Seven Years

Well, today is our 7th wedding anniversary. 7 years already. It is hard to believe!My house is quiet - the boys are napping...and I have a few moments to reflect on the blessings of my marriage. We have been through a lot of wonderful changes in our seven years together - from those first years of just us. Yes, the early years of our marriage were incredible - but God has a way of making things better with time, and our love for each other and our relationship is different than it was back then - but it is also richer and deeper. I love him so much more than I did then...and although we don't always act it - I think our relationship is just so much more mature....it makes me wonder what another 5 or 10 years will look like. Benjy is my best friend, my support, he makes me better...and we have so much fun together. He is the reason for my beautiful children. He has not only blessed me with a new and life-changing role as "mom" but I am blessed to enjoy his role as "dad" - we share in such an amazing job as we raise our children. Our marriage is blessed because of this unifying role of parenting and being a family together. I have seen growth and maturity in him as a man - and I love and respect him for who he is. We are going on a date tonight to celebrate "us" and I am sure we will renew our wedding vows again - as we try to do every year. I am reminded this afternoon that we - him and I - have much to celebrate in what God has given to us in each other. I know that I have not appreciated all the goodness of marriage every day for the past seven years...but I am thankful for times when all the good stuff does rise to the surface and deserves to be acknowledged. Thank you God for blessing me with the perfect man for me - thank You for how you have grown and deepened our relationship - please continue to do that, and please help me to honor, respect, and care for my husband. We give You our marriage, and our family. Thank You, Amen.

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

I guess I got my Christmas present early...my 2 front top teeth are finally in....with at least three more on the way. I'll be honest...this isn't all I want for Christmas :)

 

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated American Thanksgiving early because we will all be out of town for a missionary retreat. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

 


All of our team joined together to give thanks - with traditional food and great friends...we all feel very blessed. We were 18 in total (although not everyone made it in the picture). 

Keeping in touch with far away family and friends!

Reece has become fascinated with the computer and enjoys sending special emails to family. 


Caught in the act..."but I was just telling them I miss them!"! 

More Workers

We are trying, as a family and as a mission team to place a higher emphasis on prayer. As of the last few months we have been dedicating Fridays to specifically focus our prayer time together on asking the "Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field" (Luke 10:2). We believe that there are many more people in Mexico City who are seeking a relationship with Christ and that God desires to use to expand His kingdom. Our prayer is for God to lead us to those people. This weekend we all gathered at our house to pray together. It was a really encouraging time and we can sense that we are growing together in the discipline of prayer. We will now invite our Mexican brothers and sisters to pray this prayer along with us on Fridays and we dream of seeing many households of people gathering together to pray for more workers. Please consider joining us from wherever you are - at anytime, of course - but specifically on Fridays. Oh, and I can't not include this inspirational moment...Benjy has been teaching Reece about prayer and explained to him that we need to be asking God to send us more people. So last night when I put Reecer to bed I asked him what we should pray for. He said a few things and then said, "send more workers". I agreed and began to pray but he interrupted me and said, "Father, send more workers...Amen" with a double clap (I am not sure why, but Reece always does a double clap after "Amen" - its cute).

Child-like Confidence

Reece was drawing a picture this morning and he said, "look Mommy, I'm drawing". I answered him, "wow, Reecer - that is so great! You are so good." He turned his head to me and in his easy going style said, "yup...I am".

Jesus tells us that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. This concept has certainly become more real to me after having kids and living with their childlikeness every day. I often marvel at their trust, their simpleness, their ability to be so honest and to forgive quickly. But today I was taught about confidence. I think Jesus wants us to be confident in who He has made us and is making us. He wants us to be confident in our giftedness and in using what we are good at for the good of serving others.

Isn't it funny how much we actually are like children in that we need reassurance, we need to be complimented, we need to be encouraged when we do something well. And yet, why do we have such a hard time receiving the much needed encouragement when it comes to us? Yes, humility certainly has its place in our lives, but maybe some of us need to tip the scale more towards the confidence side. I think we need to believe in ourselves more - well, not so much in our own goodness but in the goodness that God has put in each of us...and be able to say to ourselves, "yup - I am good!"