Earthquakes, first day of school, and other adventures!

This is what I wrote on our family website, it seemed a lot easier to copy and paste than re-type!
Thanks everyone for wondering, we are doing okay-- the ´quake was 8.4 here in town, and it did do considerable damage to places like the airport and lots of the highways-- we were without power for 24 hours, but it seems to be back- hope it lasts! There are broken water pipes here in town, and it appears that there is no gas-- but for now we are okay.So, Marcelo and I were out dancing with some friends and ex-mission companions when the quake started- we had just sat down to rest for a few minutes, and a waiter came over to ask if we wanted anything. We said no, and he got this funny look on his face and asked if we could feel the earth shaking- I thought he was joking because I could feel it, but thought it was just because we had been dancing for almost four hours and my body was just starting to have muscle spasms because it´s not used to so much exercise! But then it started a lot harder and we looked at each other and decided we better go outside-- we were in a place that has five or six large pub/discos that share a main courtyard, so we went out to the middle and started to look around- the tall buildings loked like they were made of jello as they moved back and forth, and after a few seconds we could hear the sound of exploding glass, then the earthquake sirens went off, and the power went out. Then things got really interesting as we were standing in the dark and the quake got stronger- I think those were three of the longest minutes of my life!! All I could do was pray that my kids would be okay- my mother in law is terrified of earthquakes, and she was home with the babies--- after it was over most of the cell phones didn´t work, but miraculously Marcelo got a call through to his mom, and she said that everything was okay at home, and that the kids basically slept through it. We went to take our friends home, and on the way we saw some of the damage that was done- streets were flooded, huge windows shattered, and basically evreything that was made of adobe had fallen-- things looked pretty scary when we dropped our friends off, there were roads that were blocked by fallen walls, and no power anywhere-- but when we got to our side of town things looked a little less drastic-- we live on the south east side of Santiago, and the houses here are a bit newer (less than 80 years old, mostly...) and they withstood the earthquake better than those on the other side of town- and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to get home because there was no light and we took the wrong exit and basiclly took a tour of the city-- but thankfully all was well when we got here, and now that we have power back for the moment I think we will be okay.Ever since we got married we have talked about the necessity of getting our food storage and that kind of thing, and it has been reinforced as to why it is so important- we got here two months ago, so we don´t have very much, but we will get it! I am just very thankful that we are okay, and feel blessed that we live on the side of town that we do- and that our Heavenly Father protected us- we have many friends who live near the epicenter of the quake, and so far we have heard from most of them that they are okay- and we just feel blessed...
We have had less than 10 deaths in Santiago, and there have been more than 700 in the rest of the country-- and they haven't counted the people from whole beach-side communities that were washed away. Makes me think that the small amounts of structural damage that was done here wasn't that big of a deal after all... I am feeling very blessed, especially since we had talked about going to the beach this weekend, before the kids start school next week-- but things didn't seem to work out for some reason, and now we know the reason--- the place we would have gone is 80% submerged right now, and the rest of the town is in ruins. As I said before, we are blessed- so please, everyone remember that sometimes when things don't work out as you would like, it may be that Heavenly Father is protecting you in ways that you can't forsee.
We love you all, and thank you again for your prayers. We have many mission companions and friends who we haven't heard from, as well as distant relatives- it is going to be a long, hard rebuilding process for everyone... But sometimes I wonder if we are here because our Father in Heaven thinks that we can help... Maybe this is why we were supposed to be here right now. Who knows? I am sure we will find out!
This is the new part:Daniel and Alin started school on the 8th of March. THey are going to a semi-private school that is a 6 minute walk from our house here, it is a Catholic school, but basically any good school here is-- we had to go to a parent´s orientataion the other night and it was pretty interesting for it to start with a prayer and a Hail Mary! It is going to take some getting used to! And the kids asked me the other day why we don´t do ¨Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes¨after we have our prayers, and it took me a minute to realize that they were asking why we don´t cross ourselves! I explained that it is not something that Heavenly Father wants us to do, but that since it is something that they are told to do in school it´s okay to do it there...Alin isn´t doing that great in school, because she doesn´t want to try to speak Spanish. At first when we would say prayers and stuff that she would repeat in Spanish when we lived in the States, she had way better pronunciation than Daniel- but now he talks to everyone about everything, and has no problems communicating! And she won´t even try!

But it has been a huge blessing for Daniel to be able to talk, he has friends that live next door now, and he is getting to be quite social. He is always reminding me that he is the big boy, and that he remembers when we lived at our other house-- I think that it is his way of telling me that he misses it there, but that he is okay here. I just wish I felt the same! I am okay here, but I miss my family, especially my mom-- she´s amazing, and I love her so much. At least I can look forward to Marie´s wedding this fall, when Marcelo and I will be able to run home for a week or so and celebrate with them...