Christmas With Family - Final Installment!

The neighboring cities of Hemet and San Jacinto are where we grew up.  The Hemecinto Valley is home to much of my family.  And it also offers one of the prettiest views in Southern California.  The mountains below are what we grew up looking at and driving into to play in the winter snow. 

Our first stop when we got into town was the In N' Out where Scott and I had our first date!

From there we headed to my cousin Val's house to visit.  Val and her husband Matt are the parents of Madi, for whom many of you have been praying.  It was so great to see Madi doing so well.  Our kids had a blast playing with eachother and my older girls LOVED their twin boys who are 2 months younger than Silas.

The next morning Scott's Dad and Step mom cam down from the mountain to have Christmas with us.  It was so great to see them and not have to wait until this summer when we'll be in Michigan.

After this we met my Dad and Step mom to spend some time with them.  I must say of all the Christmas gifts I received this year this was by far the best one.  All of my children were able to meet their grandpa, and WOG.  Most of the time the younger ones were occupied in the playplace so that enabled us to have some quality time as adults too.

From here we went to my Aunt and Uncles house to see them but we ended up going out to dinner with them and my other cousin Dawn and her husband and children.  The top picture is with me and my Aunt (my dad's sister).  The next is with my cousin Dawn (Val's older sister) and her husband. 

Our final stop the next morning in Hemet was to our best Man's house to see him before we headed out of town.

We drove out town by way of the "blue roof people" aka Scientologists.  I'll never forget my dad's warniing to my sister and I about the dangers of this area.  So whenever we pass through here I'm always uncomfortable.

Our last view of the mountains as we headed through the Lamb's Canyon Pass.  It was a short but wonderful and memory filled visit to Hemet. 

Christmas With Family Part 2

After a longer than we expected drive from Lake Havasu City to North LA on Christmas Eve the kids were quite ready to get out of the van to be greeted by their Grandma Jay's open arms and exclamations of how much they have grown and changed in the past few years.

 Opening presents Christmas morning.

Jay's boyfriend, Nelson, is from El Salvador.  It's been fun to speak with him in Spanish.  Her neighbors are Venezuelan also so we've had lots of practice.  And they all have declared our kids have no accents...us on the other hand.  HA!  Our kids commented on all the people that are from other countries here in LA.  

Our time here with Jay, my "adopted" mom, though brief has been absolutely wonderful!  She hasn't changed one bit.  Which is always nice to see.  We've been having all kinds of fun playing the Wii, visiting parks, malls and even Griffith Park Observatory.  The best part though has been the time spent with Jay and her boyfriend. 

Our family with the Hollywood sign in the background. 

Tomorrow we head off to the town we grew up in, Hemet.  We'll be there for a couple days only.  And then we head back to the LA area to spend time with Scott's Mom and step-dad before we head to Nevada for a meeting.

The 3 horizontal lines at the far right are the "earthquakes" our family caused on the seismograph in the Griffith Observatory.

 

Our First Furlough Meeting

This is on the way to Phoenix.  Are these mountains gorgeous?!  I have always missed seeing snow topped mountains.  Nehemiah kept saying that he was going to climb these. The next picture shows the grade out of the mountain.  And then the difference in landscape.

The Bowmans are a sweet couple.  And we really enjoyed our stay with them.  They have a grand piano in the living room and Kaitlin and Beth played a few songs during our stay.  Peanuts and Snoopy were their dogs and are probably missing all the extra attention right now.  The picture below is the house across the street from where we stayed.

Our first furlough meeting went very well.  Considering all the problems we had getting our presentation done the fact that I was able to show something was a relief.  There were a few technical glitches - the projector was projecting everything in purple and the sound cut in and out a few times.  I finally have the sound balanced out and I believe the presentation is ready to burn to a DVD.

 The church has both their meetings in the morning and so we were able to have lunch with the Pastor and his family and a man in the church, then we headed off to Lake Havasu City, via the University of Phoenix stadium, to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins.   

Christmas with Family Part 1

Me and my Aunt Bonnie.  It has been 16 years since we last saw her and my Uncle.

Their Christmas Tree...the kids discovered presents with their names on them.

Playing Catch-Phrase with the cousins.

The kids spent ALL day outside yesterday playing on the hills.  Uncle Greg also took them on two hikes.

And Silas has been driving all his cousins Barbie cars around.

"Mommy, I have to...."

Aren't those the words that every mother cringes to hear when traveling on a LONG trip?!  Maybe it is because we have 8 kids but it seems like I hear this every 20 minutes.  Especially today.  Simeon was literally telling me he had to go potty all day.  I hope he doesn't have something going on.  I do know that at least one time he played in the bathroom instead of using it.  He got to "water" a tree on the side of the road for that mistake. 

On this trip out west we've capitalized on the eating out experiences.  Yesterday we had burgers and Pizza.  Today we had waffles and real bagels for the first time in 3 years.  Our crazy kids didn't care for the waffles at all.  For lunch we had On the Border.  We can share plates between several kids because the chips will fill them up.  And tonight we got KFC chicken plus a bunch of sides.  Scott didn't have to pay for the sides at all because they were closing and they were going to throw them away.

We have been traveling on the 40 through Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico....with a little side trip on old Route 66 looking for a bathroom.  This morning at breakfast we met an older couple who are traveling the same route as we are.  They started in Manhatten, New York and they are also headed to Los Angeles for Christmas.  We were able to chat a little bit and I gave her a Christmas tract.  I am praying we meet up with them again. 

I'm off I need to eat my free KFC and get to bed!

Pre Christmas Blessings

There is always a measure of unease when we visit a new church.  And there is always a feeling of not wanting to be a burden.  So when we booked our stay with this church after picking up our van I was a little unsure of what to expect.  If you have read my previous posts you know that the folks here have made up feel extremely welcome here!

Yesterday we were privileged to spend the Sunday services here.  The bus kids had a special program in the morning service and it was so neat to see that our children had been included into the program.  Though our kids didn't know most of the songs they had costumes and looked adorable.

Simeon was a riot!  He had a look of fear and uncertainty on his face yet at the same time was trying to smile and be cheerful.  He would make eye contact with us and he would beam then he would look at the rest of the church and that expression would set in. 

Isabel just stood there with her arms crossed and a pleasant look on her face.  Nehemiah was a wise man.  Adeline and Bethany were angels.

After the service we enjoyed a Chili luncheon.  Brandon jumped right in as a waiter/server.  And I was able to help get some of the bus kids their food.

One of the best parts has been the fellowship...for all of us.  Our older kids recruited some of the teens here into making a new Confused Entertainment production.  From the little clips I've seen I think it will be very good.  I was able to answer lots of questions about Uruguay for Pastor Kaighens daughter who feels called to a Spanish speaking country.

We trust this time that we have been a blessing to the people here in some small measure.  And we are so thankful for more prayer warriors for us and our beloved country of Uruguay.

Poor thing.

Saturday afternoon found us looking for a place to take a screaming Isabel.  She was downstairs in the church playing when she came back up to the prophets chamber crying from pain.  We decided a week of waiting was enough and we needed to get her seen by a doctor.  Of course it couldn't happen on a weekday.

Pastor Kaighen directed us to the children's hospital in Kansas City while another man directed us to a walk in clinic at Wal Greens Pharmacy.  Since the pharmacy was halfway to the hospital we decided to stop there first.  The wait was an hour and a half so we headed to the hospital.  Because she was presenting with severe abdominal pain they worked her up towards the top of the lost and we were back in a room in 20 minutes.

After an exam and x-rays we discovered that Isabel was extremely constipated.  She's on Miralax which should help relieve that problem.  We're supposed to increase the dose until we see the desired results.  We are going on day 3 of treatment though and we're not sure we see a difference in frequency of her bathroom visits.  Right now she's not complaining about the abdominal pain so I hope that means things are improving. 

We start traveling out west this Wednesday morning so it would be good to have her regular before then so we don't end up with emergencies.

First Christmas Party

Last night I was able to go to a ladies Christmas party!  When I found out they were having this party while we are here I seriously considered crashing it.  Thankfully someone extended an invitation to me so when Kaitlin and Scott headed to Wal Mart they picked up a small gift and this really cute bag.

There were LOTS of yummy goodies - things with marshmallows and peanut butter and cream cheese.

Best of all was the fellowship with all the ladies.  It's wonderful to sit down with 19 other women and feel at home with them though I had just met them this week.  We had a gift exchange where we could "steal" someone else's gift, then they could steal a gift too or choose one from under the tree.  We had one round where there were 6 or 7 "thefts".  I got a really pretty candy dish and pack of M & M's.   

After that we played 2 rounds of Catch Phrase.  It was a riot to watch the different women to try get their team to guess their word.  A couple of times I wanted to use Spanish...but that would have been cheating.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Though it's not quite a winter wonderland outside it is definitely a cold blustery day.  The weather reported the temperature at 7 degrees F but it feels like -7.  BRRRR!  Thankfully the church we are staying at has a game room with carpet ball, foosball, ping-pong and a Wii in their youth room or we would be dealing with some very bored kiddos. 

The kids have loved the time to play all these games together but it sure is cold in the church with the heat turned down.  We took a thermometer into the youth room and it was 48 degrees in there.  It's hard to believe we survived cold like that throughout the winter time in Uruguay.

Last night was our first American service as a family and it was wonderful!  Pastor Kaighen here at Grace Baptist gave Scott the opportunity to share our ministry and even had a Q & A time, then he took up a love offering for us!  We still don't have a presentation but had it been done we would have been able to share that as well.  Keep in mind we are just here to pick up our rental van, we did not have a meeting set up.

It was so nice to sing in English, here the preaching in English without an interpretor and not on my iPod.  Later I bowed my head in prayer with two other ladies with no fear of mispronunciations.  And no need to think about how I would conjugate a verb or choose the correct word.  The people in this church have been so welcoming to our family.  They have provided food and meals for us.  The teens have included our teens.  The children have made friends.  And the nursery workers were patient with little Silas' Spanish and English even though his mommy (aka Me) forgot to tell them that he usually asks for things in Spanish.

It is clear to me that the Lord desires to encourage us.  He is reminding us of those years of Bible College when things were tight financially.  Our dependence upon God was strengthened during those years of not having a job while attending college.  As we prayed over everything we put into our shopping cart we learned that God had things in mind for us.  If we didn't pray and bought something on a whim we usually had a duplicate waiting for us in an anonymous bag of groceries left for us in our van.  (Although I'm sure in this case our kids would gladly accept duplicates of the things we need and the things we would like.)

I will admit it is very hard to wait on the Lord right now.  We have some definite needs and I know He will provide as He always has.  But I find myself wondering how can we do well what must be done at, what seems to me to be, the last minute.  Ah, yes, God is once again working in the 11th hour and no doubt in a way much unlike what I have planned.  And I need to trust that His will is best and His timing too!  And I need to trust that He is at work in the hearts of those who are also expecting us to do our best and that they will be understanding of our current limitations.

VAMOSH!

Today we took the whole family to WalMart!  It was an educational trip!  Really!  Who knew that you could buy all those electronics for so cheap.  For example a Wii for $200.00 is $600.00 in Uruguay.  Food, clothing and diapers are cheaper. 

The store is as big as we remeber them to be but it was hard to get the size across to the kids.  Silas' little mouth was hanging open and his expression was stunned.  After about an hour he had enough and began saying, "Vamosh!"  We tried really hard to look normal (as normal as you can look with 8 kids tailing behind you) and Silas is speaking Spanish.  Too funny!  That got more looks than the size of our family.

It definitely has been fun to eat all those things we haven't had in 3 years.  If we don't get fat we'll have stomach aches. 

Speaking of stomach aches...Isabel complained a lot on the flights about her stomach hurting but she was referring to her abdomen.  The last flight she was absolutely miserable.  Scott was at the back of the plane with some of the kids while I was a few seats forward.  I finally took her back to him because I thought she was going to be sick.  The flight attendant said it was probably gas.  But the last two days she's still complaining.  So i any has ever dealt with this before you advice would be appreciated. 

I also have another prayer request that I would like to keep as a partial unspoken.  There is a very specific need we have but do not have the means to meet it at this point in time.  Please be in prayer that we would see God provide for this need.