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Is having 11 children ages 11 and under (one of those being a constantly nursing newborn) a good enough excuse for not blogging? SInce I only have 10 minutes or so before the clan will awaken, rather than trying to type out all that's happened these past few weeks, if you are interested, you can go to our other blog and read all the latest. It is www.lockwoodfamily.blogspot.com . I've kept that updated primarily because it is the blog that is tied to our ministry website (www.lockwoodsministry.com) and also because it is so easy for me to upload pictures to it. So if I'm ever absent from here for a period of days or weeks or years, stop by our other blog and you'll find me :) Our Sweet Eleven Sent From Heaven :)
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I'm sorry for those whom I left hanging after my last post. I know many of you check up on us on our other blog which I have kept up. But for those of you who don't, little Eliseo is doing great! He came home day 4 and is growing, eating, pooping, sleeping, and being incredibly cuddly, snuggly and kissable all day. 
I know many have been waiting and checking for an update. I (Jaynee) was at the hospital all day with our little guy and Daniel had the children along with the normal Sunday church services. |
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Our precious little treasure is here! Eliseo Edward Lockwood arrived Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 8:30 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs 11oz (3.5 kilograms) and was 20 1/2 inches (52 cm.).
Thank you so much for your prayers. Little Eliseo is having trouble breathing, so he's been in an incubator with an iv and oxygen since birth. They said normal respirations per minute in a baby should be 40-50 up to 60. When he was born, Eliseo's rpm were at 90 and then later went up to 120. They were considering transfering him down to La Paz (about 2 1/2 hours south) to a bigger hospital. We really prayed over him and the Lord graciously put his hand upon him; he started improving and was back down to the 80's and 90's this morning.
Please pray that his breathing continues to improve quickly~ we haven't been able to hold him yet nor has Jaynee been able to feed him. Jaynee did really well, and got discharged this morning; she only had to be in the hospital for about 24 hours all together. She was eager to get up and walk so she could go down to the nursery and see our baby.
We named him Eliseo (pronounced Ellie-say-oh) which is Spanish for Elisha. We wanted an Elisha, but thought it would be a bit confusing having an Elijah and Elisha, so we gave him the Spanish name for it. His middle name is Edward which was the first name of Hermano Lalo. Lalo was our first best friend here in Mexico. He helped us all with our Spanish, loved our children, and was a blessing to us in a place where we often felt very lonely. We met him when we first moved to Mexico; later, when we moved further south, he came for 4 months to work with us. He wanted to come back someday, but had a real burden to see his family saved first, so he went home asking the Lord to use him to lead them to the Saviour. He told a lady at his church that even if it cost him his own life, he would do anything to see him family come to Christ. Last year, he died unexpectedly from a heart attack. He was only 29 year old. At the funeral, his dad and 3 of his sisters got saved.
Please continue to pray for Eliseo. Since she can't feed him yet, Jaynee is going to go home to change, see the other children, and rest for a bit (as she is a bit uncomfortable after the c-section and there are just hard plastic chairs to sit on.) Daniel will stay with the baby and then pick Jaynee up again in the evening to go back to the hospital to stay with him.
Pray he will continue to improve quickly and we can soon bring him home to the family.
Thank you too for praying for Nehemiah; he began to improve Thursday afternoon and has been much better the past couple of days. We know the Lord hears and answers the prayers of His people~ We are resting in Him. |
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And will return with Little Lockwood #11....and hopefully a name for this new little treasure too! :) Thank you for your prayers!!!! |
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Okay...I have a couple of people that want to see my belly so they can judge for themselves. Most of the pictures I have of myself don't really show my belly...so I took a side shot of myself just now. :) Thank you for all who are praying...I go into the hospital Friday morning at 6:30 am and surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am. I soooo do not want another c-section...I'm hoping I'll just wake up some night and the baby will have been born :)
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Out of the mouths of babes! :) My oldest son Timothy (11) the other day had this conversation with me: Timothy- "Mom, did the people at the hospital where you gave blood think that you weren't 9 months pregnant?" Me- "Why do you ask? Were you listening to mommy and daddy's conversation in the car?" (We had been talking about how funny it is that nobody believes that I'm due when I am...I've very tall, so baby has lots of room to spread out) Timothy- "Well, I sort of heard something...but why do they not think your 9 months pregnant?" Me- "Because mommy is so tall, my tummy doesn't stick out as far as normally a 9 month pregnant lady's tummy does." Timothy- "I think that your tummy is WAY big...it's HUGE. I think it is bigger than most people's tummies. They shouldn't say things like that to you huh?" Me- "Don't you have some chores or something to do? :)" |
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My dh is helping me with that nesting instinct...you know, the one wear right before the new baby is due to arrive, you suddenly want to remodel the entire house and your eyes see dirt and grime that seemed to go pleasantly unnoticed before? The past couple of weeks, in his free time (translated...late nights) Daniel has been finishing many of the unfinished details of our house :) Things such as painting the bathrooms, finishing putting in the flooring, door knobs ect... Last week, he worked on the children's bathroom. The floor is finished, the room in painted, the door is able to close and is painted, and today he is making some beautiful towel racks and a tp dispenser out of wood. When he's all finished, I'll have to post a picture :) My friend Laura once wrote a post about how she framed her children's art work to decorate their bathroom. She posted pictures and at the time, I don't even think we had a house, but I thought it was just the best idea. So last week, I bought some frames for $1.50 at the discount market and the children set to work. We have the Draw, Write, Now books which have actually helped us all in being able to draw a recognizable item! They were having so much fun that I even got in on the action. With so many little (and big...I mean pregnant) artists around here, we just may end up having enough art for the bathroom, bedrooms, family room, and hall!
I drew these butterflies...Don't laugh!
Benjamin's (age 7) fish
Abigail's (age 6) elephant Nehemiah's (age 15 months) frog. Well, I helped him a little bit...he was napping next to me and since Nehemiah is a bullfrog, I was greatly inspired :)
Elijah's (age 10) duck
Timothy's (age 11) hermit crab
Susannah (age 2), Noah (age 3), and Josiah's (age 4) squirrel. Okay, they were napping too...this was just too much fun!
And Rebekah's (age 8) whale. By the way, does anyone know a good way to clean white grout which is not longer white on a counter top?
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I have my c-section scheduled for the 11th of April. The doctor insisted that we go to the hospital this morning so I could donate blood for myself in case I need it. I have a A- blood and they usually have no blood at the hospital other than maybe some o+. When we got to the hospital, the staff looked and acted confused and told me I couldn't do that. My doctor happened to be there and told them I could. They said they would need to run a blood test first to check for something or another that I didn't understand in Spanish. Something about my blood has "blah blah blah" because I am pregnant and that pregnant ladies do not give blood. Well, they tested me; it was fine; I donated my blood; they gave me jello, cereal and juice afterwards :) Yum! My husband was in the waiting room with all the chitlins and talked to the lab tech. He was asking if it was normal to require a blood transfusion with a c-sec. She said that yes; that they have had increasing deaths there at the hospital from c-sec patients needing blood and so it is now standard protocol to have donated blood on stand by (there is no blood bank around where we live). After that comforting statement, he asked her why everyone seemed so confused then when we came in to donate and she said because the pregnant lady will bring in a family member or neighbor to donate; they do not donate themselves. It all went well; hopefully I won't need my blood back. Only 12 days until we meet our new little boy!
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One of my blogland friends posted how she had recently been on a trip, and during one of their "pit stops" seen the worst bathroom ever. I thought, just to make her feel better, I'd share with her our church bathroom :) The building we are meeting in for services was a real answer to prayer. We had outgrown our house and the owners of this abandonded church building are letting us use their facility for free. The building is perfect...has wooden benches and all. But there was no bathroom there...no sewage either. Sooo my husband and some other men of the church began to dig. My husband wants the church here to be a true Mexican Christian church. He has no intention of remaining the "pastor" any longer than he has to...the goal is to make disciples and train up leaders (pastors, deacons) to govern and pastor their flock. We are very careful that the church does not become dependent in any way on American funds. Everything that is done is do by the people...their time, money, work ect... With that being said...they dug a very authentic outhouse. Once the hole was deep enough, they had to line it with something or else it would cave in during the rains. This can be either done with bricks and cement or old tires. Since tires are free, they opted for that. So we now had a big hole filled up with tires. Next, there had to be a floor and walls, and again, we used what we had...sticks cut down from the desert "trees". My hubby built a simple wood box and attached an old toilet seat that we had onto it. The walls were an issue...again, what we had we used...old sheets and cardboard boxes mainly. :) It is definately not the most private thing. The worst part is when I stand up (I'm 5 ft. 10 in) my whole head and neck sticks up over the wall (there is no roof). But when you are 9 months pregnant, when you've gotta go (like every 15 mintues) you've gotta go!! So, without further ado.... Isn't it beautiful...every afternoon it gets really windy and kind of blows the sheets all over the place....so if you can, you want to avoid using the facility at that time of day.
Here I opened the "door"~ Come on it!
Don't worry...that is just dirt on the seat...when the wind blows the sheets off, it blows the dirt in too :)
Every time my Susannah (age 2) has to go potty, she walks so carefully on the floor cuz she's so sure she is going to fall in between the cracks :)
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Coie is having a contest here. All you have to do is post your favoritefamily picture with the story behind it! You can win a super tote bag like the one Coie made her mom Here We have lots of family pictures...one for each child...that makes 10 so far! :) The most current picture is always my favorite simply because it has ALL of us! :) We had this picture taken in December when we were in the USA for Christmas visiting our families. I love this pictures for 2 main reasons... besides that fact that we are ALL in it, 1- Thanks to grandma and grandpa, all of the children have matching outfits. Side note: Josiah told me the other day that they didn't really all match cuz he was wearing his hunter green underwear and no one else has any like that. I'm not sure how or why he remembers that when he can't remember to take out the bathroom trash each morning. I also like this picture because 2- I just love seeing the children all clean apart from when they are in their pajamas. Picture taking actually went rather smoothly that day...the photographer was great...so patient and loved the children. The day before was a bit stressful. We were going to not only get our family picture taken, but a picture with my whole family (my dad and mom siblings with their children). One of my sisters INSISTED that everyone wear red, black and or white....period! Well, white clothing and I parted ways around child 3. I did have a black skirt, but my 1 red shirt was busting at the belly and other parts as I was then 5 months along with baby 11. Sooo I ran around a few days before Christmas among all the masses of last minute christmas shoppers trying to find a shirt that was red and, well, with 12 mouths to feed each day, CHEAP! I was so thankful (I was praying!) when I found a shirt/sweater combo for $4.99 at JC Penney! Daniel (dh) hadn't packed a white shirt and wasn't about to buy one as he had 2 perfectly good ones at home. So he wore his tan one and he did have a red tie and his black suit jacket. Well, we got to the photographers studio and lo and behold, the "You MUST wear red/black/white under penalty of death" sister walked in wearing a PURPLE SHIRT! Her explanation...I didn't like how my red one looked on me this morning. I'm so thankful for the numerous blessings God has given us...I feel so undeserving, yet in his grace, He has blessed us far above what we ever imagined! This little guy who is kicking my bladder as I type is due in 3 weeks!!!! I can't wait to get another family picture with him in it!!
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Well, I got a nice, new sweater/shirt anyways.|
That translates....who would like to win a really neat prize? Jenig is having a contest over at her blog and since I have 2 boys set and determined to preach the gospel someday to the people of Brazil (where my oldest wants to go) and of Russia (where my 2nd wants to go), this prize could be of great help to one of them in learning the tongue in which they desire to preach. So,,,, Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian. This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
Have a blessed day in the Lord! love, Jaynee |
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We interrupt the Lockwood House Tour for some much more interesting news...
Elijah turned 10 years old today! He's our St. Patrick's Day baby; he read "Let Me Die In Ireland" ~ the true life story of Patrick this past year and told me he was glad he got to have his birthday on the day we remember such a great missionary and servant of the Lord.
Wow, did we have a whale of a day! :) We all love birthdays in this family and make those days extra special for the birthday boy/girl. They get the day off of school and chores, get to pick the meals, and sometimes we'll do a special outing together. Elijah had mentioned last week how he would like to see the grey whales which are migrating from our area back up to Alaska. So Daddy said we could go and try go get a boat ride.
   The bay is about 30 minutes from our house, so in the late morning, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out there. There were several booths with tour guides. We went to the first booth and they old us it would be $70 for an hour trip. Daniel asked if it would be possible to go out for only half an hour, but they laughed and said no. As we walked away, a man at another booth flagged us over to him. He began by asking us questions~ Are these all your children? Are there any twins? How do you know Spanish? ect... We told them it was our son's 10th birthday and he wanted to see a whale. One of the men said they would take us out for just the cost of gas for his boat! We were so thankful and the children were bursting with excitement.
We got to go out for almost 2 hours and saw LOTS of whales! Elijah was the first one to spot one, and as he yelled, "I see one" all the other children began to cheer too and soon all the boats on the sea were following ours around as we spotted the whales
    It was such a special day for Elijah. As we finished Elijah's birthday dinner tonight, we were all sharing with Elijah how he is a blessing to us. Elijah wants to be a missionary to Russia; last year, he saved his money and bought a cd to learn Russian. This year, he has been praying that the Lord will help him find a missionary to Russia that he can pray for and give to. He's been saving all his money to give to that missionary. Elijah is a blessing to Daniel in helping him with the work here, he's a big blessing to me in helping with the many chores, and as his siblings shared, a blessing to them as he loves to read to them, play with them and take care of them. The Lord blessed Elijah with a wonderful birthday!
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What do you do when you are up at 2:30 am with children who have the stomach flu? In between the clean up and comforting, you update your blog of course! Here are a couple of pics of our kitchen:
Isn't all that counter space wonderful?!! My parents gave us those bar stools for Christmas this year...6 of them and there is still room for 1 more (my birthday?? :) ). Did you notice our hard wood flooring that isn't wood at all? It is wood printed tile...other than cement or dirt, it is the only flooring option here, so all our rooms are tiled. Not overly cozy, but again, with 10 children, it is very practical! Especially on nights when they have the stomach flu!
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Now onto our dining room. It is one of my favorite rooms and one where we spend a lot of time as a family either home schooling, playing games, working or eating.
You can see our living room in the background. There is our big table...my dh bought this at a second hand store a few years ago for $70. It was and old hotel conference table and it seats all 12 of us without a spot to spare. Of course, with baby we will be 13 and who know how many more the Lord may choose to add to our quiver, so Daddy and the boys are making plans to build an even larger table themselves this year. Our chairs are those metal folding ones. Not the most pretty things, but very practical. They clean up easily, can be stacked against the wall for easy sweeping and mopping, and they sit us comfortably while not taking up a lot of space. You can also see our home school book case against the half wall and our home school cupboard against the other wall. There is a small desk there next to the cupboard; while the older ones study at the table or the kitchen counter, a little one will often sit at that desk to color.
Here is another angle...I'm standing with my back to the living room. You can see our computer and printer there in the corner and my hubby's desk there too. On that back wall on the right you can see a wall plate hutch that was my great grandmothers. I remember eating milk toast at her little dining room table staring at that hutch.
Here is the clan on Valentine's day morning gathered around the table for breakfast and family Bible time. I am trying to remember what we were eating. It looks like eggs, potatoes and of course, tortillas :) Okay...later I'll post the kitchen where all this food is prepared each day! |
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First, I want to thank all of you so much for your name suggestions! I LOVED so many of them~ and I think we know what we will name this little guy. But I will wait a bit more just to be sure we are SURE :) Anyways, I thought I'd start blogging about some basics so you can get to know us better. This should at least give me some "default" things to blog as often I put it off cuz I can't think of anything to write :) Today I'll start with our house...not that that really has much to do with us as people, but mainly because my mom wanted me to take some pictures of it for her and I have them on hand. Daniel and I have been married for 13 years this July. In that time, we have lived in 11 different homes. When we lived in the USA we rented~ anything from a small appartment to a small home. We thought about buying, but the 2 times we really tried it did not work out (and now, in hindsight, we are sooooo glad we just rented!). Since being in Mexico the past 4 years, we've lived in 5 homes...from the 12 of us living in a 30 foot trailer to the home we are in now. I am still so humbled and amazed and thankful for the Lord's provision of this home. Last year we were living on our little piece of property in our trailer hoping to some day be able to build a home. We still find it hard to believe it happened so fast! We are living in our own home~ debt free. Of course, we don't consider it "ours" but are so grateful to have a home base here. Well, without further ado... here is our living room:
The first picture is looking into the living room from inside the house~ You can see the front door where we have many, many visitors enter each day :) In the second shot, I stood near the front door and you can see our book cases. Our living room is small and used mainly for visiting, for the children practicing music, and reading. My hubby and I come out here often in the early morning too to pray together and spend time in the Word. Next shot~ I stood near the book cases and you can see our piano :) I just got this piano last year. It is the very piano I learned to play on when I was a girl. When my parents moved into the house they are currently living in, it came with a grand piano, so she passed this one to me. The last shot is just so you can see what you see when you walk into the front door. Our living room is very open and you can see our kitchen and diningroom in the background. You can also see my Abigail running out of the play room as she says, "Oh wait Mommy! Don't take the picture yet; I forgot something" :) Notice there are sadly somthings missing from most of these pictures~ that which makes our house a home~ MY CHILDREN !! Also, you will notice the it is relatively clean in this home! Both of these things are easily explained~ it is because I took all these pictures on Saturday. Saturdays we all get up early and the boys ALL (except for Nehemiah) work with Daddy usually outdoors and the girls all help me do laundry, clean, dust, sweep, mop ect... We usually finish around 2 pm and have a big lunch. Then the little ones go down for a nap and the older ones get cleaned up and go with Daddy to the church. Then, when the wee ones awake, we all go to the church to join Daddy for soul winning time. Sooooo I took these pictures on SATURDAY right after we had CLEANED and the ones home were NAPPING :) Was this interesting at all or not?? Feel free to tell me if this was boring :) I'll continue with the next rooms tomorrow :)
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I'm so bad at blogging...Since my hubby was going to be out late tonight, I had planned on making a cup of tea and posting something. Well, my older 2 chitlins begged and pleaded for me to play them boggle...just to 50 points. Of course, this takes almost an hour as they make up all sorts of weird words and then spend 15 minutes each round with the Websters 1828 dictionary trying to find them. Anyways, we were just finishing the last round when a lady who use to go to our church came by. She said she had a room my husband could rent. I looked at her puzzled and said, "Huh?" That word works in Spanish as well as English. She said Daniel wanted a room to rent. I asked her why...she said "to live in". I said, "Daniel wants to move out?" She laughed at me and said "No" And then was laughing so much she couldn't tell me what she was talking about. Apparently Daniel found 2 families today who are living in a van and want a place to rent and he was trying to find them something. Anyways, after visiting and witnessing to her, it was already 10 pm. And at this stage of my pregnancy, my eyes are only 1/4 open at this time of night. But I would like to get some input from anyone! Little Lockwood #11 (a boy) is due next month and we need a name. We have the middle name... Edward. We are giving him that name after Daniel's best friend who died suddenly and unexpectedly last summer (he was only 30). We like to give our children Bible names for their first name, and we can't decide. Daniel likes John...and I am very willing to go with that (even though I like names with more syllables) I like Micaiah. Any suggestions? Our other boys names are Timothy, Elijah, Benjamin, Isaiah, Josiah, Noah, and Nehemiah. We also have siblings named Jeremiah, Joshua, Joel, Joseph, Jonathan, Andrew, Stephen, Philip, Samuel and Micah... and nephews named Zechariah, Caleb, David, Beniah, and Asher. So we want something other than those since they are in the immediate family. Any suggestions??? :) Please! :) |
  
The first picture is...our family picture :)! For Christmas, Jaynee's parents bought all of the grandchildren matching outfits and new shoes. We went and had a big family picture taken with Grandma and Grandpa and all the Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. Since we were at the photographer's house and the children were all matching and clean (that may never happen again!), we had her take a picture of our family too.
The remaining pictures are of the service we had here in Mexico right before Christmas. You can see the girl's side of the children's choir getting ready to sing. Below that is a picture of Alma and Marisela~ two of the young ladies in our church. And finally, a picture of Daniel getting ready to lead the congregational singing. |
   
Here are some more pictures from our time up north. Apart from all the snow, the boys greatest memory from our trip was the morning that Grandpa, Daddy and Uncle Charlie took them shooting. Timothy down to Noah got to go and they all spent the entire morning target and skeet shooting out at Grandpa's house.
Next is a picture of a get together we had with Daniel's family the weekend after Christmas. Daniel is the oldest of 12 children, of whom over half are now married with children of their own, so we had quite the gathering. Pictured is most of the clan. We enjoyed a time of good food, fellowship, some singing, gift exchange, and ended with a Christmas Bible Quiz for all the little ones.
The third picture doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas other than the fact that the girls are wearing their new nightgowns that daddy and mommy got them for Christmas. They have so much fun getting ready for bed each night and I love the time we spend snuggling, reading a book and praying together before I kiss them good night each evening. I also love to hear them giggle like girls before they drift to sleep (as long as they don't carry on more than a few minutes :) ).
The final picture is of Nehemiah on Christmas morning. He was so very sick the entire first part of our trip, but we were so thankful we had the nebulizer, all his medicine, and that he was able to stay at home with us rather than at the hospital. The Lord answered our prayers and we were so thankful that he is doing much better again. |
  
I am so sorry it has been so long since I've updated here. With the holidays, traveling, and then getting back home and back to the work of daily life and the ministry, I'm just now getting back to the computer.
On the 16th of December, we had our Christmas service here in Mexico. It was a very special service with over 90 people in attendance. The children's choir sang, we sang Christmas carols and other hymns as a church, and then Daniel preached the gospel as we remembered the birth of our Saviour. Afterwards, we enjoyed a time of tamales, posole, and fellowship before the evening ended.
Then next day, we left to head to the USA to spend Christmas with our family. We were blessed to spend 3 weeks up north with our family, church and many friends. The time just flew by as we had so many people we wanted to visit and so much catching up to do. Daniel's brother Joel and his wife let us stay in their guest house and they, along with our home church, were so sweet in getting it all fixed up and stocked with supplies for our stay.
The children had been praying for the past month that there would be snow when we went north, and the Lord was so good to give them snow to their hearts content! We were thankful for some loaned coats for the children as our "mexican blood" isn't accustomed to those winter temperatures much anymore. :)
We praise the Lord for keeping us safe as we traveled over 3,000 miles this past month. We were so thankful once again as we pulled up to our property here in Mexico to have a home to "come home" to also. After a few days of unpacking, laundry, and cleaning, we started back in to our daily routines... Daily soul winning, visiting, discipling, and work projects for Daniel ~ home schooling and caring for the home and family for Jaynee.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and now that we are back home, I look forward to regularly updating you all as we continue on laboring in the Lord's field here in Mexico. |
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We are so very thankful for the blessing of our little guy! He's brought much joy to our home and everyone loves to "love" on Nehemiah all the time. He's really a sweetheart! As is our family tradition, we went around the room giving each person a chance to "bless" Nehemiah and say why they love him. We all remembered when he was first born last year and wouldn't hardly wake up and didn't eat for 9 days. We just kept giving Him over to the Lord as we thought God just might call him back home to be with Him. Then we remember how very sick he was those first 6 months of life as he struggled with his breathing. He's always been a bit weaker and seems to catch anything that's going around...yet the Lord's so gracious and little Nehemiah is growing and doing well. All of our children have a nickname~ some of them have many :) We call Nehemiah either "Miah" (what Susannah called him when he was first born) or "the bullfrog". We had a froggie birthday party for him. The children made frogs from paper to decorate the table. I made or at least attempted to make a frog cake :) We bought a pack of green mints and some green olives to place on the table too. Everyone had fun blowing up green balloons and making 3 banners to hang up in the room. One said "Happy Birthday Nehemiah"; another said the words of Nehemiah's song I sing him every night, "Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know"; and the last one said "Psalms 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward." For a special supper, I made homemade pizza~ 2 large pizzas for us and a little personal pizza for the birthday boy :) Grandma had sent a gift for Nehemiah in the mail, so we let him open it. I just love his expression in that bottom picture. It is a little car dashboard/steering wheel and it makes car sounds and talks in English and Spanish. He had fun playing with it while we cleaned up from the party. This week has been busy! We started out the week with most of the children under the weather with a couple of different sicknesses, but we thank the Lord they are all doing better now. We finished up 2nd quarter in our homeschool the week before, so we took this week to do some winter cleaning, Christmas baking, and other projects. Tomorrow we will be putting together some goodie plates, and then in the evening, our church and our family will be going Christmas caroling. Sunday is our special Christmas service. Two Mexican Pastors from this state along with some people from their churches will be traveling to join us. We will be having a time of song, prayer, the children's choir will be singing, Daniel will be preaching, and then we'll end the evening with a Christmas Supper and gift exchange. Everyone is looking forward to it and we are praying that as our church invites their unsaved family members and neighbors to join us, that the Lord will open the hearts of many who will accept Him~ What a wonderful Christmas that would be! Monday, we head "home" for Christmas. We are all excited about spending our first Christmas in 3 years with our family in the USA. We are looking forward to visiting and fellowshiping with our family, friends and church there. If the Lord brings us to your mind, will you please pray for the Lord to keep us safe as we travel, bless and direct our time in the states, and that our church here in Mexico will continue to grow and enjoy fellowship together in our absence. Pastor Humberto from the next town will be coming to hold services each week. Well, I have a little Noah (age 3) who's half asleep and crying for a drink. Merry Christmas! |