AIM coordinators

We are so excited! We found out yesterday that we are getting AIMers in May.
We can't wait for them to get here. There are going to be 6 of them! Its a little bit bigger of a team then we were expecting but it will be great. Their names are Jessica Ford, Aaron McCall, Brian Hall, Dana Lester, Daniel Batten and Elizabeth Burow.

We know that they are going to be a big blessing to our family. My kids are excited. They have had a chance to spend a little time with AIMers in the past month and they think AIMers are really cool.
On a side note. Amy Jo Smith was a little girl when I went to the field (her parents were my coordinators) and she will be going to Albania as an AIMer in May. I am really excited for you Amy Jo! Her brother is in South Africa also as an AIMer.
On another side note one of our AIMers, Aaron McCall, is family. Well, his brother is married to my twin sister. I realize that isn't blood relatives, but I figure he is an uncle to my niece so we are family.
AIMers we are really excited about you guys. Enjoy the next few months in Mission term it is a lot of fun. We are praying for you and the work you will do here.

WARNING LOTS TO CATCH UP TO DO

Well, a lot has gone on since I last wrote. I will try to briefly catch you up on things.


One of the things that I love about Mexicans is their love for celebration! We have had many Christmas parties in the past few weeks. We have had parties for Little League, neighborhood, and school. Tomorrow we have our last party. It is with a group from a new neighborhood that we are targeting. Our family has gone into a new neighborhood the last month or so to make new contacts. It is about 25 minutes from our house which complicates things a little bit. Cory has started studying with the dad of the family that we have been in contact with. During one of his studies his wife asked us to come over for lunch. We went to lunch with them after church on Sunday and had a really good time. From there we planned another lunch and they invited us to the Christmas party that is at their house this Friday. It was actually the 15 year old daughter that invited us. It is a party with her friends. They are part of a "recovery" group. I don't really think that is the best translation for it but it will have to do for now. It is a group of people recovering from a life of abuse, alcoholism, traumas etc. We are excited to get to know this group but at the same time a little nervous. I will let you know how this party goes - I still don't have a babysitter.
Here us a picture of the ladies from our neighborhood party.



I had a great experience with two of my great friends and thier kids this week. We got together and made gingerbread houses. They had never done anything like it and they were really excited. After a few hours of working on them we were done. One of my neighbors, Roxanna, said to me "thanks for helping me have the best experience I have ever had with my daughter, I have never had this much fun with her." My other neighbor doesn't spend much quality time with her son either and I was really glad to see them get good time together. Here are a few picture of our time.




Here is a picture of the kids before their school program.


Abigail taking Hannah for a ride.

"Mom im sre"

Almost two years ago my teamate (Kim) and I wallpapered the kids rooms. The girls room is painted Pink on the bottom half and light green on the top with a boarder in the middle. Josiah's room is Yellow and Blue with a sports boarder in the middle. Josiah has a captain bed which sits higher than a normal bed. This makes it so he is right at the level of the boarder. It has been a real temptation for him to pick at it while trying to go to sleep. In the past he has done a pretty good job of not picking at it. The other day I walked into his room in the morning and he had pulled off the entire boarder of one side of the room. I was really frustrated with Josiah and he knew it. He came into my room a few minutes later and told me to come see what he had done to make things better. I went into his room and burst out laughing. He is in Kindergarten and loves learning how to read and write. Well, he had written me a note on the wall where he had torn off the wallpaper. It read "mom im sre". I had to compose myself and explain that it was not ok to write on the wall.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving. Obviously Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mexico. Yesterday I was at one of my friends (Norma) house. I was explaining to her that it was Thanksgiving. One of our other friends (Margarita) was also there visiting with us. Norma asked what Thanksgiving was, without giving me any time to answer Margarita chose to answer. She explained to Norma that Thanksgiving was the American version of Mexican Christmas! I couldn't believe my ears. I sat and listened to the two of them talk about what they thought Thanksgiving was. Norma asked me (in Spanish) "so is this the day when the bunny brings the eggs? and where exactly does he hide them?". Needless to say I quickly explained that Thanksgiving had nothing to do with Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I told them the history of Thanksgiving and explained that it is a time to be with family and really think about the things that you are thankful for. Well, I had to stop talking about it because I got teary eyed. I realized just how thankful I am to have such a wonderful life. I have a wonderful family, wonderful in-laws, healthy family, food on the table, clothes to wear, a house to sleep in, two cars, friends who love me, running water, electricity, and on and on.

It is sad that we couldn't be with family during Thanksgiving but I was blessed with time with my family and friends. Yesterday (thanksgiving) we had ham, sweet potato casserole, pot. casserole, and cranberry salad. It was the first time that the five of us celebrated Thanksgiving as a family. While eating we read a great book called "The First Thanksgiving".

Today we got together with our team and had a feast!!! We could have put the pilgrams to shame! Everyone brough all their favorite foods. After dinner we played cards and just visited. It was a lot of fun.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving - love Toni

We just got back last night from a Mexico Missionaries retreat. I think there were around 80 of us (30 or so children). It was a great time to study the word together, catch up on friendships, play at the beach, share stories about the work in Mexico etc. It was really good for our family.

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The beach was beautiful. I love the beach, it reminds me of my childhood and the beach in Italy.

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Josiah is a dare devil and had a ton of fun in the ocean and pool. He can doggy paddle all the way across the pool! Hannah loved the water. She is just as brave as her brother and has no fear of jumping in the pool. Abigail had a great time also there were a few girls her age and she really enjoyed them. She is still talking about them. She wanted to know if Cory and I can buy her a Barbie computer so that she can e-mail Adah Henderson. We will have to think about that one!

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We were so blessed to get to be next door to some of our very best friends in the world, Benjy and Carolyn Brednich. Carolyn and I were in Slovakia together for a year and we were in each others wedding. Benjy was Cory's best man in our wedding. They have three adorable boys. As always we were so blessed to get to stay up late catching up (even though Care and I always ended up asleep in the hamocks).

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One of the highlights of the trips (at least for me) was the turtles. Turtles return to the beach where they are born and lay their eggs. Well, for the safety of the eggs people watch for turtles that come to shore and lay their eggs. They then dig up the eggs and put them in a "green house" it is a house made out of screen. When they hatch the hotels put the turtles in a safe environment and a few days later release them. Six years after the turtles are born they will return to the same beach they were born at to lay eggs. The sad thing is that only 1% of the turtles live that long. Most get eaten by birds, dogs, etc. Since they have started this program they have been able to increase the percentage that return. If the turtles get a chance to mature they can live up to 150 years! The kids loved getting to see the turtles and then release them into the ocean.

A cruise ship came the day before we left.

To all off you that were at the retreat thanks for everything we had a great time and really enjoyed being around your families.