Hannah has been doing really well. She is still a very happy girl. She loves doing whatever her Big Brother and Sister are doing. She was so proud of herself when she got up on Abigail's trike.

She only has 5 teeth but loves eating whatever we are eating. Unfortunately one of her favorite snacks is Arthur's (Our Dog) food. She runs over to the bowl puts a few pieces in her mouth refills her hand and runs over to Arthur and puts a snack in his mouth. The kids do a great job of tattling on her when she gets close to the dog food. Cory commented the other day - at least we buy good quality dog food.

She loves to climb the stairs and luckily hasn't had any big spills yet.

She is very much a people person and loves to interact with others. She loves waving and saying "Hola"

Abigail's personality is really starting to shine. She loves playing with her friends. There are 5 girls in our housing addition that are the same age. I have been thrilled because just recently the doorbell has started ringing and its a neighbor wanting Abigail to play. I think she held back for a while because of the language but now after being in school for a while she is really doing well.

Last week our neighbor Monica came over and they made chocolate chip cookies.

The kids took a week long summer Gymnastics class. They went 4 hours a day and learned Karate, Floor, Horse, Bars, Rings, Trampoline etc. Every day before class they wanted me to take their picture. This was on their first day. At the end of the week they had a presentation for the parents - it was a lot of fun to watch them have so much fun.

Abigail loved getting ready for Gymnastics every day.

Josiah on the even bars during the parent program.

group visit

We are having a good weekend with the group that is here. They are from Denver City and Comanche Trail in Amarillo. The kids have really impressed me they are really hard workers. I haven't heard a single complaint and they are eager to eat the food. It is always refreshing to have groups like this.
One of the great blessings of the group is that our friends Linda and Jenny Merritt (from Hart) were able to tag along. Linda's daughter is an AIMer in Leon and she was also able to join the group for a few days. We have known the Merritt family for 11 years now. It has been fun to watch their kids grow up and become mature Christians. Today after we had dropped J'Lae off at the bus station to return to Leon we (Linda, Jenny, and I) were talking about how hard it is to live so far from the ones you love. We were talking about the way we tend to wish we were somewhere else or doing something else (at least when things aren't how we want them to be). I was blessed when Jenny pulled out her Bible and read a verse in Ecclesiastes ( I will get the actual verse later - sorry I tried finding it and wasn't able). The verse speaks about not wanting to return to the good old days but to live in the moment. I know God wants us to be happy and content with what we have but how sad it would be if we didn't long for something better than what we have in this world.

Josiah likes to talk about Jesus coming back, only then will we really know what it is like to really be content and only then should we be done looking to be better. I am thankful that God has blessed my family with the opportunity to help others find that better life (both here on earth and in heaven). I am shocked when I see to what extent people will go to try and have a better life on earth. If they would only put that much effort into an eternal life! I thank God for all the wonderful partners that He has given us (monetary supporters, friends, prayers, and wonderful coworkers all across Mexico and the world).

On a lighter side:
Momo (Cory's mom) gave the kids some really great magnet books. Abigail's is a girly one and Josiah's is a construction sight. The other day the kids were playing in Josiah's room with the door shut. Cory did not know what they are playing with - I don't even think he had seen the books yet. As he walked by the room he heard Abigail yelling to Josiah "Don't play with my maggots! Leave my maggots alone!" He quickly checked in on them to see what they were playing.

We are home and settling in

Well we made it home last Tuesday. We had a few days to unpack and get the house "straightened out" then we went with a youth group from Alaska to the beach. We just got back on Tuesday and it seems like although I have wanted to get a lot done the last few days it just hasn't happened. We had a great trip and got to see so many people. It was a very crammed trip for two and a half weeks. We were in three different states and 5 different cities. We were blessed to see a large part of our family. Josiah, Abigail and Hannah were able to see all their Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents and their one and only very special cousin.

While we were in the states my sister, Jessica, and her family moved to Tulsa. I am so happy for them, they sold their house, got new jobs and are closing on a new house next week. Although I am very excited for them it was a little sad for me that they were moving from Lubbock. We (the three girls and our parents) are officially all spread out around the US and Mexico. No one lives closer than 7 hours from each other. I guess we knew the day would come.

While in Clovis we were able to spend time with Cory's family. We were thankful that Cory's Aunt and Uncle came down from Oregon and his grandparents drove in from Oklahoma. His cousin was also able to come in from Albuquerque.

I threw a surprise party for Cory while we were in the states. It was a hard party to pull off - since a large part of the planning was done from Mexico. Thanks to all of you who helped and to those of you who attended. There were around 50 people there with some driving as far as 2 hours! Cory was very honored by those of you who attended!

We had a great visit with my Aunt from Croatia, my Uncle from Kansas City and my grandparents in Oklahoma.

In Oklahoma we were able to visit a "new" supporting church. The Yukon Church of Christ supported my parents from more than 20 years with their work in Italy and South Dakota. They began supporting us in January. This was Cory's first time to get to meet everyone and I was thrilled to get to see people that I hold very dear to my heart. I had always told Cory what a wonderful church it was and how loving the people were. He believed me but didn't really understand just how great they were until he was able to spend a day with them. He was amazed at their loving hearts.

The trip was great and refreshing for us. We have only been home for 9 days now. I have been waking up with dreams were I decided that I shouldn't be in Mexico anymore and that I should move back to the states. I have also had dreams were I wanted to be in Mexico more than anywhere else. I think these dreams are a representation of the battle I daily feel inside of me. It was really hard on me to say bye to my niece and see how sad my kids were to have to leave her. They still ask me if they can move to the states. We know this is where we belong and we love being here. At the same time we would love to spend more than a few days a year with our families. It is a hard battle inside of us.

I need to go get some more unpacking done. We have a group coming in from Amarillo in 3 hours.

Thanks for reading.

In the States

Hey just have a few seconds while the kids are in bed to send a quick update. We are in the states now. We will be here for two weeks but will be sharing the time between 5 cities and 3 states. I don't plan on being on the computer often since we wont be in one place very long.

Hannah is now walking everywhere and really gets going. She thinks it is great and has almost abandoned crawling altogether.

The kids are enjoying Dr Pepper and a few days of spoiling by the grandparents.

I have to tell you about a few fun things that were said in the car during our 25 hour trip. Right after we got in the car (5 AM) we put in a great CD that was made for us by our wonderful friend Tim Rush. Well one of the first songs that is on the CD is an ABBA song. I told Josiah that when I was a child I would listen to a lot of ABBA because my parents had all their records. At the moment I said it Cory and I both looked at eachother and Cory said "Josiah do you even know what a record is?" Josiah ( a great sports enthusiast) answered "its when you get like a thousand trophies".

After a few minutes of silent travel (a rare thing when traveling with three children) Josiah worriedly asked me "Mom do they have peanut butter and Jelly in Texas?"

The trip was fairly uneventful. We did get stopped three times on the toll road for inspection. Mexicos new president is really cracking down on the drug problem in Mexico. He has put in place many special teams to fight the drug war. In the past we usually pass one or two check points and are usually just waived on. This time we got stopped at 3 of the 4 checkpoints that we passed. They opened up our car and even went through some suitcases. They like for everyone to step out of the car while they do the inspection. We explained that the three kids were buckled into their car seats and could we please just leave them. That was fine with them but they wanted Cory and me to go ahead and get out. At one stop I was talking to the other soldiers that were on break. They had a bunch of pictures of drugs that they had found in cars and trucks. They said that it is very common that about once a week they find a semi truck FULL of drugs. I could not believe the pictures. Well while they were entertaining me with the pictures the men that were searching our car helped themselves to the money that was sitting around in the car. Luckily (not for Chadd) one of our co wokers had previously been robbed at a checkpoint. Cory knew to take our money out of the car so all they were able to take was about $3 in change. No big deal just frustrating.
Well, the kids have not gone to sleep yet and Cory has a migrane so I better go take care of them. Thanks for reading.

Well, it has been a fun week. Hannah turned one on Thursday. She, of course, didn't really know that it was a special day. Josiah and Abigail really enjoyed celebrating for her. Josiah was so proud to have been the first to wish her a Happy Birthday (although she woke up in the middle of the night and Cory really was the first to wish her a Happy Birthday).
Josiah was really excited because he expected Hannah to wake up and be able to walk and talk. I guess I had told him a while back that she wouldn't be able to do those things until she was one. He took me literally.
The kids didn't want to leave for school until she had opened her presents so we had a quick present opening time.
At 2:30 (the exact time she was born) we sang her Happy Birthday. Josiah had the job of watching the clock and letting us know when it was 2:30.
In the afternoon we had cake and then played outside.
We plan on having a party with all of our friends but we still do not know when. They are currently painting the 34 houses in our condominium. They picked 4 colors and each house is to be painted one of the 4 colors according to the patterns they set out. We are in house #3. I guess they didn't get the colors right so they have stoped and are trying to work the colors out on our house. Well they started working on our house 5 days ago. Our house has been painted twice! I still am not sure that it is the right color. The color they chose for our house is really quite ugly. In our house we like to call it "Hannah has a dirty diaper color". I think a more proffesional name would be mustard/light brown. Once they get the paint figured out then we will talk about having a party.