IM GOING TO BE AN AUNT AGAIN!!! x 2!!!

PRAISE GOD!

Its been a long day. I managed to get all the paper work and fines payed to get my car back. It took about 5 hours but its done.
Tonight I had a party with my neighbor friends. 9 of us get together when its our Birthday. We each give the Birthday girl $10 and spend a few hours catching up on things and just having fun. Well, its almost 1 in the morning and I am just walking in the door. The cool thing is we all live in the same housing community. As I was walking home about 30 minutes ago I heard my next door neighbor, who was just leaving the party, yell my name. I turned around to see what she needed and noticed that she was leaning up against a car and shaking. She told me to get her husband (who is a doctor). I ran to the house - funny side note. While I was running to her house the other neighbors dog decided to chase me and bark. Well, by now a few of the other ladies that were at the party are watching and all they see is me running like crazy down the street being chased by the dog. They thought I was scarred of the dog. I went into my next door neighbors house and woke her husband up. He came and helped us take care of her. She has a form of epilepsy but hasn't been able to control it with any medicines. It was really scarry and she was very humiliated. She openly claims to being very vain. She frequently mentions how important her appearance is. We know that she is going to be emberassed tomorrow. We want to help her but know that she isn't going to want to talk to us about it. After she went into the house the rest of us when back into the house where the party was. The really cool thing was that when we were in the house people kept bringing up that we need to be praying for her and that only God can help her.
The seizure wasn't enjoyable but sometimes I wonder how things like that can be used by God. What I mean is, it is making my neighbors think more about praying for their friends. Somehow being in prayer for someone makes you feel closer to them so in the end your friendships grow to a different level. I pray that she can get on medicine that helps control her attacks and that maybe though all of this we (her friends) can help her to see that her appearance isn't what matters to us. Nor should it matter to her.
Ok, so the title of my post. . . . We got a call this afternoon from our friend Brian. I wrote about him in early January in a post where I listed a bunch of sad things that were going on at the time. You might remember that his aunt was kidnapped in mid/late December. They say that if you get kidnapped there is around an 85% chance that you will not be returned. Well her family, friends, families friends, maybe even some of you have been praying for her. We got a call this afternoon that they released her!!!! She will be arriving to Guadalajara tomorrow. Praise God! Thank you so much to any of you that have been praying for her. To be honest with you I had given up hope that she was still alive. Once again I have been amazed!
Good night.

Without a car

Well, today has not been a very good day. Abigail has been running 102-103 temp since Friday. I made an apt to take her to the doctor at 1:00 today. She is so fussy when she is sick and Hannah want to help her which just makes Abigail mad. Needless to say lots of fussing and lots of fighting going on in our house the last few days between siblings.

I got to the doctors office about 15 minutes early and found a good parking spot (Where we always park, on a street with no no parking signs on it). So I parked and went to the doctors office. 30 minutes later Abigail had been diagnosed with a viral and bacterial infection - sinus and broncs. We head out the door and the street has zero cars on it. I looked again and again and no there were no cars whatsoever on the road.

I went back into the hospital where the doctors office is located. I tried calling Cory on my cell phone and my minutes had ran out. I am on a plan where I buy minutes in advance and they expire after two months. Well I guess the last time I added minutes was two months ago today. So I had to borrow the hospitals phone. In the end I took a taxi home. The taxi driver explained to me that it usually takes a while for the tow truck to get all the paperwork done at the transit office and often there is a long line of tow trucks. He encouraged me to go see if I could find the tow truck and see if the paperwork hadn't been filled if they would let it go. Well, our other car is in the shop - it was supose to get out today but this afternoon the truck delivered the parts and somehow the parts for our car weren't on the truck so we will have to wait till Thursday to get our car back. So, my neighbohr lent me her car. Well, the coral (as they call it) is outside of town and about a 30 minute drive. We got there and there was my car. I talked to the driver of the tow truck and he explained to me that there was nothing that could be done. He did allow me to get stuff out of the car which was super big help.

So tomorrow I have to go to the center (about 25 minutes from here) and stand in line at the transit office and pay a fine and towing expenses. I would love explain to them that there weren't any no parking signs anywhere but I know they won't care. Once I pay the fine and towing expenses then I will have to go back to the coral (about 1 hour from the office where I will pay the fine) and hopefully they will pass my car over. I am not expecting any of this to go smoothely. Luckily I have a super great friend/neighbor and she is lending me her car so that I can do all of this.

To end our day Cory and I went to the movies. We had bought tickets in advance this morning before all of this happened. We saw Slumdog Millionare. Very good. I once again was reminded that no matter what bad things happen in my life I am still blessed. When Cory and I were coming home we decided to fill my friends car up with gas. While at the gas station another woman drove up and only had enough money to buy about 1 1/2 gal of gas. This is when Cory and I were once again reminded how blessed we are. We might have occasional bad days but we are so blessed. We have more than we could imagine or ask for.

Education

We have been so blessed with Josiah's school. One of the things about living in Mexico is that we have to send our kids to private schools. We found the perfect school for Josiah and we are really happy with it. He loves it, not once has he ever said to us that he doesn't want to go to school. It has been wonderful.

He is now taking after school football at the school. One day when Cory was in Mexico City I hadn't prepared lunch so I decided that we would eat in the school restaurant. I took Josiah, Abigail and Hannah into the restraurant and quickly realized that we were going to go without lunch that day. It was so bad. There were a ton of flies, trash everywhere and just dirty. I directly went to the pricipals office and told him what I had just seen in the school restaurant. He assured me that everything would be resolved. The next day I got a call from the owner of the restaurant explaining how she was going to work really hard to fix it etc. but it was just hard to keep the place clean with 1200 students. Long story short I was told things would get better. A few days later I found myself in the principals office again talking about an afterschool art class where the kids had been left alone so that the teacher could go eat. Anyway while talking to the principal I mentioned that in the states parents are much more involved in schooling than they are allowed to be here in Mexico. (I do realize that parents in the USA are also not that involved but if a parent wants to be involved they are given the opportunity). I explained to him that moms and dads are even allowed to go into the classroom at times and help out or do special activities. This absolutely floored him. He just couldn't believe that they allowed parents into the classroom. I told him that I would be more than happy to be part of something like that at our school. I would be willing to read to the kids in English, do crafts, etc. It was such a novel idea to him. He seemed really interested.

This was a week ago today. Well, this afternoon he came and found me at football practice. He had a stack of papers in his hand. He told me he wanted me to see what the papers were about. He actually followed through with my idea! He had a small group of test parents come this week and take part in activities!! He then had them fill out a paper to see what they thought about it and if it was worth doing more often. Every parent thought it was great and wants to keep doing it! The director was so excited.

I know it wasn't an original idea but I am really proud. I hope this is something that will change the lives of many parents and children.

I will keep you updated. Please post comment if you have ideas of things that parents can do in schools. Maybe something that you are doing or did in your childs school.

new camera

While in the states a few weeks ago I decided to get a new camera. I absolutely love it. I wanted to share some of my new pictures I have taken with you.

Last night we went to the center of Zapopan. We actually do not live in Guadalajara we live in a city named Zapopan. We went out to eat with the AIMers and some of our friends that are visiting from Texas. Here is a picture of the cathedral downtown.

Our AIMers with Robby, Kris and Pat
Josiah has started playing football. He really loves it and is having a lot of fun.

This is a picture I took while flying over Guadalajara. Look at that polution!

I love this picture of a snowflake that fell on my window while driving through Ohio.

Update on the dump ministry

Just wanted to send you guys and update on the dump ministry. I know some of you support this ministry and wanted to send you the update.

http://terriltindall.blogspot.com/2009/01/lessons-from-dump.html

Things are going well here. I was in the US for a week with family. I got back on Thursday and Friday at 4:45 AM Cory left for Mexico City. He will be there until Wed night. Its a little crazy with only one parent jugling carpool, school, homework, afterschool activities, housework, a cold etc. Hopefully things will calm down when Cory gets back.
I have some great pictures that I want to get posted but they will have to wait till a later time. I got a new camera while in Oklahoma - thanks to Circuit City going out of business. I love the camera and it takes increadible pictures. Look forward to sharing them with you later - have a great day.