Hand surgery today

Annie has been taking care of me lately, she wraps up my hand, gives me her favorite blankets and of course takes my temperature. She is a wonderful Dr. ;o)


Annie playing doctor, can you tell she lives in Mexico?


Hi everyone, I am posting this on Sunday night in preparation for tomorrow morning. I will have surgery on my hand. It is minor surgery. I have mentioned before that I have had some wrist problems. At first I thought it was carpal tunnel, but then they explained it was more like tendonitis. However, there is a cyst that is sitting on a main nerve and it is rather large. So my Dr. has decided that it will be best if he removes this cyst. They tried to do this with laser therapy but it didn't work. So, although I hate to even ask for prayer because I am sure it will be fine, if you think about it, they will take this out at 10 am today (tomorrow) Monday
morning and I would appreciate your prayers! I will not be able to use my right hand for a week, so I am going to have Jerod or Greg do all the postings. Thanks for all your praying, without your prayers, we'd be lost!! Love, Missy

Happy Mother's Day!

My babies.


Me and my babies... from a different angle!

Annie waiting for her food.

Our favorite, homemade chips and salsa, oh how I will miss that!

This was my Mother's Day meal yesterday. It was awesome!! Of course I felt a little guilty after hearing the story below. ;o}

This is Cesilia, she was SOO happy with this present! Yesterday she told us how last Monday she wasn't sure what they were going to eat. She said she and her kids woke up hungry and they had NOTHING to eat. She said, "We knew we would have food at church that night, but we didn't know what we would do until then." She went on and told us how God provided just what they needed. She said a man came by and bought a big wooden post for about $3.50 and that allowed them to eat. She said, "God always takes care of me!"

The gifts ready to be delivered.

Me delivering gifts!

We have had a great day! Greg and the kids actually took me out to eat at my favorite restaurant yesterday. Then today we invited our friend, Cesilia over to eat with us. We had lasagna and they gobbled it up like they had never eaten. Cesilia is a widow and wasn't going to have a very happy day, so this made her sooo happy! We then delivered presents to the mothers in our church. Each mom received a bag with rice, beans, oil, a colorful spoon and a little tupperware container. They all loved the gifts and were very appreciative! I hope all of you "Mamas" out there are having a blessed day! Love to you all! Missy

Tennis pictures

Greg and his little princess!


Jerod playing some awesome song!

Alex working hard on following through!

Preparing for the United States

Hi everyone,



Well, our time seems to be flying by! Greg has been teaching the kids how to play tennis for the past few months. Since they haven't been involved in any organized sports over the past 3 years, we thought we should teach them something before returning to the states. So, Greg has been using his years of expertise to teach the kids tennis. They really like it a lot and we are happy that Jerod seems to really do well with this sport! Alex is more of a contact sport kinda guy, but he likes tennis too. They have both been enrolled in a home school football league this fall! They are very excited about that! Anyway, we are trying to figure out how to make this huge transition. This is not easy!

I know most of you are probably thinking that we are probably sooooo excited about returning to the states and we are excited about many aspects of it! However there are many things that will be hard to leave behind. Like our friends, our village, our church, the simple life, how slooooow life is here, and so much more! Of course we look forward to many things as well! Such as Chick-fil-a, seeing family,friends, snow, Christmas with family, Chick-fil-a, grass, parks and oh, did I mention .... Chick-fil-a?

Annie is sooo confused about this move. She asks me every few days if we are going to live in the comfy couch house. (the house we stayed in after she was burnt) I don't know if she has good memories of that house or bad memories. I try to explain that, no we will live in an apartment. "Okay, what is an apartment?" Hmm..... I have no idea what to tell her. She is just going to be confused for awhile I think. I mean can you imagine your 5 year old asking you these questions....
"Mama, what is a sand box?" "What is a Capri Sun?" "Who is Wendy's" "What is a mall?" "Why are all those kids on the big yellow bus?" "Where are the taxis?" "Where do we buy our tortillas?" "Why don't we have chickens in our backyard?" "Why are all the streets black?"(not dirt)

So, you can see the transition will be big for her! Remember, we left the US when she was 18 months old. So, if you think about it, we would appreciate your prayers! Much love from us all! Missy

4 years ago today....

Hi everyone,
I wish I had it in me to hunt down pictures from 4 years ago, but.... I don't. Four years ago today, we all boarded a plane in Richmond, Va. and headed to Costa Rica for language school. I was scared to death and had no idea what God had planned for our family, all I knew was that I was going to obey the call! Well, today the kids and I were thinking back over the past 4 years and it has been amazing to see how He has worked in our lives. The one thing we kept noticing is that God never left our side, not even for a minute. Each time we were scared or nervous or frustrated, HE always showed up and comforted us in every way. Our dream was to see a church planted here in our village, but when we arrived here it looked so unlikely that it could happen in 3 ( minus 1 in Costa Rica) short years. However, with God ALL things are possible! God really has been good to us! We are looking forward to our time in the states and looking forward to returning to our people at the same time! Love to you all!

Celebrating Children!

Here are some of the kids we have in our group. There were many missing, but this was who showed up on Monday night. We were celebrating Children's Day. They actually celebrate that here in a big way and it was last Thursday. We celebrated on Monday night with games and cupcakes. We had to laugh when they started eating the cupcakes. I guess they had never seen them before. They were just eating the tops because of the paper. So Greg finally told them they needed to take off the paper and they laughed and took it off.


This is Angelica, she was in charge of fixing the food for our Monday night meeting. She chose to fix tacos which everyone loved! She is such a pillar of strength in her family. While all of her family was at our meeting, her husband, Salvador was off drinking and causing problems. She is tired of fighting with him over his alcoholism. Will you pray?


This is how they heat up the food, this is an old barrel that is cut open. They use, old corn cobs for wood, as you can probably imagine, I usually have to pray a lot in order to NOT freak out when I am around these scenarios. Of course there were kids all around. Please pray that these children stay safe around all of these unsafe situations!

These two boys on the left have just accepted Jesus as their Savior. They are now trying to help their father understand what that means. Please pray for them.

This is Petra, you can pray for her and her husband Prisiliano. They are seeking God's will for their lives. We are praying that they will be our leaders in our church. We really need them to rise up!!

Love to you all! Missy Oh yeah, we are all still healthy and the threat of any flu seems to have passed! There is hardly anyone wearing masks anymore and we feel safe!! Thanks for praying!

Wedding

The bride.


This was the food served. Rice, beans and mole.

The OH so HAPPY couple! They already have a child who is about 9 months old. The bride is 17 years old and the groom is 19.

Notice this serving platter is on her head!

Wedding reception .

Boys playing on top of the roof, above the wedding

Little boy at the wedding

Wedding cake delivery.

Annie and friends running down the street .

On Saturday we attended a wedding with one of our friends. Her neice was getting married and she wanted us to join her for some of the festivities. I thought I would share some photos with you. Hope you like them. Not your typical wedding reception, huh?