For those who did not find out yet...we are well now and out of quarantine!! How happy we are to be together as a family!! Friday was our big making donuts day...we made about 350 donuts.It was fun but was somewhat complicated by not having a warm house to do it in...the dough got so cold that it would cool off the oil and take too long to fry...they were ok but for us who have eaten our donuts before knew they were not the best. We did serve them with coffee on Saturday when we had the youth campaign and children's church...there were about 120 of us there. It was a good meeting...Bro Juan had a good message for the young people and they seemed very open and sharing. Of course I understood very little and kept myself busy with the little things of washing dishes and helping to serve and make coffee etc.There were quite a few of the Mexican sisters who pretty much carried the cooking. All in all it was a good day. There are no more Saturday services till our new year campaign on the 31st.

Children don't have school till after the 1st of the year so i am hoping to make it a good time to really get a bunch of school done with my children since there wont be much else happening then we'll have our break when Esther and her boyfriend come to visit us in January!! We are looking forward to meeting this wonderful fellow we have heard so much about:)

Today was another big day with some friends(12) coming over to make tamales for us and then we also included a birthday party for their little girl. Tamales were different than we make but good..one kind was really hot and the other milder:) They are very sweet people and it ws very kind of them to want to make the tamales for us:)

Merry Christmas to all our friends.....more another day!!

Edith, Emily and Michael are improving. They are not desperately sick and seem to be through the worst of it, for which we are thankful...the rough part for them is being confined to Grandma's house..it is sweet how our kids miss each other...Eldora said I didn't realize how much I played with Emily, I miss her. Now today she was crying and crying because she wanted to play with Emily and Michael. Another cute thing was Michael telling Emily,"We can't go outside, we are corned.":) didn't remember how to say quarantined lol

The other thing we are in the middle of is our paper work...Asher and Jason went to Mexico City to talk to the lawyer and found out the $45@ person was only the initial amount to get the paper work started..it could take as much as $300 more per person. Pray with us that God will overrule in the heart of the officials or provide what they are wanting from us right now.

More later

On to the next part of our adventure...it is 12 O'clock and we are leaving the lab...we get results tomorrow but it is pretty definite that Pablo, Edith Emily and Michael have hepatitus..it is typeA.....they will need to be quarantined for 2 to 3 weeks

More details coming

Here we are again...next week is Thanksgiving!! How time flies!! Just less than 2 weeks and we are here 6 month already. God has been good to us..many difficulties and adjustments but He has been very kind and tender to us in this time.And thank you to all our wonderful friends who have been a wonderful support and encouragement...whether by letters or boxes or emails or phone calls or prayers or money...every little and big thing has been a gift from Gods own hand and we thank you once again for being sure we have felt totally loved and supported!! We pray that God will reward you and bless you!

Today was childrens church..there were about 42 children today and some of the mothers.Last week we had about 55 children. It was a good day. The children enjoy Nicole using the felt board to tell the Bible story. Last week we had made popcorn balls and had put on a movie...they all loved it:)

We got a new boy this week..his name is David and he is 8 years old.The usual sad story of mom doesn't know who the Dad is and now she has a boyfriend and she has a boy with him but he doesn't want anything to do with David so he is with the grandmother...its sad that at such a young age he knows about missing school,running away from another orphanage etc....So we will love him and pray that he discovers there is more to life than the awful one he had...Love does a lot!

This has been a rainy week which was great for the gardens..not as pleasant for outdoor living..but thankfully we all have plenty of jackets and warm hats and gloves. I am extra careful with Roberto wearing his hat because only a week ago he had bad ear infection...he seems rather sensitive to lung and ear problems. Hopefully with some herbs we can strengthen his immune system.

We are considering whether to get rid of the goats and get a cow....Asher doesn't make fast moves so we will see how everything falls into place:)

Jason has been in Tulluncingo all week working with the brothers there. He is coming home tonight.

We continue to work on our residency papers.. Asher started out to the City on Friday but discovered when he got to Tulluncingo that the paper work was incomplete , missing 3 of the childrens names so we need to redo them and on Monday Asher and Jason will go to Mexico City with the correct paper work and money.

More another day:)

A big thankyou to all who sent texts or birthday messages to Asher..was very nice. His birthday was a very interesting day!! We went to a village called Africa..I had a hard time convincing Rafael that it was not Abba's Africa..he couldn't figure out why we weren't seeing the monkeys:)LOL We left at 7:30 in the morning and got home about 8:30 in the evening....we only drove 40 miles but it took 4 hours to drive it.....it was certainly little more than a cow path and I felt totally shook apart till we got home:) The people are sweet but I still find such occasions rather unsatisfactory because of the language barrier..Nicole says it blesses them that we were willing to come so I am glad if they were blessed. I still think I am satisfied to be a stay home person for now..theres time for the going out after we conquer speaking the language:)

Now today Evelyn made a yummy carrot cake with lots of nuts for his celebration with the people here in the village...and Chucho wanted to do something special so he was going to buy chicken..so I must go and get it all cooked and ready:)

Oh and for Emily's birthday we are going to the zoo and its the one teachers birthday too so we are going to buy a birthday cake to go with our lunch so that will be fun day!!

More next time:)

Rainy cold day today...we had quite a few weeks of sunshine so we are glad for the rain for the gardens even if it makes outdoor living rather uncomfortable:)
Robert is back in with our boys so we are happy about that:) His sparkling laughing dark eyes are so beautiful and its a joy to have him to love on again:)

Today Asher and I had the day out and we bought him a much needed jacket and a pair of boots(thanks to the friends who sent money to make that happen). On Sunday we are going to one of the missions which is in a town called Africa..about a 4 hour drive..so we will leave early and be back late..I am not too excited about all the bumpy roads but I am looking forward to meeting these people.
Elizabeth ?(forget her last name) from Missouri arrived on Wednesday...27 years old, parents were missionaries in Mexico when she was born till 3 then in Bolivia till she was 9, and so when she got to US she wanted to be American and did not keep up her Spanish, took some German in high school and some Spanish..so she can communicate some but is hoping even more will come back to her in her time spent here this month. She is very pleasant and we look forward to learning to knowing her better. She is over 6 ft tall so she seems very tall compared to all the short people around here.
Girls were disappointed this morning to find out that the outing to Mexico City was cancelled...a group of christians were going to the dump at the city to give out food to the poor and hungry....Elizabeth, Sed and Evelyn and Edith were going to go with them. Its been postponed till December so they may still have the opportunity to do that.
Children's church is again happening on Saturdays...after the mudslide and because of Nicoles trip we cancelled it for awhile...but we have the pavillion cleaned out again and so once again there is room for such things to happen. Last week there were about 20-25 people who came..it was rainy so that hindered the numbers some, I'm sure. Manuel came that day and said he wanted to come back. So that is good altho it definitely makes more drama for Asher to deal with. He had a few bad moments but for the most part he is doing well. Lencho is definitely glad for some help with splitting wood for cooking over the fire in the kitchen and then for fire in the boiler to heat water for showers. It takes a good bit of wood for all that which was too big a job for 1 ten year old boy...Michael helps a little but there isnt too much power behind that strike with the axe or machete as of yet:)

The Joy of the Lord is our strength...that was on the banner that Marlene made for us and sent to us..it looks so beautiful on our wall and is a wonderful reminder daily :) Thanks again Marlene and household!!

hey friends, just letting everyone know it is Asher's birthday the 6th of November and Emily's the 11th. Hope to hear from people:) thanks for all the prayers!

Ron and Mary Ann and Esther flew out this morning...what a wonderful, wonderful week we had together!! Ron and MaryAnn both loved Mexico and MaryAnn was right there helping as much as she could....her and Evelyn bonded quickly and she was Evelyns shadow learning how to make tortillas and took a press home to try her hand at it at home...and she liked some of the mexican food...potatoes with green tomato sauce and just enough chilies to make it delicious but not too hot for us ones who cant handle the hot yet and then we do a baked veggies with broccoli,cauliflower and potatoes with butter and seasonings...even the mexicans like that:)

Nobody warned Ron when he went up to help hoe that he should not be in sandals and shorts because the biting flies will eat you up...he suffered many tortured moments from the many, many bites he got all over his legs. He also got a lot of blisters on his hands from the hoe. Later he was chopping wood and a piece went flying and smashed his finger...more blood and pain then to top it off on the last day here he was eating an apple and broke his tooth in the front...thankfully it was false teeth and could be super glued back onto the plate...he was a good sport about all of it and still wants to come back again:)....we had so much fun together...talking and talking and laughing a lot:) I always enjoy how Ron makes Asher laugh:)

The week was really busy because on Thursday 23 people came from Mexico City and stayed for the night and the next day...they were some wonderful brothers and sisters and with everybody working together we had a good time even with all the work of cooking for all those people and preparing beds etc etc there was 1 english speaking sister so it was nice to be able to talk to somebody and she then could interpret when wanting to communicate with the others:)

Then a sad thing on the weekend was Bryan(11 years old) running away...he is our one boy we took in from the state who has run away problems...he has disappeared at times for a few hours but never run away...after 48 hours he was found at a friends house....its sad when at such a young age they do not want to try to be different....so we have been through some tough weeks...the challenge is to be quiet and believe there is no bad that God cant turn around for good so we keep crying out to Him and know our love is not in vain even when it is rejected at the moment:)

Another wonderful thing is Roberto is back in the village!! His mom said he can come back if he stays with Mari and not us...Manuel and Javier(,Robertos brothers who just left recently) are telling her bad stories about us...which we are glad God knows what is true and we do not even have to justify ourselves...God will accomplish His plan and we get to rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for Him:) At this point I cant feel bad about Roberto not being in our room. at least he is in the village and I can hug and love on him..and he freely comes in our house to play

Asher says enough for now:)

This is Wednesday...Esther arrived on Saturday evening...so good to see her again:) We had family day on Sunday...went to market, came a back road thta supposedly would not have machines working on Sunday so we couls get through but ended up machines were working and we had to wait 30 minutes at one spot for them to clear the road enough to get through...just added a little adventure:) Then we ate out by this beautiful lake before going to a beautiful rustic type cabin...it only cost $55 for 2 connecting room with a big fireplace in the one room...we sure enjoyed the fireplace:)...they had no internet or TV so that was kinda nice too because we played games and enjoyed each other instead of having our eyes glued to the tv.:)

In the morning the girls actually got to ride a 4 wheeler so they were pretty thrilled...Papa wasnt too excited because he was sure nervous they would wreck:)

Tuesday Asher and I went to Get Ron and Mary Ann at the airport. We picked them up about 2:30, got food there and ate and had a great hour chatting and laughing and then talking the whole way home...so so wonderful!! They are a delight to have here.

Today they got to go along and experience market now this afternoon most of the adults and children went to play soccer but we ladies Nicole, MaryAnn and I are going to Bodega to do the weekly shopping.

Gotta go now..more later:)

FINALLY I am on internet:)

Finally,a new blog! ! We have battled with some sickness and its not just our family this time...so Asher took our water to be checked...the results are that the water is good. So that is good to have that question taken care of. Guess its a flu going around, not just here in the village. Last week when all 3 of my big girls were down all at once; I felt rather handicapped but thankfully they are up and going again. The one good thing about their being down was that we started the process of potty training Pablo; therefore, he was able to stay in the room with them all day...we have good moments but there are still plenty of messes to clean up but at least we are working at it..he'll even wake up dry sometimes so I know he is ready...so we'll keep working at it and we are spoiled in that when one gets tired of dealing with it we can switch out with another girl:)

The other thing we are dealing with is skin issues.....a number of people had scabbies but the latest one we are dealing wiith is Michaels sores...they start out looking like he got bit but then keep getting worse..took him to the doctor and he said its some fungul thing...giving him medicine and cream but it is still getting worse:(..we may need to take him back next week if we cant get some improvement.....because some places are getting raw and awful looking and its driving him crazy with being itchy and sore.. so pray for him.

Yesterday for lunch Billy treated everybody to chicken, and he bought plenty so everyone could have their fill...It was interesting to watch Bro. Juan set up poles across a fire and grill the chickens..it was yummy. Billy needs to go to the US for a few weeks so we are going to miss him....He came here just 2 weeks before we did so he is part of Mexico, and i will personally miss his healthy appetite...he always eats a lot and always likes what we cook..its fun to cook for people who love to eat:)And of course he is someone else who speaks English,and it is so nice to have one more person to talk to :)

Since I last wrote both Manuel(14) and Javier(12) left...A child leaving is a pain a person never gets used to:(...we trust its not the end and that gives us comfort, but please pray with us for them that the time does not need to be long!! But at the same time that they would learn what is necessary for them to learn, at this point, for them to be able to come back.

Asher has been working at the water plumbing for the new showers...he's working at correcting the one problem with the existing showers as well...if you shower on the left the water is hot, but if you are on the right and someone is showering in the left you are out of luck in getting any hot.....so Asher put a check valve in the water line so that problem is solved and both showers can get hot at the same time...3 cheers:)

This week has been a" work in the gardens week" for the men. Bro.Angel took some of the brothers to work in his coffee field. Some of the other brothers were getting a field ready to plant beans. We also hauled in some horse manure for preparing the greenhouse soil. They put the greenhouse plastic up last week.

Today is Rafael's 5th birthday! We decided it was a good time to have a family day. We left a little before 9 and took Billy to Tulluncingo so he can get on the bus to go to the airport in the morning. While waiting for Jason to meet us and since it was Rafael's birthday Billy treated us all to icecream:) He was going to spend the rest of the day with Jason and the brothers there inTulluncingo. After dropping him off we went to Sam's to pick up a few things. I found cheddar cheese so we bought that for a treat for the day and then enjoyed crackers and cheese on the way home. It was pretty yummy to have cheddar again:) We rarely have cheese and if we do it is a much healthier kind then cheddar and the flavor is totally different:( We went to a nice little mexican restaurant that we knew about and here they were closed because it was sunday. One of the brothers there have a business where they sell ready to eat chicken so we went there and they fed us a meal of chicken and rice and cactus and were very gracious and didn't let us pay. Then we headed to the zoo. It only cost 8 pesos a person to get in which is less than 75 cents. It was a small zoo but the lion enertained us with its roaring and the boys enjoyed seeing different animals again. Billy had given Rafael a few pesos so he was delighted to satisfy his desire for a hotdog:) Thankfully even if the day was cloudy the rain did not start till after we left the zoo. Rafael enjoyed the text we got from friends, it made his day more special...Thank you friends!!!

Then just for fun we made one more stop at the plant market and asher gave me the pleasure of walking around among all the many plants and dreaming what plants I want to buy:) The other day Ellie gave me an indoor plant so I bought a beautiful pot and I am ready to begin my collection:)

We stopped at Los Colonias to get on internet and post the blog but internet was not working...so that is the reason for the delay in posting the blog:(

More another day:)

Well this is Thursday and finally we are on internet!! Days are slipping by and its only a week till Nicole gets home..it will be good to share the work with her again altho Gods grace has been abundant and sufficient!!

We had to take Robert to San Lorenzo today to his moms because he has a doctor appointment tomorrow...the scenery is so amazing...I never get tired of the beauty of the mountains. Anybody that comes to visit must for sure enjoy that ride to San Lorenzo..not all places can you so clearly see the mountains and the breathtaking view. I am continually fascinated with the ability of these people to grow things on the side of steep hills..its really incredible. I have great respect for these hardworking people...makes me realize what a wimp I am!! I am also amazed every time I come to town how there will be a beautiful house and right next to it is a shack..the contrast is so great and I'm amazed that it exist side by side everywhere we go.

On Monday we made a cake for Rafaels birthday...mexican tradition is that on your birthday you take a bite of the cake and someone is behind you and pushes your head in the cake..then that whole piece is yours:)...Beforehand Rafael was excited and going to take a big bite etc....but when everybody is looking at him and singing he got shy and wouldnt do it ..finally with some encouragement from Papa and being sure nobody was behind him he leaned forward and Papa and Michael pushed his head down and everybody cheered but he cried:(...he got over it and enjoyed his cake in a little bit:)

All for now:)

New pictures on picasa album. Pictures of the new girls are on there:) ENJOY

To clarify on the books....especially Spanish. At the same time my children had to leave most of their books behind and they get hungry for good reading books, too. Alsoeducational books with lots of pictures are educational whether they can read them or not..so some english ones of those are great as well.

Not sure what is of upmost importance to write today..we are doing well, not without stressful moments but all lives have that so in that we are rather normal:)

A cute moment recently was on Saturday when a group of 30 people showed up and wanted to bless the children...they had games and songs prepared and stories, they also brought lunch and bags and bags of food so that was all very sweet...but the sweet moment for us was when the one lady was telling a story and asked the children if they had a father and the littles all chorus together,"Papa Rey" :)

Saturday was a really full day because we had those 30 people show up without warning, then Bryan's mom and 2 sisters came and Victorias mom and brother and sister came PLUS we had a neighbor man who came to make bread..to us, women make the bread, but in Mexico men are the bread makers so Evelyn got to watch Mexican bread be made and found it to be truly interesting and the bread is so yummy coming out of the oven!!

Brothers are working at building more showers...2 showers for 30 to 40 people makes quite a line up in the evenings:) We are completing 2 more now but they have walls built for a total of 8. We heat the water with a wood burner but hope to set up 4 of them to heat the water with solar. As with times of construction there is always a mess so as thankful as we are for the extra showers we awill also be glad to be done with the mess:)

Have to go..more another day!!

The 2 new girls are here...Juana is 19 years old and Gumercinda is 14 years old...they are very shy and barely look at us in the eyes but oh so hungry for love...the younger girl hugs very tight when I hug her and the one night I was working in the kitchen she kept peeking around the corner so I go to check on her and could tell she was begging for a hug so I hug her and stroke her hair and tell her "te amo" and she chuckles with delight and I say buenos nochas and she then is ready to let go and go to bed...its easy to tell they haven't had a good life and there is such delight in being privileged to love them both and give them a better life...and Dora comes to me and said she noticed that their shoes were wore out and someone had given her some pesos , could she please buy them shoes...so I couldn't turn down her sweet heart so I helped fill in the needed pesos and we bought them shoes...they barely even respond but we know they are thrilled:)These girls are good workers so its a great blessing to have them here...I just couldn't figure out how to school and be sure lunch got cooked and tortillas done but now these girls definitely know how to do tortillas so I can totally put that in their hands so thats a relief...I am very german with my thinking of time and being on time is an issue to me but here I am trying to have a complete mind set change because time is not an issue here and even if we say lunch break is at 11 and food needs to be ready....well that hasn't happened yet:)...so I am trying to think differently rather than be frustrated:)

The new teacher for the older children came today so I am glad that need got met and I pray GOd gives her lots of grace and wisdom for this bunch of kids!! Its so exciting that they get the chance to learn to read......which reminds me of a particular need I thought of...I was organizing in the kitchen and put the childrens books in a basket...about a dozen spanish books and about 15 little english books......I couldn't help but remember the book cases full of books that I used to have at home and just wanted to put out the thought that even if a person only sends 1 book after awhile we could have a bigger selection....I had found several spanish books at the salvage store before I left and the kids love them!!!...so anyway just thought I would put out that thought!!!!:)

We are once again at the time of the month that it rains every day...we have been observing and have discovered about a week before full moon or even 10 days it starts being more rainy...rains every day and sometimes rains all day...but then a few days after full moon we enjoy sunny days`again with scattered rainy times...be assured that was Asher that figured that out:)

One more little story about our little girls...Anayi and Victoria, both 3 years old....Nicole had sat down to talk to them the first morning they were here and this is what there conversation was......My daddy drinks and when he comes home we run behind trees so he dont beat us and the other girl says my daddy drinks too and he came home the other night and fell and his bottle broke and there was blood running everywhere...which was true stories so once again we are so glad these little girls do not need to fear daddy coming home and they need to hide

Must go for now...

Hi friends! This week was time for running the half marathon at the beach that we have so looked forward to......Evelyn DID IT!! Edith had a great time playing in the sun the day before but got too much sun and was sick and could not run the half marathon so that was disappointing for her:( They all came home very sunbaked and exhausted...Asher and I stayed home to do chores and keep an eye on the village...we kept the 3 little boys,Pablo, Carlos and Roberto and our 3 youngest,Emily, Michael And Rafael. For their enjoyment we will go to SLASH next week(a pool with a slide) since they had to miss out of the beach. Altho for Asher and I we think we got the better end of the deal...we had work to do but the mental stress was less so it ended up being quiet, restful, and refreshing for us:)

Now Nicole has some busy days getting her last minute things done before she leaves on her trip for 6 weeks to the states. And she just asked me this afternoon what I think of 2 more girls coming...their stories are awful but where do you say we have hit our limit? Where do we turn into an institution because there are so many rather than a home? these are the challenging questions we face because there is no end to the need...pray that Gods Spirit will lead us and nothing but HIM. And then if its Him , His grace will abound.

Internet is not working in the village but when we get that up I will try to blog more regularly:)

With Nicole leaving we have all 3 of the boys again...Pablo, Carlos and Roberto:)...it was cute to watch Asher with his little boys while everybody was gone:) I do want to get a picture to put on the blog of Rafael riding on the horse while Papa takes him out in the morning to tie up for eating grass:)

And by the way, Michaels birthday is the 21st of this month...I am hoping lots of people will send him mail,etc:)

More another day:)

Little Update

Well finally back again....today was the first day of school!! It was obvious with my little boys that they have not had to sit still enough through the summer:(...so it will take a few days of getting back into the routine..it will be very good tho and I am happy to be started again. Of course our most important subject is spanish:)...hopefully with some regular perseverance we can make some progress with the language:) We still do need to order some books as we have the money to buy them..in the meantime we have enough to get started. I think the teacher had some challenges in dealing with the mexican children as well:(

Nicole had to go and pick up Carlos and Pablo's mama and get her to the hospital because she partially miscarriaged and needed a D&C and has no home to go home to because her and her latest friend aren't doing well so she is coming here for a few days to heal....we pray it will touch her heart.

Robert was gone all last week..he had to go to his mothers to do paperwork to get his birthcertificate..and they didn't have all the right papers last monday so he had to wait till they came back this week to finish paper work...it was quiet without him and it was so good to once more have in my arms again last evening....he is being testy after running the streets for a week but that is not surprising and should be fine in a few days of finding his limits again and some extra cuddling and loving:)

With school starting Daya went back to get her sister Aneyeli and her neice Aneyi...so that is 2 more little girls...so that is 4- 3year olds then 2- 2year olds some of the time...that seems like a lot to ask of the teacher with 6 other students so pray with me that God provides an answer. All the years I did the little kid class rise up and I long to do it again but my own keep my hands pretty full at this point:) God will provide,I'm sure!! And I just found out we are getting another 4 year old girl for going to school....Also our cripple girl Alehandra has been at Victory Orphanage since the mudslide but is now coming back home also a17 year old girl Theresa is also coming back here to live so that is quite a bit of addition..so pray with us that God gives the needed help and grace so these children can truly have a home and get their needs met not just getting fed and clothed...feeding anbd clothing them is some of the simpler things to do...truly touching their hearts and them changing from the inside out takes the work and help of God!!.....so it is a big work and it nearly doubled in the last week so please pray for us and help in the ways that God lays on your heart to do...some pray , some send letters, some make phone calls, some email, some send money,etc...Thank you for your encouragement and support!!

Sorry we have not blogged sooner....my hands are pretty full:) This is Gannah.....Let me back up a little to explain why. When we got here it was soon noticable to me that even tho 10 year old Mari had a natural attachment to her 3 year old brother Robert and did most of his care..she is definitely a 10 year old and would get very frustrated with him and slap him and shake him or such similar things....i am not meaning to put Mari in a bad light she is a very sweet 10 year old nevertheless 3 year olds need a mother,not just sisters:) so I started to ask God for Him to work it out without being offensive to Mari but I wanted Robert to be with my boys and I wanted to be a mama to him....Nicole was fine with it but I waited and prayed and tried to warm up to Robert because at first he wanted nothing to do with me. Well at the beginning of this week I realize Robert was sleeping with his big brothers instead of Mari and I rejoiced that it was a step in the right direction. The second night the boys had him Robert woke up and cried and cried and I could hear the boys frustration as they tried to quiet him and again I rejoiced that we were one step closer to my desire...so in the morning we asked them and they were telling Asher all about it so I looked at Robert and asked him if he wanted to sleep with Rafael and Michael and his eyes lit up and he says yes. At bedtime he wasnt too sure but settled easily. Mari had told me the problem at night is because he is so itchy....so I put antiitch cream on his itchy spots which ends up being most of his body and antibiotic cream on all the scratches that have turned to wounds so he was smiling by the time he settled...woke up only once begging for mari but i told him No ahora, manana.(not now,tomorrow) and put cream on and he settled again. The next day Mari assured me he would sleep with her and I did not pressure any but by bedtime she brought him to me and wanted him to sleep with the boys:) The next day she was willing for me to bathe him and get him ready for bed:) And she asked if he could please sleep with my boys muy dias(many days) and now she wondered if she could bring his clothes over too...and they are all talking about he is mi hijo(my son):) And I had the opportunity to talk to the girls and the boys about not hitting him or shaking him etc that they are the sisters,I will do the mother work and discipline him when he needs it ......so all in all we are rejoicing at Gods gift of giving that to us....And since Nicole is down for surgery we also have Pablo and Carlos with our family so the week Elena leaves we get 3 more boys so now we have 10 children in our 20x20 house!!!:)And guess what it is 5 boys and 5 girls:)...girls aren't in the majority anymore. we realize that pablo and Carlos are more temporary but we are loving it while it last:)

And the doctor looked at robert and said the rash is something because the dogs have a parasite......so we got some medication to get rid of it...we still need to figure out the dog drama..my opinion is they are more work than they are worth but I am not a dog lover ever yet alone when they disease our children but I am sure we will find an answer. Several of the children have the rash so hopefully we can have some happier children after this episode...its miserable to be itching and itching.

So I tell you all that so you understand if I write less..a mother of littles is more one on one demand than older children so we are entering the little boy world:) i sure wish I had some of the many things I gave away from baby class and of my own since we now have little boys:) They love the few books I do have!!:)

Nicole is recovering...she is with friends till next Friday. The problem with her speedy recovery is she is still managing the whole world from her phone so that is not very restful. We took all the children from the village to visit her yesterday...she gave them a little science lesson about what happened and showed them her incision and of course they could see her cathader bag...they were pretty big eyed:) It was good for them to see her.

Morning Report...

Thank you all for your prayers for Nicole. Her surgery went incredibly well. It lasted four hours with minor complications. Because her bladder and uterus were connected, she will have to have a catheter for 2 weeks in order for it to heal. So far everything is going well, please continue to pray for a swift recovery. We will post more details when we get them.

Please pray today!!

Today we need you to pray for Nicole...at 6pm she is going in for surgery. What is normally a rather minor surgery (hysterectomy) is a life threatening experience for Nicole. She has this rare blood problem called Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Her uterus is covered with varicose veins the size of a mans finger(10mm). There are only 100 such cases recorded in medical science and makes it a 40% chance of failure....BUT then there is God so we ask you to join us in prayer for her this evening...she gets to the hospital around 4:30 and surgery is scheduled for 6. To top that off she has a rare blood type so they do not have enough blood in case of hemorraging so she has to go and give a pint of her own blood while they give her some volume plasma that will sustain her for a day so that during surgery they have her own blood to give back to her..all sounds crazy to me but I do know that God loves dealing with exaggerated situations..just more obviously His loving care through the whole thing.

If all goes well she will be in the hospital 2 or 3 nights then she is going to stay at a friends house who has electricity so she does not have to use an outhouse as long as she still has stitches:) and hopefully it will be easier for her to relax if she is not here where there is always so much going on. The women here are truly amazing so I am sure we will do fine. Nicole translated some common sentences that I need all the time for communicating so it should all be good:)

hey everybody

this is evelyn, we finally got our oven!!!!!!! this is a big thank you to everybody who helped us get it. we have done a lot of baking since we have had it and everybody enjoys it. so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Party time!!!!!

Okay so yesterday we were invited to go to a birthday party for a little girl that was turning three. We were invited by her Aunt Margret and Uncle Alberto, who are very good friends of Nicole and Jason. It was really awesome:) They hired a Mariachi band to come play, which was of course highly entertaining. They walked around the room playing there music, stopping at our table quite a few times and singing to us:) I totally got a kick out of it; it was really funny. Even though we couldn't understand what they were saying, my dad informed us that they were singing love songs most of the time. Then there was the pinada; the two boys were along so they took a go at it. Rafael got everyone laughing, there was no blind fold so as the pinada came down he grabbed it and started hitting it with all he had in him. It was kinda sad; he started crying cuz he was so embarrassed:) Michael also gave quite a show: hitting it really hard and almost opening it. It was really cute. They got quite a bit of candy though:), which we brought home and shared with The Village kids. K well here are a few pictures of the party... didn't get really good ones of the boys hitting the pinada, but hope you enjoy anyways:) Edith:)

Friday, July 22,2011

Horst family update:)

This morning we had a shower of rain but now the sun is trying to peak through. The wonderful thing for today is that TWO backhoes are here working at moving mud...the mountain is pretty much straight up in back of the houses so now the plan is to make a driveway behind the houses then make steps(4meters wide and 4 meters high) up the mountain to make it safer and avoid more mud slide drama...thats alot of moving dirt/mud...but we need to fill in in the front of the houses because a little more of the mountain slid away each year so that now in front of Jason and Nicoles room there is only 5 ft till it drops off...so the plan for the front drop off is to fill in and make a front yard and then steps.....thats all still in talk stage so we will see how it actually ends up...we will try to keep pictures posted of progress:)

The oven was set in place and hooked up yesterday...so Evelyn made her first batch of hot rolls and everybody loved it!! This morning we made zuccini bread in the cake pans and that was a big hit as well:) Now we are eager to make granola...and monster cookies for childrens church tomorrow:) It is wonderful and thank you again to those who shared in making this happen:) Now we are lookin forward to going to Telancingo to get whole grains and yummy things at a health food store...And maybe there we can find bread pans and muffin pans.I think of baking and have to adjust my ingredients a little...I looked for chocolate chips and there were none at the bodega, Nicole said they have them at Sams in the big city but it cost $25 for a 3# bag...well no chocolate chips for now:) Nuts are really expensive, about $8 a half pound so that will need to be a rare treat too. At least raisens arent too crazy expensive. They are looking forward to cinnamon rolls..and we can get cinnamom and sugar:) and I checked about apricot jelly and they do have that(for those who have eaten my cinnamon rolls made with apricot spreadable fruit instead of sugar) We also have m&ms to make my monster cookies so that I know is a big hit...so we wont be deprived, just some adjusting:)

Another big weekend is ahead of us...On Friday some of the men go out to visit the various outlying churches. They usually have a service and spend the night. Often going on to another village on Saturday. Returning on Sunday. One of theservices is held at a place called Africa, surrounding villages are called Santa Domingo and Buenos Aires. The brothers joke about this being the international part of our ministry:) Then Saturday is childrens church....the size of that depends a lot on the weather these days and of course we had to cancel several weeks because of the mudslide. But if the weather is not pouring rain tomorrow we will have childrens church again. Then in the afternoon we have a dinner party to go to. We do not go to all of them but these friends have come to the village different times and we do want them to feel our love and care for them...such times are kinda overwhelming for me because I sit there feeling like a lump on a log and an idiot because I can not speak but eventually things will get better:)

Yesterday while preparing dinner it became a spanish/english class which was fun, we all did a bunch of laughing of us americans trying to say the spanish words and the mexicans trying to say the english. Later the one girl asked me"dificil hablar en espanol?"(is it difficult to talk spanish) and I laughed and said "Si." I pointed to Eldora and said " no nino, yo abuela"(I am no little girl, I am a grandma) They got a good laugh at that:) It did make me stop and think too because I suddenly realized I am the oldest woman here:) Thats different for me! I was always the little girl, now in the last years I am gettting used to being one of the older women but to be the oldest is really strange:)...guess it shows you that the women are young here in this village!!

ITS A SUNNY DAY!! Thank you to those who prayed with us for sunshine...the sun shone the last3 days and last night it didn't even rain during the night....so the mud is getting less smeary:) ....the backhoe fellow had to go do another job but we hope he will be back soon. In the meantime other jobs are getting accomplished....like the oven is here so they are building a cement shelf to get ready to get it hooked up....By the beginning of the week our fun with the oven begins...I have been collecting little things each time I go to town for making yummy muffins, cookies etc! We hope to go to a health food store about 1 and half hours from here some day before too long. Asher has also been working at cleaning the bodega ( tool room)...his creativity in finding space for everything is truly amazing!! Edith has before and after pictures to post soon.

The other big news is Pablo and Carlos are back... their mother had walked in about 3 weeks ago and wanted them back and there really wasnt much they could do about it...so this time when she brought them back all filthy dirty Nicole went to court and got papers signed so they are hers till they are 13 so again we have lots of little boys running around.....The sad part of that news is Nicole was wondering if the mother of the boys was pregnant again so she got a blood test done and sure enough she is pregnant...sigh..how sad!

Again I have to go...we dropped off Deya and Javier at market to shop and now it is time to pick them up:)More Later

This is Sunday and we are taking some time at internet...it continues to rain ...Pray with us for sunshine!!...backhoe can not come as long as we have rain every day!!
WE did get a washer and dryer!!!How nice when its raining to still have dry clothes...we have it hooked to a generator so its definitely not the most efficient or cheapest way but it does help us survive in this rainy weather:)
More later...we are well:)

FINALLY after a week of taking dirty and wet clothes to the laundermat in town we are caught up...the difference here in taking clothes to the laundermat in Mexico versus the united states is that you weigh the clothes when you drop them off and pay $1 for each pound but you go back later to pick it up and its been washed,dried and folded and put neatly in a bag ....so that was very helpful in that crazy week of being away from our home..thanks to those of you who sent money...at least $300 went towards getting 30 peoples clothes dry and clean which is pretty cheap considering that included some blankets and coats and jackets. So we are grateful to be on this side of that:) Now we are home but the getting clothes dry drama continues...it works reasonably well if it waits till after dinner to rain but many days it rains by 2 or 3 so then we have to figure out what to do with half dry laundry...take it all down and hang it up again in the pavillion or let it hang and hope it doesn't get too wet and hope it will dry the next day....I am pretty american so I still run and take it down and rehang it inside but it is all very time consuming!!...Nicole talked to a pastor and they are trying to raise money so we can buy washers and dryers. Of course that means we would have to get electricity. There is now a power line going past the village but they are asking about US$8000 to install a transformer for us...We are not holding our breath. In the meantime we will continue our clothes drying drama:)

Yes for those who said they realize a mud slide means a lot of work that is very true!!! There is so much mud and people will come and shovel and haul wheel barrow after wheel barrow load of mud and it seems like a drop in the bucket....The backhoe has come the last 2 days and we are grateful for everything it can get cleared but there is so much that it can not do...so if anybody wants to get muddy and do some good hard working it would be a good time to make a trip:)...now of course we are short on beds so you better call to see if we can work it out:)...and no matter how much we clean there is still mud:)...I am trying to work on some routines and just normal washing the floor and that does make some improvement when we sweep and mop the kitchen floor after every meal...it at least looks better for a little while and we can tell we have a concrete floor instead of a mud floor:)

When the mud slide hit the corner of our one dorm it moved it off the foundation about 3 feet....and destroyed 2 of the rooms......today the mens project was to move it back on its foundation inch by inch with man power.....they have it mostly in place so tomorrow will be the finish touches and we can clean the girls dorm and get them moved back in their room....we are using another room for Javier and Deya and their littles till rebuilding can be done.....so bit by bit we make some progress. The pavillion was a disaster as well...the mud slide came through and pushed the wood pile and all the misc. collection of stuff into the middle of the room then the water gushing through the pavillion off the mountain made big ruts so there is still much slippery, very messy mud in there.....so far we have done enough digging and hauling mud away so we can get some of the stuff pulled out and organized..there is still a ways to go:)!!!

There are many kind friends who if they can not help with the digging or cleanup they bring bags of food or blankets or bags of clothes to sort through. That first week we sorted through about 20 bags of stuff, took what we could use then passed it on to other needy folks.

Thank you very much to each one in your part whether it was with prayers or emails or text or money...each one was a gift and blessing..we felt very loved and taken care of. May God reward and bless each of you!!

Mexico update

Just a quick update..I am so sorry we have not posted more. We were in the process of more when we needed to move to an orphanage and it ended up a tree had fallen on the line there so there was no electricity or internet.....And always the answer is manana as to when it wil get fixed:) the place is absolutely beautiful but it is not home so we are grateful for God's provision, at the same time we are very eager to get back home to the village.Only 2 of the rooms were destroyed(not ours for those who wondered) but there is much mud and mess to clean up and figuring out how to go forward. Its been a crazy week for Jason and Nicole with having graduations every day and getting Jason's mother back to Mexico City to fly home..they are pretty exhausted ..please pray for them. We have had some sun to be able to do some clean up but we are hoping to really hit the clean up by Friday. Hopefully we will get moved back soon, depending on the amount of rain we have the next few days. Thanks again for everybody's love and prayers and care!! GOD IS WONDERFUL

Before:

After:

Pictures:)

okay here are a some pics of the house that was ruined. These are before they took it down yesterday.

Edith put up a bunch of new pictures on our picasa...enjoy. We will write more later:)

Another update:)

We are well, continueing to adjust and loving it but always frustrated too because we can't communicate everytime we wish. Yesterday was my(this is Gannah) first time where Nicole and Jason left for the day and I was in charge. Asher was here but left at 10 to go hoe in the corn field with all the boys and men here and didn't return till 2, was here for 2 hours then left again to go with the boys to cut grass for the horses...so even if in the morning I thought I would have Asher help me with communicating that did not end up being reality. God did give me the gift of Luis coming over and wanting to make lunch so that was great relief for me. The girls worked good and my girls were busy with our laundry and keeping care of little boys so things were fairly smooth except for these moments where it appeared like the big girls were torrmenting the liitles and having great laughs about it...I can't understand what they are saying and they thought it was a great joke when i said "no mas" but what really got me was I suddenly hear Roberto screaming and Mari and Natalia laughing so i go to see what in the world is going on and Roberto is running terrified and Natalia is chasing him holding a book with a cow on and pointed to show me that he was scared of it...I told her NO in no uncertain tones but had to take the book and comfort the boy...Nicole and I chatted when she got home to help figure out how to make it better next time and so she can have a chat with them.

We had a spanish lesson with Nicole this morning to get some of the phrases I need to say at such times so I am better prepared:)

Wednesday is to be their rest day so the whole village took the day off and went to the river to swim...when we got to the mountain to go down to the river it was quite a breathtaking and rather scary view how far down we would go till we could even see there was a river down there ...it took us at least 15 to 20 minutes to drive back and forth down this narrow road, sometimes a frightful look way down:) but then we were there and it was a pleasant day...where we parked was nice shallow running over the rocks place for the littles and some of the mamas to be then a liitle farther up there was a deeper place for women and middle age kids then further up was a deeper place for the men and the girls who wanted to swim and dive...so it was fun for everybody!! Lunch was beans cooked ahead of time then a fire made there to heat tortillas and fry some scrambled eggs, then one lady brought some tamales too..it was yummy and satisfying..then our afternoon snack was roasting those huge marshmallows over the fire then putting it between 2 cookies. A refreshing day just enduring the sun burn for a few days afterward:)

Tomorrow is children's church..Jason and Nicole need to go to another service so asher will teach the lesson and I will make the food for the multitude:) ....thankfully some women will come to and nicole already talked to one of them about helping me so I am thinking it should be more of the adventure of actually learning to communicate:) Last week was the first that Nicole was able to use the felt pictures.. thats a pretty awesome set, Dossie/Eileen!! Thanks again! So we are starting in the beginning and telling about creation, the children enjoyed it last week!! So there is the singing, then the story then coloring a picture then serving the lunch. Last week we shared lollipops with all the kids from the big box that Ms Donna had given to Rafael so that was fun. Now this week we get to pass out the fire balls that were also from Ms Donna. It would make you happy Donna to see their happy faces..I will tell Edith to post some pictures:)

Latest Drama:)

It was pretty dramatic last evening with Evelyn...she was carrying a bowl of chips up the steps to take to the men for dinner and had a jar of valantin in her hand ...she tripped over the hose and her skirt was too narrow so she couldn't catch herself and fell, breaking the jar and cutting her hand...I look up as she is screaming I almost cut my thumb off and saw the cut laying open...so we quickly wash it and grab a towel to slow the blood gushing out...Nicole and I with evelyn get in the van and hurry to town..calling the doctor as we go..evelyn was kinda in shock in first and crying but by the time she got to the car she kicked into doctor mode and quieted herself and took deep breaths then pracically said its my left hand. She told me later she was afraid that her thumb was messed up and all she could think at first was now she couldn't be a surgeon and that was why she was freaking out. The doctor was waiting for us..a wonderful kind man.......Dr. Rueben....it took 13 stitches...the reason for the major blood was because it hit an artery and he had to get that taken care of first. she bled a lot in the process and he encouraged us to get her blood checked..it seemed plenty thin. She was great..sometimes watching, asking questions, etc...they get done give us some prescriptions and only charged us $60 for everything...couldn't help but think how it would have been over a thousand if we were in the states. The cut was pretty deep and laid open but it wasn't right on her thumb thankfully and she has movement of all her fingers and thumb so that was a great relief. This morning she had to go in for a tetnus shot, but that was free at the government clinic. Nicole felt really bad but we assured her it was nothing of her fault and God's ways are always higher than our ways!!

Another Day in Mexico

Another day in Mexico is coming to a close. The men are working in the stone house even tho it is already 9:00p.m. Susan, Jason's mother is coming on thursday and there is still a good bit of work to be accomplished. Since the generator is going so the men can work Nicole put up the projector and we started a movie for the kids. My boys were excited about a movie because we had told them when we get to Mexico we wouldn't watch movies. When Michael found out it would be in spanish he was too tired to cope and just started crying. When I come in the room to find out what was happening, Rafael is sitting there crying too. I ask him why he is crying and he says, " I just want to make Michael happy!" That was real sweet, I got them both comforted and now they are snuggled together , sharing their blanket and watching the movie and not realizing how quickly they will pick up on spanish, adding this to their experience.

I continue to try to make our rooms homey and comfortable. They are unique but I like it. Once they get more done on the house maybe Asher will be able to continue his shelf building project for us…its not the first time we had to wait for a more important project ..so we are fine.Nicole really wants me to take over the kitchen..of course I won't be able to do that but I do really like doing breakfasts and jason is really wanting to get away from sweet breads and crackers……the one problem at this point is the oven quit on the stove so there went the making homemade bread plan and healthy muffins…until something can be fixed. The part cost about $100 but Jason is really wanting to buy a big oven so we can bake more at one time with feeding this big of crowd…….but the oven cost about $600 and there are no funds for that so I am telling you all about it so that if anybody would like to donate to that cause it would be a big help toward making steps in feeding the children healthier food!! In the meantime I am still going to work at making healthier more filling breakfast. The littles are pretty tickled that I let them have a cup of coffee in the morning! It rained pretty good last night but then cleared off and was another warm sunny day…so when the sun shines we do laundry. Today we also decided that the 4 big girls need to each do their own laundry then they can take turns helping me with the littles laundry. Doing laundry has always been a favorite of mine so I am enjoying the switch. The washer we brought down is working great and it definitely saves on the knuckles. I remember how my hands and knuckles got sore last time because I was not used to washing by hand.

Well enough for now. Love to all! Our highlight is when someone gets to internet and we see who wrote us something this time…and the whole family delights in every word…so thanks again for your encouragement and support …and hope to hear from you soon!!