Arrived!

We have arrived in the US to begin our furlough. There is much work and preparation to do for our next term.

We praise the Lord for a great flight and His help in re-adjusting to US life.

Now we would ask you to help us pray that the Lord will help us find the right place to live. We don't want to just "pick something" but we want it all to be ordained of the Lord.

The Lord is helping, yet tears came to our eyes Sunday when we sang (in English) "I have decided to follow Jesus". It was as if we could hear our people singing it and our thoughts immediately turned to them and their Sunday service.

Separation is never easy. We ask that you pray for them and us while we are apart.

Thanks friends!

Christmas Eve day pictures

Well, here goes the Christmas pictures! Aren't you proud of me? It's even still January. :-)

We had a wonderful Christmas! Since Christmas was on a Sunday and Sundays are very busy for us, we celebrated our Christmas day on Christmas Eve day. That way we could take more time and play with the children etc.

Going into Christmas this year, I knew we would not be able to do much. We combined money with some family members to buy the children 1 nice gift. Others talked about some of their children's big gifts and then their little gifts and I began to feel bad knowing that our one gift wouldn't compare to what other kids were getting.

I told the children the situation and not to expect more than 1 gift for Christmas. While they had a good attitude about it, I still felt sad in my heart wanting to give my children more. We do not really do much for our children any time of the year so at Christmas I like to give them special things. I did mention it to my brother and he said he remembered as a child at Christmas time they would get just one gift. So it comforted my heart to know kids could survive with just 1 Christmas gift. :-)

Without telling anyone else about the situation, I took my sad heart to the Lord and told Him all about it. I left it all with Him telling Him, "You can make this Christmas as big or as little as you want and we'll be content with whatever it is knowing that it came from you."

Little did I know that my prayers were being answered as a church back home began preparing a box of Christmas presents to send us!!! When the box arrived in the mail flight and I saw how huge it was, tears nearly fell from my eyes. God had heard this mother's prayer and proved to me that He could make my childrens' Christmas big! I have learned that God cares about Christmas gifts! He has answered so many desires of my heart at Christmas time as I have taken them to Him!

This was the simple gifts we had for each other for Christmas!

And this is what it looked like after we received the box of gifts from the church!
The children eagerly awaiting to open the pile of gifts!
B. loves airplanes and was thrilled to receive these! We have found him buried in the book at times. :-)
He also loves baseball and was thrilled to receive a new bat!

Christmas

R. got a cookbook and some yummy smelling shower gel. She also got a fun book and an art set!
R. was thrilled to get legos. He is collecting them.

He also got hot wheel cars - which was a miracle from the Lord! He had told me earlier in the fall that he wanted hot wheel cars for Christmas. I knew what we were already getting and I didn't foresee hot wheels cars making it into the picture, but God saw a little boys heart and without me saying anything to anyone - hot wheels cars arrived in his Christmas package! God cares about every detail of our lives!

J. (even though he doesn't look thrilled in this picture) :-) was thrilled to get legos, too. He is quite good at building with them.

Christmas continued

J. got a package of goodies!

I got a box of neat stuff - candle (which I've been burning and it smells yummy!), deoderant, hand gel, etc.
I also got some shower gel and perfume. Shower gel is a luxury to me because it is too expensive for me to justify buying here. I am thoroughly enjoying using it!

D. got some hunting magazines.....

and some mind puzzles like this one that he enjoys figuring out.

We also received other gifts from them such as yummy candy, hot pads etc. We enjoyed the delicious chocolate and candy from the US! It's a treat for us!

Thank you to those who made our Christmas special and for being His hands extended to us in providing our "Christmas miracle".

Christmas Eve brunch

The Cinnamon rolls raised while we opened gifts.

Our simple Christmas brunch - ham & cheese quiche (delicious!), sausage patties that I was able to find at a grocery store here (rare), orange juice and the cinnamon rolls.
The cinnamon rolls after they were done. Mmmm!

My 2 little coffee drinkers. We 3 enjoyed coffee with our cinnamon rolls.

I poured their coffee in these cute mini coffee cups that I got as a gift at a Christmas gift exchange with some other American ladies.

Christmas pictures

This was an interesting contraption we saw. Notice it has Christmas lights on it. As we passed it, we saw it was some type of political bus.

During Christmas break (from school), we went as a family to visit 2 widowed ladies who used to come to church, but cannot anymore due to distance. I thought this was precious of her reading her Bible.
Hermana Chucha.

At Chucha's house, her daughter was making "Pasteles en hoja" - a traditional Christmas food. They fill banana leaves with some kind of filling and wrap it up and tie it and then cook it. I believe it is connected with Christmas because they liken it to Jesus being wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The Pasteles wrapped and ready to be cooked.

Christmas tree pictures

Ever since we have moved into this spacious house, I have wished for a big Christmas tree. Our little 3 foot one seemed so lonely. To buy one new is way expensive and we hardly ever buy anything new unless necessary so I remained content with my little tree.

This past fall the Lord blessed me with a tree that was being sold by someone leaving the country. We got a super deal on it. It is a pre-lit tree. I'm guessing to buy the lights alone would be what I paid for the tree. After we got it set up and decorated, we really liked it and it added a special touch to our Christmas this year. I am not rich. The Lord has always led us to what we desired or needed for bargain prices. It's amazing that He cares about the smallest details of our lives.

I could tell all about the decorations. They came from all different places - several different garage sales etc - and it all matches! The Lord is a wonderful decorator. It is amazing how He matches things.

It is fun to decorate our stairway.
More Christmas pictures to come - soon, I hope. Life is busy, but I hope to get them posted before next Christmas. Ha! :-)

Christmas tree pictures

We had fun varying the different ways you could set the lights. This picture is of the colored lights.

This is with just the white lights - my favorite.
And this is with both colored and white lights.

A close up.

It's still hard to believe we can ride bikes in Dec with no coats or anything.