Capturing December: Day 28 (Fall Review 2013)

Fall 2013 Review

I will actually be posting our year-in-review newsletter here in a few days, but until then, here is the blog version of our fall 2013.

We started off September with a brand new homeschooling year.  Kyle began 3rd grade and Taylor started 1st grade.  This year, instead of me "teaching" everything, we decided to try the abeka dvd's.  We like them very much and our school year seems to be moving along much smoother!

Jacinda turned 1 in September - which I did actually manage to blog about here!  =)

October was a busy and interesting month.  I (Crystal), along with Parker and Jacinda, took a trip back home to PA for a surprise anniversary party for my parents.  They were quite surprised about the party and then were doubly surprised when I walked through the door!  It's a wonder my poor parents aren't totally gray because my sister and I sure do like to surprise them!!

(Jacinda enjoying the plane ride!)

It was also nice to spend time with other family members and friends.

(Trying to hold my wiggly nephew Wyatt for a quick photo!)

While I was gone, Michael was kept busy here in Mexico.  Besides the daily supervision of the boys' schooling and also preparing meals, they held a wedding here at our church in Tapachula in which Michael officiated.

In November, we held our annual camp meeting.  I blogged about that here if you want to read more information and see pictures.

I had a birthday in November too, but it's okay if we just skip right over that!  =)  I still feel young, so I guess it doesn't matter what my numerical age is, right?!

In December, Michael went to Guatemala City to attend the H.I.M. pastor's retreat.  He took along with him two of our men from Tapachula (who are acting as assistant pastors) and also our pastor in Santo Domingo.  Bro. Glenn Reiff was the retreat speaker.  Michael reported that they had a wonderful time together!

Two weekends after the pastor's retreat, Michael made another trip to Guatemala.  This time, he went to Tacaná to give the special music at their weekend revival.  The Lord helped in a gracious way even though the trip involved some pretty harrowing mountain roads!

And now my blog friends, I think we're all caught up to date on all the happening 'round our place!  whew!  Onward and forward towards the new year!

Capturing December: Day 4

{ Something Joyous }

A few things that come to mind when I'm thinking of something that causes great happiness: spending quality time with my husband, listening to Christmas music, receiving packages in the mail, eating someone else's cooking, and watching new believers as they grow in the knowledge of the Lord.  But for the sake of a picture for today, I love watching my 14 month old daughter as she discovers new things and enjoys life!  I love her smile, her giggles, her kisses, and how she enjoys eating!  =)

But really, I love all my kids and their unique personalities and I enjoy watching them do the things that make them happy!

Happy 1st Birthday, Jacinda!!

Let me preface this post by saying, "Yes, we're still alive and well!!"  Life has been very busy for us and blogging has been pushed to the back burner.  But now that school has started for another year, I'm hoping to put blogging back into the schedule!  The only bad thing?  The detail and organizational side of me says I need to catch everyone up on all the happenings that have been missed!  Hmmm...why must I let it bother me?  At any rate, I'll try to post a few monthly reviews until we're up to date and we're also wanting to add a few more things to the blog too...so, stay tuned!

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Now I know you haven't seen or heard much maybe about this little girl (due to my lack of blogging), but time has flown over the past year, and Jacinda turned 1 on Sept. 18th!

She's our little sweetie and we love her dearly!

 Sometimes I call her "Jacy."  She likes to smile, clap to songs, and giggle for her brothers.  She doesn't officially crawl, but does a half-crawl-scoot that gets her where she wants to go!  She has two teeth and loves to eat (takes after the rest of this family)!  At times she can act shy and other times, well, she can be very vocal!!  Can't you just see her personality showing in the picture below?  =)

What a special blessing she is.  We thank God for giving Jacinda to us to raise and we pray that as she grows, she will learn to love Jesus.  Happy Birthday, sweet pea!!

And maybe someday, I'll finally get around to posting her birth story and baby pictures!  =)

We're Home!

PTL!  We have arrived back home in Mexico!

I really didn't mean to leave y'all hanging here without hearing any news, but life got a little busy these past two weeks as we were preparing to leave.  Let's see:

•    April 2-4  -  Michael and the boys got to attend Missions Convention at Penn View while I stayed at home and packed.

 { Jacinda sleeping in the swing while I'm packing }

•    April 5  -  My sister ended up in the hospital with a blood infection.

•    April 6  -  Parker had a birthday!  He turned 3!

{ the boys }

{ Jacinda }

•    April 9  -  And finally...we left in the evening to drive to JFK for our red eye flight to Mexico!

{ Getting ready to leave.  We had 10 large checked-in suitcases, and 10 carry-ons, plus a dog crate and a stroller!  Special thanks to Gratz EWC for allowing us to use their church van and to Steve Miller for driving us!  }

•    April 10  -  We arrived in Tapachula!

After our last few flying escapades, we were hoping for a smooth, problem free trip.  And you know what?  God answered our prayers and we had no problems!  In fact, at every turn and with each official, we were shown extra kindness and given extra help!

When we arrived at the airport here in Tapachula, we were greeted with a good group of people from our church.  What a surprise!  They helped us to get our luggage loaded up and then brought us back to our house.

Now the fun began!  We had no electric and no water.  We decided to spend the night at a hotel until we could get the situation resolved.  Finally yesterday, the electric company came and turned on the power.  The only problem, the downstairs worked, but not the upstairs!  We called someone to come look at our electric box and it turned out to be an easy fix!  So, we were able to sleep in our house last night.

But, we're still having issues with our water pump.  So, we're hoping to work on that today so that we can have water!  =)    **Update:  we had to buy a new water pump - but our water is now up and running!!

What else can we say?  Even with all the issues that come with returning to your field of service after begin gone for an extended period of time...it's good to be HOME. SWEET. HOME!