Denver, Thanksgiving and More

Well, this past week has flown by. Partly because the Denver team was here including Mom, Dad, Jake, Dan and Tess. So, our week was unusually filled with activity. On Thursday, we had our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. They cooked a total of eight turkeys this year (I think) and served over 200 people. I even contributed to the meal by making 8 apple pies. In addition to inviting everyone from church, we also invited the kids' teachers from school and our local DIF workers (which is why we had so many people). It was a great experience, but I don't necessarily appreciate being surrounded by hundreds of people.

Friday, the day the team left, Dan and Tess accompanied Joel and I to Tuscon where we picked up Jared and ran a few errands. Being out of the loop as I am, I totally forgot it was Black Friday until we were waiting at the border. Upon realizing this rather unpleasant reality, I tried to be positive. "Well, at least everything will be cheap!" It actually wasn't that bad. And I'm soo glad to have Jared down here with us.

Also on Friday, a group of staff and kids from CVE left for a long weekend in Tecate where they visited a sister church. Bere, who takes care of the two youngest kids, also went on the trip so Joel (and Jared) and I had the wonderful privilege of caring for Gloria and Beni for four days. The first night was a little rough. Beni is not that great of a sleeper...he makes a lot of noise and fusses a lot. He doesn't necessarily need anything, he just grunts and whines and groans a lot. So I got only a couple hours of sleep Friday night. Thankfully, Saturday and Sunday were better. We put Beni out in the kitchen area where we couldn't hear all his little grunts and groans...only when he cried. Praise God for creative husbands!

Gloria and Beni. Gloria loves Beni. She pats him affectionately and showers him with kisses.

Joel enjoyed watching Beni, too. At first he was a little freaked out by such a small baby, but he got over it, as you can see here. He even fed him and changed his diaper!

I think Beni enjoyed his time with Joel just as much as Joel enjoyed his time with Beni.

Just look at that sweet smile!

On a side note, Beni is doing so much better than when he first got here. He's starting to gain weight, his congestion in his lungs is improving, his fingernails and hair are growing, and his umbilical hernia is looking much better. Plus, he's starting to interact with his environment a lot more. He smiles, coos and kicks away. He's actually really strong. I wouldn't be suprised if he started rolling over in the near future. Thanks for all your prayers for this little guy!

And last but not least, here's a picture of Glori all ready for church. She looked so cute on Sunday morning and she was in such a fun mood. :)

Though we were sad to hand them back over to Bere, we were also thankful for our own bed and blessed quietness during the night last night. We plan on relaxing this week and enjoying our time with Jared before heading to IL/IN for Dan and Tess's wedding in a couple weeks.

Blessings!

My Apologies

Well, as the title states...my apologies everyone. It has been almost three weeks since I last updated on here and a LOT has happened...let me tell you.

First of all, Joel and I applied for our FM-2s and got them! An FM-2 is a long-term worker/visitor visa in Mexico. We have to renew it once a year for 5 years. After that, we can apply for either permanent residency or citizenship. We've prayed for a long time about whether or not we should get them. Even after we filled out all the applications we said, "God, if we're not meant to have them, please close the door." But everything went very smoothly the day we went to turn everything in. A HUGE thanks to Nicole for all her help!

Second of all, I cannot have a post without updating everyone about Mack. There's not a lot to say about him. He's learning new things every day. And he's still growing. He is now almost 6 months old and cute as ever! Below are some pictures to prove my point. :)

Here he is posing ever so nicely for the camera. He loves to come in the house in the morning and at night (probably because it's pretty chilly outside at those times). During the day it's still 70s-80s, but at night it can get down into the 60s and upper 50s. Which, to some of you northerners might not seem that cold, but remember Mexican houses do not have heat, so it's the same temperature inside as it is outside. *Brrr*

Here's another adorable photo. Be thankful I don't post every picture I have of him...because I have a lot. He just finished "working" with Joel on some new tricks.

In other news, sadly due to the colder temperatures at night, two of our parakeets have died. We try to remember to turn the heater on (we have a portable electric heater for them in the garage) but both times we've forgotten, one has died. Sad, I know. You can cry if you want...it's okay.

Part of my excuse for not posting lately is that I've been busy loving on the newest member of the CVE family. His name is Bernardo. He's 4 months old. And in case you didn't know... I absolutely LOVE babies! They were my favorite part of working in Peds and I was so sad to give them up. They are such amazing little miracles. They simply scream praise of God's greatness and awesomeness! I get to take care of him on Wednesdays and Thursdays and whenever Bere needs an extra hand. What can I say? I love my new assignment! :) Below are a few pics. *'Awws' would be a very appropriate response...these pictures do not do him justice!*

Here's a photo of his sweet little face. Sadly, photos are deceiving as he's not a very good sleeper.

Here's an awake picture. Isn't he absolutely adorable? I just love him to death!

You can't see very well, but he's smiling at me in this photo. He smiles at me a lot. And he talks to me. We've had some pretty good conversations, if I do say so myself. :)

This week, the Denver team is here. It's good to have Mom, Dad, Jake, Dan and Tess here. It's also weird having so many people around. I haven't decided if I like it yet or not. Lots of people are intimidating.

It's so strange thinking that a year ago I came on the same team with Jared, Sarah, Caleb and Erin. It was the first time I remember meeting Joel. How things have changed in one year! God is amazing.

Wanna hear something exciting? JARED IS COMING ON FRIDAY!!!! I'm so excited to see him and have him experience the everyday life of los Lemans (though it's really not that exciting, is it Sarah). And then after that is Dan and Tess's wedding, so we'll be in IL/IN for a few days. And after that is Christmas and New Years. And after that we head to beautiful Colorado for both family Christmases. And after that Ryan and Brittany are coming. And sometime after that Momma and Papi are coming (and Mike and Dave)...wow, lots to look forward to. :)

Well, I shant bore you all any longer with my ramblings. I mostly posted just to show Mom a photo of the little boy who's stolen a piece of my heart. But while you're at it, you can definitely pray for wisdom in caring for him. He's not the healthiest baby, and sometimes life with him can be challenging.

Okay, enough. Love you all.

Blessings.

A Tail with Two Ears

So the nature of this post, I must admit, will probably gross many of you out. But it has been such a momentous occasion in our household that I must share it.

Ever since we moved into our house here in Magdalena (at the end of July), we've noticed an unpleasant odor originating in our kitchen. At first we just dismissed it as a moldy, mildewy smell (you know how all houses have a distinct "smell") that was just characteristic of the house itself. Once we unpacked all our stuff and got the air circulating again, it seemed to help a little.

After a month or so, however, we noticed the smell was getting more pungent. We especially noticed it's strong presence when we returned from taking care of Jenna's kids. With not having the air on, no windows open, etc...the whole house positively reeked. I noticed a few times that the smell got even stronger when I would open the oven door and even worse than that when I'd open the broiler. Well, I tried to clean the oven and broiler, but my arms weren't quite long enough or skinny enough or agile enough...whatever you want to blame it on...to clean the whole thing. So I tried baking some things. The gas oven plus the flame, I thought, should just burn up whatever nasty smell is left down there.

Well, baking would help for a day and then the smell would return. I contemplated pulling the oven out and seeing if there was anything behind it/under it that may be causing the smell, but natural gas just makes me nervous. HOWEVER, last Saturday, my wonderful husband decided to have a look for himself. And this is what we found...

A lovely, disgusting, rotting mouse that has probably been decaying since the day we moved in.

Well, my oh so macho husband had a mild breakdown and came running to me in the bedroom proclaiming, "Babe, we have a dead rat behind our oven. It's seriously so huge." Well, ladies and gents, it was clearly not a rat, but nonetheless disgusting. I have no idea where it came from or how it got there; I have never even seen a mouse in or near our house. And it smelled so so so so so so so so bad.

Though elated we were to have discovered the source of all the bad smells, we were no closer to having it removed. Neither one of us had long enough arms to reach the thing (even if we did, there's no way I'm touching a dead, decaying mouse) and the hoses for the gas didn't allow the oven to be pulled out any further.

About that same time, I remembered the barbecue tongs that the previous owners had left in the broiler along with a few other grilling tools and thus the method for extracting the dead body was realized. After a few unsuccessful attempts (which were greeted with gags and gasps by both parties) we finally managed to successfully place the decaying form in a zip lock which was promptly sealed and double bagged. And not to fear, the barbecue tongs were tossed along with the body.

*You may now shiver/gag/shudder/fill in the blank* Here's a picture of the pitiful thing. It was really more liquid than solid and stunk to high heaven. I sprayed down the whole kitchen with disinfectant spray after we threw it in the garbage.

I was sharing this story with my brother Jared the other day and he asked, "So did you give it to Mack?" ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Who knows what kind of nastiness and infectious diseases that little vermin was carrying. Mack had no idea what was going on. He was safely secluded in the garage during the whole ordeal.

On an equally disgusting note...*ahem*...the following is not for the faint of stomach: I've been blessed with being sick the last few days and thus confined to home. We put our garbage out on Monday night like always (usually it's gone Tuesday morning when we wake up and we just bring the garbage can back in) so thankful to soon be rid of the rotten mess. HOWEVER, as I was sitting in the office Tuesday morning around 8, the garbage men came...a little later than usual. Well, to my shock and horror, they went through our garbage and would you believe it...TOOK the barbecue tongs. *gag* I actually saw them sort through our garbage and place the tongs in the cab, separate from the garbage. You cannot fully appreciate the grossness of this act until you realize the reason Joel and I decided to throw them out is because they had mouse hair/body remnants/decay juices/etc all over them and there was no way I was keeping them. We never used them anyways. And they reeked of dead animal (after all those failed attempts and such). I was so grossed out. It makes me wonder what else they've taken from our garbage.

Well, enough grossing you all out for now. I'm going to go enjoy a meal in my now pleasant-smelling and very clean kitchen. Until next time.

Blessings!

Fall in Mexico

So, as you can probably guess, fall in Mexico is not nearly as exciting as fall in Central Illinois. There are no trees to turn colors. There are no leaves to make it smell like fall. There are no corn fields. There are no bean fields. There are no combines. There are no pumpkins. There is absolutely nothing that reminds me of fall back in Roanoke. BUT, have no fear. Even though we are missing fall decorations, Joel and I are still attempting to remind ourselves that it is indeed almost November and therefore indeed fall. So, when we went to Tuscon last Friday and Saturday, we bought candles with the scents of fall! Plus, my awesome mother sent me a package last week filled with fall leaves. My favorite part was definitely the smell. But I liked the colors, too. Thanks Mom!

Here is a beautiful photo of one of the four candles we purchased. This one is scented Apple Spice...I think it's my favorite.

Oh, what would a blog post be without mentioning Mack? I thought I would show off his flexibility skills. He's quite the contortionist. I don't know why, but his ears itch a lot...a lot a lot. So, we frequently see him doing back bends such as this to relieve his poor itching ears.

But on the the news I know you're dying to hear. As I mentioned in the last post, we took care of Jenna's four kids for about ten days the last couple weeks. It was definitely a new experience for both of us, but we enjoyed it a lot. The kids were so good; we couldn't have asked for better behaved kids. Thanks Alexia, Jazany, Ramses and Julissa for such a great few days! The time flew by. We will take care of you anytime.

One major bummer was that I wasn't really diligent in getting out my camera to capture the fun times we had with the kids. I have a few pictures below, but I only have a picture of Juli...Alexia, Jazany and Ramses will sadly have to wait until another post to make their appearance. However, these kids are a few additional reasons why I love being down here...

Gloria playing with her blocks. We watched her one day while Bere was gone. I think I'm definitely partial to the babies still. My favorite was when she was being bad so I made her sit on a chair for a few minutes. Oh my, you would have thought the world was ending...such devastation on that tiny little face!

Here's Jose. He is Alexia and Ramses' younger brother (and Gloria is also their younger sister along with Nereida). He loves pestering the dogs and gets into typical boy trouble all the time. But sometimes he's really hard to discipline...who can resist such a cute face? *ahem* Don't be fooled...he's quite the little stinker.

Here's a picture of Juli and Nere...at times best friends and other times worst enemies. But, both are usually super sweet and absolutely adorable.

Like I said, we really enjoyed the time we had with the kids, but we were also very ready to be back home. I'm glad to have my normal routine back and a clean house. After leaving it for almost two weeks it was disgustingly dusty. Thank you, Mexican desert, for loving my home so much to stop by and for always reminding me that you're there if I should need you. I missed school for two weeks while taking care of the kids, and let me tell you...Poncho was keeping track. What a nut. Every day he would tell me how many days I had missed (6 in total). Someday I'll have to post pictures of the school so everyone can know more about that...but that's for another day, another time.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us while taking care of the kids. It's such a responsibility care for kids. It's easy to love them...not so easy to discipline them when they need it and make them do things they don't want to do. Thanks, Mom and Dad for loving me enough to correct me when I was wrong. And God bless all you parents out there. You have been given a mission of missions. Love you all!

Blessings

More House Pictures

Well, I decided that since we're taking care of Jenna's kids (starting tomorrow) that I might not get a chance to post this week. So, instead of skipping a week, I thought I'd post now and if I post again, it'll just be a treat...two posts in one week! The only problem is that I don't really have anything note-worthy to post about. So, I shall just show you all more of our house. Sound good? Good.

Well, first I had to post a picture of Mack. Isn't he getting big? The other night we gave him a bath (and therefore took off his collar). His neck is so thick. Actually his whole body is extremely muscular. If he were a human, he'd definitely be a football player.

Ta da! Here's the kitchen. It's very generous for a Mexican kitchen. I have plenty of cabinet space; however, I would like more than 5 drawers. Hence the need for a utensil canister.

This clock and plaque are on the wall beside the refrigerator. The plaque was a gift, but we bought the clock. It's really nice to have a battery operated clock since our power goes out all the time and messes up the other clocks.

This is above the kitchen table. I didn't include the table in this picture because otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the cute little cacti on the shelf! Plus, the kitchen table isn't nearly as exciting as the wall decor.

Moving on to the bathroom. It's really small. You could probably sit on the toilet, wash your feet in the shower and wash your hands in the sink all at the same time.

Here's another shot of the bathroom. The bathroom door barely fits. There's no way you can stand by the sink and shut the door. There's seriously 0.00001 (a very scientific estimate for sure) inches to spare between the door and the bathroom counter.

And this is the office. Hopefully someday we'll get a futon so we can accommodate more than two guests at a time...and some more bookshelves, too. But it serves wonderfully right now.

Moving outside. I realized I've never posted a good shot of our patio area outside. This isn't the greatest shot, but I finally remembered on day while doing the laundry. The metal in the back is a small utility shed. The table-looking thing on the right is actually our brick barbecue, but we've discovered it functions equally well as a plant stand.

Pictures I realized I never posted from the family room. Joel's drum, my keyboard and the beautiful fake tree our landlord so graciously left us.

Our wedding pictures came!! So I could finally take a picture of the second end table (because we finally have pictures in the picture frames).

And, Mom, I just wanted you to see the front of our wedding photo album. Isn't it lovely? I like it a lot. Now it's your turn to order.

As I mentioned earlier, Joel and I are going to be watching Jenna's 4 kids for the next week or so. I'm a little nervous. So if everyone could please pray for wisdom in guiding the kids these next several days, I know we would both greatly appreciate it. Pray that they can see God's work in our lives. Pray that they can feel God's love through us. Pray that we can teach them what God wants them to learn. Pray that we can be good examples of a godly couple (because the don't get to see it very often...especially this up close and personal). Just pray however you feel moved to pray. To God be the glory.

Blessings

San Jose de Bacum and Obregon

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to visit a sister church in a little town named San Jose de Bacum. There were ten of us total: Joel, me, Todd, Pau, Bere, Ely, Uriel, Fede, Frankie, and Gloria. We all piled into a 15 passenger van Friday afternoon (after the kids got out of school) and headed out.

The trip, estimated to be 5 hours, actually took 6 because...#1 we had to stop and import our vehicle because we passed a certain distance into the state and #2 we got lost (several times). A lot of the getting lost was no one's fault: part of the highway was closed down because there was a small 'mob' standing protest, the detour we took was on dirt roads with no signs, and we got bad directions because unbeknownst to our previous knowledge there is a small town very close to San Jose de Bacum named Bacum. *sigh* But we made it.

Upon arriving, we were warmly welcomed by the minister and his wife: Marcelo and Maria. They fed us, gave us nice beds to sleep in, and were excellent company the entire weekend. Here are some pictures of their house.

Here's their house. The 'old' sanctuary is actually attached to their house. They've now made it into a dorm room, basically, and that's where the boys slept. The girls slept in Marcelo and Maria's bedroom and Joel and I slept in the two youngest boys' room. I'm not really sure where the family slept. They were so kind to give up their beds for us.

This is a picture of the garage area and our dining room for the weekend. As you can tell by the large puddles, it rained almost the entire weekend. San Jose is only about an hour from the coast and a hurricane hit Baja California last week, so we were blessed by rain from that.

Saturday after breakfast, we (including the Marcelo and his family) headed to Obregon, a nearby city, for the day. Our first stop was the laguna, a work they use for pond, lake, etc. It was really beautiful. Mom, David would have loved it...there were TONS of turtles in the water. But apparently the turtles there are a bit more aggressive than Mac was because their was a sign that said, "Swim at your own risk" and not because there was no lifeguard, but because the turtles bite!

Here's a picture of Marcelo and his son. If you look at the water you can see numerous turtle heads. I'm not kidding; there were TONS of them.

Here's a photo with some of the group. I never did get a photo of the whole group. L to R: Uriel, one of Marcelo's sons (I never could remember their names), Fede, Ely, Frankie, Marcelo and another one of his sons.

An 'artistic' shot of the laguna. It was cloudy all day, but we never got rained on. Once we returned to Marcelo and Maria's house, it started pouring. God wanted us to have a good day, I think.

Here's the three boys. They were fun. For all they've been through in their short lives, they've turned out amazingly well. God has been good.

After walking around the laguna, we stopped at a nearby stand for coconut milk and some other snacks. Marcelo and Maria shared a coconut. I've had the milk before but never the actual meat...and I think it's gross. I probably won't be trying it again anytime soon...just FYI. Some of the kids got fruit ice things, too. I tried three different flavors and they were all so incredibly sweet they made me want to vomit. Not very many things are sweet in Mexico, and it really surprised me that the kids even liked them. Usually they don't like sweet things.

After our time at the laguna, we headed further into town for lunch. We ate at My Burger. The burgers there weren't nearly as delightful as the ones in Morelia, but they were still good. The kids enjoyed the short trek into town. And Joel and I enjoyed some one-on-one time with Gloria, the youngest member at CVE.

On our way through Obregon, I spotted this lovely sculpture outside a doctor's office. It made me smile.

Doesn't Gloria look like she is just loving the fact that Joel is kissing her?

Here we are in the van. Before we took this picture she was making a funny face, thus the explanation for my goofy countenance.

Saturday night, we had a Bible study with the church members. And Sunday was a traditional service. They don't have a huge congregation there, but considering the size of the town, it's decent sized. After church on Sunday, we had lunch with everyone before hitting the road again.

Here's a picture of the sisters enjoying each others' company.

Like I said, it rained and rained and rained and rained while we were there. All of San Jose's roads are dirt. Thus, the result of water + lots of dirt = lots of mud puddles. It was quite an adventure.

And because of all the mud and mud puddles, this was a common sight.

It was such a wonderful weekend in San Jose. The people there are so loving; they really made you feel like you were home. They have huge hearts for God and others. Please pray that God will continue to bless them richly for their love.

Even though we had such a wonderful time, we were all ready to be back home, too. There's just no place quite like home. The ride home went much smoother (and faster) than the ride down. We left at 3 and were home at 7...thanks to our fearless driver, my handsome husband.

On our way out of San Jose, this is what we encountered...a herd of goats and their guard dogs. The dogs stared us down for a while and finally the whole group just moved out of the way. I like goats, so I took a picture.

Poor Gloria was tuckered out. She fell asleep about 30 seconds after being placed in her car seat.

In other news unrelated to either San Jose or Obregon, we found some nasty looking grub things in the pots of our geraniums and one of the cannas. We think they were eating the roots thus preventing growth (and eventually survival) of the plants. So Joel so graciously went through all the dirt and picked them out. They were disgusting. They had white bodies and orange heads, and when you squish them...they're black. I assume it's because of all the dirt they get while making a meal of plant roots.

Despite their intention to kill, however, our other plants continue to do well. We actually have three pots of cannas. And, joy of all joys, when we got home on Sunday we noticed one of them was flowering! They're so pretty, as you can see below. I haven't told Joel yet, but I think we need to reconsider turning our patio into a jungle. Pretty soon I'm not going to have anywhere to hang my laundry.

Here's a picture of the lovely canna flower. I just realized that you can see my mop drying in the background, too. How lovely.

This week, thankfully, hasn't brought a lot of suprises. Next week, however, we will temporarily be moving to CVE to take care of Jenna's four kids for a week or so. Prayers for patience and wisdom would be greatly appreciated. I've come to love all the kids at CVE so much. I just pray that they can feel God's love and see His work in my life. They're so precious. Please keep them in your prayers.

Blessings to all.

Sarah Jo

So sorry it has taken me so long to post again. The biggest news from Magladena is that my cousin Sarah came and visited us last weekend. She and her friend Katrina flew in on Thursday afternoon. We picked them up in Tuscon and arrived at CVE just in time for supper. It was quite an adventure getting across the border. We even had the privilege of having our vehicle x-rayed! I guess there's a first for everything.

Saturday we had the opportunity to travel to Banamichi (actually a town near there, but I don't remember it's name). We visited a park there that had hot springs and a waterfall. The hot springs are a whopping 138 degrees. Much too hot for me, but the kids loved swimming in the pools. We hiked back into a small canyon to find the waterfall, which...well, scroll down and you'll see. It was a long, tiring, but very enjoyable day.

Here's a view looking up out of the canyon we hiked into.

Life with the kids at CVE is always an adventure...no matter where you are or what you're doing.

Here sits the beautimous Sarah Jo. She's enjoying the view of children playing in the sand and sunshine...who wouldn't?

Here's a picture of the "waterfall." Since the rains didn't really come this year, it was more of a six-inch wide trickle. But the kids still loved playing in the pool at the bottom.

Despite the heat, it really was a beautiful day.

Here's a picture of Julissa. She's my buddy. I just love her.

Sunday, of course, was church. And then Sunday afternoon/evening...

Sarah, Katrina, Nicole and I cooked supper for everyone. (I stole this picture from Sarah because I neglected to take my camera along.) Thanks for all your work, Sra Jo...it was a most enjoyable dinner.

Here's a picture of the three of us (also stolen from Sarah) the day she left. Thanks for coming, Sarah Jo. We loved having you here!

I hate to cut this short, but we're leaving in about 30 minutes to visit San Jose for the weekend. We have a sister church there and a group of us from CVE are going. Please pray that it could be a blessing to the church there and that we could establish good relationships with the believers there.

Blessings!