Missing you all!

Hi friends! I say every day that I have to update the blog and every day passes without an update. I miss writing on here because it is like I am talking with my friends. I miss talking to friends. I have so much to tell you and never have time to tell you. So, even though we just got home from church about an hour ago and it it is 11:15 at night  I  still wanted to talk to you all.

This past week has been good. I hear things that make me laugh from my kids and that is always a good thing. Greg hadn't shaved for a few days and he kissed Annie and she said, " Daddy your spikes are hurting me." I love that! Then she said tonight that she made some kids laugh through their lungs.  Where does she come up with that? Alex said something the other day and now I can't remember for the life of me what it was. They are all very Mexican again. Annie has really started to come out of her shell and is speaking Spanish again quite well. She forgets how to say some things and asks us, but all in all we couldn't be happier with how she is starting to remember. The boys play so well with the kids here. They have been enjoying Hotwheel races. Greg moves the truck out of our carport and they race cars for hours. It is fun to see.

Jerod turns 14 on Monday and it was neat to see how he wanted to spend his birthday. On Monday we have church so we wouldn't be able to do anything to celebrate so he chose to celebrate it last night. He wanted to rent a movie, which was Tooth Fairy, and watch it with our projector, then he wanted me to make homemade pizza, which was quite tasty if I do say so myself! :o) Then he received the gift that he wanted, a few Hotwheels and an ax. I would never have dreamed that at 14 those would be his wishes, but they were. So we watched our movie together as a family after he chopped some wood with his ax. :o) It was a great night!

We have been teaching a few words in English to a bunch of kids on the street and playing games with them for about an hour each week. These kids are precious and range from age 5 to 14. They all love to come and we all have a blast. Today after playing, Jerod invited them all to come to our church meeting. We were pleased to see that about 5 of them came. They sang songs with us, prayed with us and then heard how to have a relationship with Jesus. We were happy to see that their parents allowed them to come! We are hoping that some of them will come soon! Please pray!

At church tonight I was thinking of you all and wishing you could have seen the sight I saw. It was really quite funny. We all gathered in our friends home to worship and about the time Greg wanted to talk, the rain started. We are in the middle of our rainy season and it is going good. It poured! Now why is this funny? Well because we were beneath a tin roof. The noise was so loud that you couldn't hear anything. Finally Greg said, " Thank God for rain." and he sat down and we waited for about 15 minutes for it to calm down, then we prayed and the kids left to do their study and Greg was able to talk again.

After church I took some of our friends home because it was still raining. On the way we passed this little old woman, I would say in her 80's and all she had over her was a piece of plastic. It broke my heart. So, we invited her to get in the truck. She couldn't even hear, I think she was half deaf. She just smiled and did her best to climb in the truck.  So I asked where she was going and found out she was on her way to buy a candle. Her children have moved away, my friends told me that they don't care for her at all and she has no power. She just wanted to see. So after buying her 2 long wax candles like you would see on Little House on the Prairie, we drove her home. That is when I felt so ashamed. She had to first walk through a huge puddle to get to her gate, stand in the water to open it, then walk through what to me looked like a river to get to her home. Of course she did this in the dark b/c there were no lights. My friends said she lives very humbly. Now these friends are friends who have NOTHING so for them to say she lives humbly means she has NOTHING, literally. Our plan is to visit her soon and find out how we can help. Please pray for her. Her name was Eloise. Okay, I know that I have been long winded, my heart is heavy.

Ya know so many people ask about how things are here in Mexico. My answer is always the same, "It looks the same as it always has." Now that doesn't mean there aren't bad things happening. I am sure there are. There are bad things happening everywhere. But... I have been to a lot of places lately and everywhere I go, the people are precious and kind and loving and want to do their best to make a living so they can have water and food and a bed and their kids can have school supplies. I have found that in my opinion the majority of the people here are just wonderful! My heart breaks for them! Times are tough for them but just like that sweet little Eloise, walking through 6 inches of water on a cold dark night, she had the biggest smile. She was used to that life and was just thankful for a shorter walk. Please pray for Mexico. I love it here! Love to you all! I really will try to get some photos uploaded soon! Until then!