A Wonderful Day, And a Major Prayer Request

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days.

Today couldn´t have been more extreme in either way. I spent the morning in pain and tears and the afternoon/evening in rapture, laughter, and frankly still quite a bit of pain.

This morning everything that could go wrong, did. Almost without exception. We got on the metro at 7:35 for what should have been a 30 minute ride to the train station to catch our train to Gibraltar which was scheduled to leave at 8:35. In the middle of the train ride the metro stopped, made all of us deboard and wait 10 minutes for the next train to go by, then in the middle of the next metro ride it stopped again for a few minutes. We were incredibly stressed by the time we got to the train station, at 8:20, but still sure we could make our train, because we thought we knew how to board the train. Yet another instance of us thinking we knew more than we really did.

We ended up having to run for the train, up the escalating staircase where I lost my balance (running with a huge backpack + being a huge klutz don´t go well together) and fell on the moving sidewalk/staircase. Insert awful pain and a sprained, swollen, black and blue, scraped up knee and a crying hurt Katie still running to make the stupid train to southern Spain.

With one minute to spare we made the train, where my hubby took wonderful care of me and even managed to communicate with the man in the dining car enough to get me a bag of ice for my knee. He prayed for me on the train, made me elevate my leg as much as possible and just generally babied me. God gave me the best husband, and I know it! He has been carrying both backpacks (I married the strongest man alive!) and supporting me. I couldn´t be more blessed with a wonderful loving hubby. He takes such good care of me!

Thankfully the hotel was just across the street from the train station, so I hobbled over there, and we assessed the situation. It´s not good, but it could be worse. We decide to go ahead and take the train to Gibraltar and see what we can do. Dan said he´d carry me the whole way if necessary (and he was serious! I love my strong hubby!).

In Gibraltar we saw the amazing Rock of Gibraltar, which is breathtaking. The huge expanse of stone surrounded by the beach reminded me of the need to build my house on the rock that is Jesus Christ, not on the sinking sand of the world.

We decided to take a taxi tour because Dan didn´t want me walking on my knee more than necessary. The taxi driver, Dennis, was a joy to be around. He was very kind, knew all the ins and outs, helpful, and knowledgable. I´d highly reccommend a taxi tour, even if you don´t have a bum knee, because we got to go in areas that other tourists can´t get into, and you get the insider experience.

Best of all, we got to hold wild monkeys! I´m completely serious and have the photos and videos to prove it!

In Gibraltar, Barbary Macaques run wild (in fact, it is the only area in Europe with wild monkeys) and the taxi drivers know how to interact with them. Dennis stopped in a special area where they came right up and jumped on the taxi, and eventually on Dan & me! Dennis fed them and let us both hold one big one and one small one. It was amazing! We actually held and interacted with 2 wild monkeys! There are approximately 250 wild monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar and this was an experience we will never forget!

For reference, until I can upload my pictures & video from our camera, here are some pictures from wikipedia of Macaques:




Tomorrow we venture into Morocco, Africa! Exciting!

So a reminder of our main prayer requests:

Please be praying for healing of my knee. It makes it difficult to enjoy backpacking with a swollen painful knee.

Please be praying for our saftey in Morocco.

Thank you, dear ones, and forgive the scatterbrained post. I´m exhausted, and in need of food! Love to all.

Stuck in Spain

Well our trip has hit a little snafu, we are stuck in Madrid for an extra day because of an over booked train.

Oh well, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, my still a bit sniffly hubby is laying next to me and I will be a kind wife and not disclose the adorable sound his stuffy nose is making. We both could use some extra sleep, so we're taking advantage of this "disaster".

An additional prayer request:

Our travels down into Africa will be a little bit more dangerous and difficult as much fewer people speak English in Morocco and it is notorious for petty theft. Please pray for God's extra protection as we venture into this exotic area.

Love to all.

Prayer Requests: Updated As of 22:41 My Time (That's 4:41 PM Back in Indy...)

Dan & I are safely in Madrid, and were reflecting today how incredibly blessed we have been this trip. God's protection has been visible and amazing in some of the most stressful situations, and throughout the whole trip!

We have a few prayer requests:

1. Dan is sick. It is nothing serious, but he's got a pretty nasty cold, and could use prayer. It's no fun having a runny nose, sore throat, cough, and fatigue normally; however, compound that with going nonstop, traveling in cramped quarters, and a diet that is not my normal cooking (let's just say, it's hard to eat as heathy as we Ambroses do at home!) and it means that Dan is down a bit. So your prayers for his quick recovery would be appreciated greatly!

2. Dan's iPhone seems to be no longer working. It will still connect to WiFi networks, but cannot make or receive any calls. We're not positive if it is a problem with the phone itself, the network, or AT&T, but Dan's fiddling with the phone as we speak... Prayers he doesn't break it, wouldn't be out of place either ;) We are checking his voicemail via my phone, so at least he's not completely out of touch, but until we can solve the issue please understand that he is not reachable via phone. If you need to reach him, please call my (Katie's) phone. If you don't have the number, email us.

3. My headaches. Oy. Praise God that I haven't gotten any serious migraines since the Feast (and the one at the Feast was healed after being annointed and having hands layed on me, Praise God again!) however, my background headaches have been bad and really diminishing my energy levels, which is discouraging sometimes. Prayers for healing or at least relief would be appreciated!

And a HUGE praise report and news in the Ambrose family (an no, not a pregnancy announcement). Dan has an official start date for his new job, October 30th--with Ambassador Solutions as a lead developer/architect. God has had His hand in this from the beginning, and all glory to Him, His timing is perfect! Further, all of our benefits will start November 1st, so we won't have any lapse in benefits when we get back from Europe. God really works things out to the last detail!

Hopefully I can post more tonight, from the hotel. Sunday we're off to Africa! I can't tell you how much fun and how exciting this trip has been!