We are starting the 3rd week of school and the kids still love it. Abigail had her first homework today. She was really excited. She loved doing anything her big brother gets to do. She was suppose to draw a picture of herself. Josiah didn't like homework much last year but he is doing great with it this year. He usually clears his plates from lunch and asks to get him homework done. He knows that once it is done he will get to go outside and play. Our housing edition has 34 houses all inside of a double gate. This makes it great for the kids because they can run around and not have to worry about cars. There are around 40 children in our edition. Just this past year Josiah has become good friends with one of our neighbor kids. Although there are so many kids there aren't really any Josiah's age. The ones that are his age are girls or they are boys that hang out with their big brothers. So he has become good friends with Mario. Mario's dad is a professional goalie for Atlas. Josiah has the jersey, bracelets, and a few signed posters! He is a big time Atlas fan (or at least a Mario Rodriguez fan). His dad played for another team a few years ago and we went to 3 or 4 of his games. He is now on a "better" team and he hasn't been able to give us tickets. Well, last week he gave us three tickets and we were really excited to get to go. We got a baby sitter for the girls and headed to the game. In the previous game Atlas played the Chivas. They are both Guadalajara teams and its is a big game every season. During the previous game Mario (The dad and son have the same name) made a mistake and the other team scored. The whole season the team has been playing horrible so far they have 1 of the 18 possible points for the season. Well, I guess that the fans need someone to take their frustration out on and who better than the goalie. The WHOLE game the crowd was boohing Mario. Everytime that he touched the ball the entire crowd would booh and say "Goal" to remind him of his mistake in the previous game. There were three men (one in front of us, one behind us and one to the side of us) whose only purpose for being at the game was to talk bad about Mario. They spent the whole game yelling abscene things to him. I have never experienced anything like this. The fans were cussing and yelling at their own team the whole entire game. I felt so offended at the things that they were yelling to Mario. They were insulting his character, family etc. I wanted to yell out that he is a nice person and tell them all the good things about him. But, of course I did not do that because I knew it would not be the safe or smart thing for me to do. I was so sad for his wife and son who were in the same stands I was in listening to all that was being said about Mario.
When Cory and I were reflecting on the experience on the way home we couldn't help but think about Jesus and his family. I am sure they felt so much worse than I did when they heard all the insults that were being yelled at Jesus. When he was being crucified so many things were yelled at him and so much injustice was done to him. Thank God that he withstood all the stuff thrown at him and died for us.

Lots has gone on since the last post. I will try and make a quick update.


A week and a half ago we joined a group of around 300 volunteers to plant trees in the forest. It was a Starbucks reforestation project. It was a lot of fun. There were about 50 from our group - members of our church and visitors. I was excited because our neighbors joined us. They are a family that I have been praying about and thinking about a lot lately. Also the maintenance man from our housing edition (Javier - he was baptised in February) and his son joined us. He hasn't really established a place in our church yet. I think he is really reserved and tends to hold back. A great surprise was that our friends from Mexico City - James and Erin Henderson - were also present. They were in town picking up relatives that had flown in from the states. This was also a blessing because they are friends of ours. Phil Miller was in our Aim class and it was great to see him for a little bit. Here are a few pictures of our kids and Javier and his son.


The kids have also started school this week. Josiah was really excited because her two teachers from last year got moved and they are her teachers again. This made me so happy. Its nice to know that she is being taken care of by teachers that already love her and that she doesn't have to get adjusted to new teachers. Josiah is just excited about being the oldest ones in his school. This is the last year before he will go to a new school for elementary. He thinks its great that there is no one older than them. He told me the other day that someone was picking on him at recess and Abigail came to the rescue and told the kid to leave Josiah alone. So even though he is the oldest looks like he can still use a little help from his little sister.

Hannah also has some big accomplishments of her own. We went out to dinner with two other family from our neighborhood. While we were eating I turned to look at Hannah and she was eating with a fork off of Abigail's plate!!! We have allowed her to feed herself since then and she thinks it is so great. She is very proud of herself.





In closing I wanted to share some cute/not so cute things the kids have said this past week:


I bought Abigail some flowers from the market last week and she jumped up and down in excitement and said "Now I can get married!"

Abigail asked me if I made the tree in the living room. I explained to her that God made it and she replied "Oh, Josiah's other daddy did!"


I bought the kids some special kid yogurts for the first week of school. Josiah told me "Its like if you give us a kiss in our lunchbox but in a different way"


This morning Josiah said to me "Mom remember right after Hannah was born and you were still fat. Now you are only a little bit fat. Maybe tomorrow you will be skinny again"


Thanks for sharing in our lives. Toni

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.