Swine flu...

Several of you have asked, so I thought it might be appropriate to let you know we are all doing well.  Mexico seems to be taking some major precautions on protecting people and it is easy for people to panic over all of the information or lack thereof.  The majority of the cases seen have been in the Mexico City area (200 miles away from us); although, people are getting sick here.  Relatively few cases have  been officially confirmed as the swine flu, but I'm sure more are to be confirmed.  There have been 13 confirmed cases in this state.  All schools have been cancelled until May 6th and they are encouraging people to stay home and away from public places.  We will try and have some of our usual activities like small groups and prayer group, but most likely they won't happen since people really don't want to be in these situations.  Sam has been sick with a cold for several days, but has seen the doctor today and is at ease that it most likely isn't swine flu.

You can pray with us that people will not give into fear and that people will not panic.  This is a good time for people to see God in the church here and seek comfort where it cannot be found.  We also pray that life will return to "normal" soon.  In the meantime, the girls were less than thrilled to hear that I would be waking them up in the morning and we would be doing some schooling (we'll se how the teacher holds up on this one!).

Thank you to all of you who have been concerned with us and for us, and thank you so much for your prayers.  Blessings to all of you!

Olivia's birthday

Olivia feeling shy or tired at the water park.

Our sweet Olivia not wanting to blow out the candle

Today we celebrate Olivia's third birthday! It has been fun. Yesterday we went to a water park with several people from church, so we had a cake and piñata with everyone. By the time we got to the birthday festivities yesterday, the kids had been in the sun and water all day, so Olivia was a little waterlogged and tired. She had talked and talked about her cake; blowing out the candles, and "mordida" (where you take a big bite out of the cake and hope your friends don't shove your face into the cake), and she had also talked about the piñata and how she was going to hit it. However, at the moment of truth, she didn't want to do any of it! It was sad, but she did enjoy a piece of cake and wishing she had hit the piñata after it was all done.
Today after church, we had a low-key family celebration. We ordered pizza, and had cake (with the same water theme) hoping she might want to blow out the candle, at least and presents. But again, she got shy and let her sisters do all the work. She finished her afternoon off with a great nap!
I thought back to the the day she was born, to the blessing she has been since that day. The night before, as we waited eagerly for her, was a night of wrestling for me.  We wanted so much for her to come, but it just wasn't happening, so it was a wrestling with my body to try and get it do what I wanted then (didn't work at all!!!).  It was also a night of spiritual wrestling.  I remember drifting in and out of the pain of contractions and in and out of praying for our friends Jake and Mandy who were upstairs with their baby daughter, fighting for her life.  It was intense and long, but at the end of it all, we got to meet our beautiful Olivia and she has been a joy since then.  It's funny, I also remember the ride home from the hospital and noticing how life just went on around us.  It was no big deal for anybody, but for us, we were headed home as different people, with something so incredibly amazing and life changing.  Everyone was just going on in the usual.  Weird, I should think that time should stand still for everyone else as our lives changed so dramatically.

So, here we are, three years later enjoying a beautiful, expressive girl.  She is just as cute as the day she was born, and she keeps us laughing.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Some of the kids at the water park.

The piñata ready to be beat up!  It didn't take long to get it open and dumping candy.

So much help

It is great for the girls to help with Isabella. Sometimes, they want to help too much, but here is a little video of Olivia helping feed Isabella. Enjoy! I know I sure did.

Leadership with VanRheenen's

Gailyn and Becky



This past weekend, we had an amazing time with Gailyn and Becky VanRheenen.  Gailyn was one of Sam's professors at ACU, so it was nice to catch up with them 

On Friday evening, Gailyn spoke with our leaders at Rio de Vida.  We invited leaders and those we considered potential and committed leaders.  It was neat to have about 20 people there.  A few of these people were surprised we would invite them!  It was also sad that there were some that we wanted to be there and should have been there, but weren't.  On Saturday, we had a day long seminar for our leaders and leaders from the surrounding areas.  There were about 40 people here that came from Guadalajara, León,  and Mexico City.  Both Gailyn and Becky spoke to us, and it was a great day!  We learned so much and got several important ideas.  Of course, it was a special blessing to catch up with friends and missionaries from Mexico.  As usual, there wasn't enough time to talk as much as we wanted to with everyone.  Most of the out of town people came in just for the day, so they had to head out as soon as the seminar was over.  Our leaders were truly blessed and inspired.  A special blessing, straight from God was our situation with the kids for the day.  We were short on space and people to take care of our kids, but Sam and I remembered a day care near by.  The lady is a Christian, and when we approached her about the possibility of using their facility, she was glad to help, and added the teachers in also.  It was great!!!  They had a place to play, they had activities, supervision and tender loving care.  Some of our older kids weren't as thrilled to have so many limits -- they're used to much less supervision or restrictions at "church activities."  Hmmmm...  A highlight of this time was dinner around the pool with the VanRheenens and our friends the Brednichs and Grays both working in different areas of Mexico City.  Our girls loved the down time at the pool (thanks for sharing the hotel pool with us), and we enjoyed the down time with good company.

We got a day of sightseeing where we went to Tzitzhutzan (I just forgot how to spell it) to see some indigenous ruins -- yacatas not to be confused with pyramids and Patzcuaro.  Our indigenous guide did a great job at sharing not just what we were looking at, but also at explaining and expounding on ideas of animism, syncretism and a few other -isms that I missed in my multiple trips to take Olivia to the bathroom, clean a skinned knee, nurse a baby, peel an orange, etc...You get the idea.  Anyway, it was right up everyone else's alley, so it was fun.  In the travel time, we continued to talk about ideas presented at the seminar and how best to fit it with what God is doing at Rio de Vida.

All in all, it was a refreshing weekend.  We were encouraged and challenged to think big in God's eyes.  We are so grateful to Gailyn and Becky and giving of their time to be here in Mexico.

 

Sightseeing at the ruins

The kids on Friday night

Some of the people at the seminar