Janelle

Janelle was recently highlighted on one of my favorite blogs: Lifesong Reflections. Check it out here.

Didn't have time to post here today about the work team, but I did on my other blog. You should be able to check here to read about that.

Hmmmm...did I finally figure out how to make this link work? Hope so.

Busy Week Ahead

Well, busy week behind, too! At noon today Richard and Marco are meeting a work team from my folks church in Nixa, Missouri at the airport. There are 12 coming down, including my folks and by brother. They will head out to the Pyramids for a few hours then should get here to the house between 8 and 9 tonight. We would have all loved to have gone to the airport and Pyramids too, but we have a lack of available cars to transport them all, so just Richard went.

Most of the group will be staying here at the house/church, with the three men staying down at Walter's house (our old house). We are in Mexico, so there was a lot of last minute things to do. We ordered the last door for the Sunday School room about 3 months ago. It finally arrived Thursday--the paint still wet. Richard, Gadiel and Walter put it in yesterday afternoon. We were still waiting for the last piece of glass for the window, too. It was ordered at least 3 months ago as well. The other windows were finished about a month ago, but he was short one glass and said he would bring it Tuesday. Just ended up being about a month later. So, I still have to go upstairs and set up a bed, clean up and make the beds today. I hate doing things last minute, but after all, I am in Mexico.

Yesterday Martha, Dula and Yolanda came over and we worked on getting salsa made, cooking up chicken and other stuff for the week.

We will be working everyday over in Tequisquiapan, getting the wall up around the church property there. They really can't begin construction, or even have materials delivered, until they have a wall up. Otherwise, sand, gravel, or block will disappear.

A week after the team leaves, we will be heading north. The kids have to leave the country by the 5th, as their visas run out. We want to vote, and decided we may as well leave on the 3rd so that we can vote in Missouri on the 4th. We have voted absentee before, but the mail service here has gotten worse, and we decided that we didn't trust our ballots to actually arrive back to be counted.

Ok, back to work for now. I'll try to post pictures each evening here so that those of you in Nixa can see your team at work!

Pray for Orphans

Watch this video, and see if you aren't challenged to pray for orphans. Or maybe do more.....

Pray for orphans.

One Year with Janelle

Today we are celebrating the one year anniversary of meeting Janelle. Last October 8th, 2007, we met a scared, confused little girl, who wanted nothing more than to go back to what was familar and known, and escape from us. In fact, she did try to escape from our hotel more than once.

Fast forward a year, and see what difference God, love, parents, brothers and sisters, and time makes. It has not always been an easy or fun year, but I can say that we have all learned and grown as the year has progressed. Janelle had to learn pretty much from scratch. All of her years of growing up in an orphanage did not teach her how to live in a family. Her academic education was pretty limited. She had not learned much in the way of common sense. Though she can speak and write one of the most difficult languages in the world (Mandarin) she was like a baby having to learn English from the beginning. Throw in the fact that we live in Mexico, and she hears Spanish everywhere other than at home, and that makes it more difficult. I know that I am often frustrated with her lack of English---so I know that many, many times she must be frustrated, as well. Because of the lack of a common language, she is often misunderstood, and misunderstands us. Just another complication in her life

Being 13 can be a difficult age for any child, but more so when you are thrust into a whole different life--one that you didn't ask for--because someone else made the decision for you.

But, this adoption was in God's plan. He has equipped both Janelle and our family for all of the difficulties of this year. The positives far outweigh the hard times. Janelle has blossomed, and learned so much.

Janelle has learned what it means to be part of a family...to care for each other, look out for each other, and work together. She is learning to choose to do what is right, and not always choose the easy way to do something. She is learning to say, "I'm sorry"--a big step for her, as it has been very difficult for her to ever admit that she is wrong. She has learned what it means to have a dad who has endless patience and love towards her.

We started school at the kindergarten level, learning the A B C's, learning to read, write, add and subtract. Now, just one year later, she is working at 4th grade level in most subjects, and about to start 6th grade math. We are hoping that after this school year she will be ready to try 7th grade work, and be at the level of other kids her age.

Most importantly, she is learning that there is a God who loves her. This is something that she did not learn in her orphanage, and probably never would have heard if she had stayed there. She enjoys going to church, even though it is all in Spanish, and she can't understand a lot. She has memorized many verses, along with her siblings, in morning devotions. She knows who Jesus is, and we trust that not too long in the future she will be able to understand what He has done for her.

It has been a good year....and we look forward to another year of seeing God's work in Janelle's life.

Last Day of 4

Today is LiAnne's last day of being 4. Tomorrow stats the big year of 5. My baby won't be a baby anymore. She was so excited this morning when she woke up...she came running into our room to tell us that it was an exciting day...Last night we worked on this layout of her last day, and what she liked about being 4. This morning we took her picture to put on the layout. It might be an exciting day for her, but it is a bit sad for me. My baby is growing up. I remember when Amanda turned 5....I was so sad to have her grow up so quickly. Now she is a few months shy of 20, and I have this other treasure in LiAnne that we have enjoyed for the last 4 years. Not that we won't enjoy the next 15, and 20 and more, but there is just something so sweet about a little girl. Now she tells us she is a big girl...and in some ways she is. She is precious in every way!

Kids First Wedding

We went to a wedding last night. A Mexican wedding is a bit different than a typical American one. As we sat through the (kind of long) service the two little kids had some typical type reactions.
LiAnne, "She is soooo beautiful. Like a princess."
Taylor, "When are we gonna eat?"

Forgot to take my camera to get pictures for you, Lancy and Amanda, but (piano) Gaby is supposed to send me some, so I'll get them to you later.

OK, so I've been AWOL lately. Haven't written much at all, and Lancy is asking that I post some pictures for her. So, for my daughter far away on the other side of the world, here is some info and some pictures.

It has been a busy summer, in that we continued to do school just about everyday. Janelle has been doing quite well, with just an occasional day of melt downs when she gets frustrated with school or with being told no. It just dawned on me this week maybe one of the reasons why she does not like to be told to stop bugging the kids, or no, she can't have something, or that is not the way to do something is because of the idea of saving face. In China, and other countries in that part of the world, saving face is important. More important that telling the truth is telling someone what they want to hear. China is/was loosing "face" over just the idea that others were questioning whether their gymnists were of age. It is just soooo important to be right. And I think that is maybe why Janelle hates to be told that she is not doing something right, or be told no. She will get pouty and go to her room if she even thinks that someone thinks she is wrong. Something to think about, anyway.

Today she has finished 3rd grade. Not bad, when you think that she just started 1st last November. I think that the 4th grade books will be much more of a challenge, and will take up a lot more of my time. My goal is for her to finish 4th and a good part of 5th this year.

Taylor is doing great in 1st. He finally lost his first baby tooth a couple of weeks ago, at 6 1/2. He was pretty pleased that the tooth fairy brought him 10 pesos. He was also surprised yesterday at the dentists office when she pulled his other 3 bottom baby teeth. Actually, his permanent teeth have been in for over a month right behind his baby teeth, and they needed to come out. Taylor also wears an expander these days, like a retainer after getting braces off. The doctors/dentist want to expand his upper mouth, getting his teeth better aligned so that he can have his bone graft surgery, probably sometime next year.

LiAnne is enjoying one more year before formally starting kindergarten, though we work on numbers and letters everyday. She really wants to know how to read, but doesn't want to have to learn the names and sounds of all of the letters. She also wansts to add and subtract, but only recognizes the numbers 1-6. Just hard to convince her that you have to learn step one, before going on to step two. She will be 5 next month.

This Sunday the church will celebrate its 5th anniversary here in Bernal. We have been working on special activities for the service on Sunday. I got curtains made for the 8 windows this week. It will sure look different on Sunday when people arrive. Richard is working on a power point slide show with pictures from all 5 years, which will be fun. I'll be sure to put pictures on the ministry blog after Sunday.

I was very thankful to talk to my Dad yesterday. Last month when he went to the eye doctor he found that the sight in his one eye was almost completely gone. It had gotten worse quickly. The doctor tried a new procedure, and when he went back yesterday found that the sight had improved quite a bit. Even the doctor was surprised at how good it was. So, we are very thankful to God today for that blessing, and pray that it will continue to improve.

OK, that is it for today. I'll try to post a bit more regularly in the days ahead.

And now, Lancy, these pics are for you! (though actually, blogger is going to put the pics first, and the text last!)

A Quick Beach Trip

LiAnne and I made a quick trip to the beach to take a few pictures.....not. Oh, how I wish we could...too bad we live so far from any beach. But, I kept seeing my friends scrap their summer beach trips and wanted to do one too, so I did. Here is what I came up with. Photoshop is so much fun when you can prove by a picture that you did something that you really didn't do.

More to come...but first both Taylor and Janelle have to have haircuts. And if you are wondering when I find time to scrap, it is usually between 9:30 and midnight, when I should be sleeping!



We met with the others on our team this morning to make plans for the months ahead, youth group, ladies meetings, adult activities, and inter-church activities. School starts here next week, so things will slowly get back to normal. I made stir-fry for lunch...and I think that they all ate more vegetables today than they usually do in a month! Veggies just aren't on the menu much here in Mexico.

Amanda made it back safely from Thailand on Sunday night, and starts Character Camp at College of the Ozarks on Wednesday. She will be leading a group of new students as a "Mom" next week.

Welcome to Beijing!

As mom to three kids from China, we will be watching the Olympics this year as much as we can. That said, we'll see. We were hoping to watch via NBC online once we read about that. It sounded like a great way to see more....but when I tried to get it going last night, I found out that it is only available in the US. Local Mexican coverage is.....well, to be nice, blaaaah. I always say that to be on TV here you have to be dumb and blond, and have a high, squeaky voice....hehehehe. Sorry for any blonds reading this, but you probably aren't in the dumb catagory, and certainly wouldn't have the squeaky voice. I guess that it can't be any worse than the last two times we have watched it here, basic coverage, but better than nothing.

Watching this video makes me want to take another trip to Beijing! It is a great city, with so much to see. Enjoy! (Oh, and if you don't understand what they are saying, just come ask Janelle!)

*******You'll need to scroll down to the bottom and but the music on mute in order to enjoy this video.

One sweet granddaughter.....

Jocelyn

The phone call....

Richard answered the phone yesterday morning and had a bit of a scare, as the person on the other end talked about money, deposits, protecting the family....It was a kidnapping threat. We right away asked friends and churches to pray as we wondered what to do next. There was a police car parked down the street, so Richard went and talked to the policeman, who told him to go to Ezequiel Montes and report it. I emailed my friend at the US consulate in Guadalajara, who said we definately should report it to the consulate in Mexico City.

This morning Richard decided to go over and talk to the police in EM, and was glad that he did. They said that this is a problem in all of Mexico right now. Seems that this is being done my men who call and threaten people, telling them where to deposit money in order to protect their family. Many people actually do deposit money for them. They said that though it is scary, it is not something that we need to worry about.

Mexico has surpassed Colombia in the number of kidnappings taking place. Here in Mexico it is pretty much just a money deal....people who are actually kidnapped are usually just held for ransom (as happened to some Koreans in Reynosa, a city we often drive through, just this week). The US consulate often send out warnings to us, reminding us that American's are at risk all over the world. We're pretty aware of things going on, but in 13 years in Mexico, we have never felt at risk. This has caused us to re-think a few things, like keeping our gates locked, and making sure the kids are in our sight. We have gotten used to living in a small town, and are probably just as safe as we ever were, but at least we are more aware.

So, thank you for praying, and keep praying for us, and other missionaries all over the world. At times we are at risk just for being Americans.