even at night. This means you never stop sweating and you can’t sleep because you don’t have an air conditioner. The lowest points of my service have been during these months, where the tears freely stream down my face. So, it was this heat that my parents endured and took on as champs, and on the upside, all of that sweating meant a natural detox for them, or something.
Though, this post’s goal wasn’t to speak about the heat, but just to state how glad I am that my entire family got to experience my little slice of the world. Los quiero mucho Mama, Papa, y Pamela! (and thank you to my parent’s for all of these pictures they took)