One Left!

Well, after 1 1/2 months, the little puppies started chewing on everything...even my front door.

Oscar took four to San Pedro on Monday. Sasha had 9...2 died.

One white one had blue eyes and one black one had one blue eye and one black eye.

We are down to just ONE LEFT!

More of Edson

A Movie Scene???

Today I was coming home from town and this little white car came at me from behind flashing it's lights and closer to my window a guy leaned out and screamed..."pull over. We're the police". I thought they were drunk or joking so I kept going. They sped in front of me and stopped, making me have to stop, too. I had some Argentine visitors with me and Edson. They all started praying when we saw four guys with four guns jump out of the car at us. They surrounded the car and one policeman pointed a gun at my (driver's) window and said, "open all the windows". I did, and asked, "what is going on" in unbelief! He looked in at all of us...gun pointing at my head. (The ladies in the back were still praying.) Then, he said. "Excuse me, Ma'am, there has been an armed robbery and this is the exact same car the the thieves were in. My advice would be to drive with all your windows down or you'll probably be stopped every mile down the road."

Here is the link from the ABC newspaper. (in Spanish)

Edson's version is quite interesting!

It was just so weird and so fast...I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time...

Praise God for His daily protection!

More of our adventure...

This is where the warm and cold waters meet in "Paso Carreta". The other pictures are of the scenery around this area.

December 8th

December 8th is a Holiday. Many Paraguayans take Route 2 to Caacupe for religious purposes, but we decided to take the scenic Route 1 going a different direction for a family outing.

We discovered a cold creek in Escobar and a larger creek in San Roque Gonzalez at the bottom of the Cerro Acahay. The interesting feature was that two creeks, one warm water and one cold water meet.

It was a good get-a-way from the Hot city and a nice family day...

You can see Brandon, Matt and Gaby in the pictures.

An Unexpected Guest

Yesterday our friend, Juan Carlos, called and told me that he was in town and wanted to talk to Oscar. He said that he would be here around 11 am, so I told him that we would plan on having him for lunch.

I was busy finishing up lunch, setting the table, and wondering where Juan Carlos was. It was getting close to noon.

All of a sudden, Edson came running into the kitchen, breathless and pulling my clothes hard. "Mom", he said, "Jesus is here...Come quick and look...Jesus is here!" I didn't think that Juan Carlos resembled Jesus, but when I finally walked out. I saw that he brought a friend (whose name was also Juan Carlos) who actually DID look like a modern-day Jesus (long hair-full, fluffy beard).

Both men stayed for lunch and Edson asked to pray before eating. Oscar started right in with the prayer and when he was done, Edson just broke into tears...He wanted to pray for "Jesus". He felt soooo bad that Oscar didn't let him. He sat across from "Jesus" but he made sure that he had water, food, and what ever else he needed. He actually thought this was Jesus.

The "Jesus" Juan Carlos left, and our friend stayed for the afternoon.

After Edson's nap, he came down and said, "mom, where's Jesus?" I said, "Edson that wasn't Jesus. That was Juan Carlos' friend." He still wasn't convinced.

At prayer time, before going to bed. Edson prayed once more: "Thank you...Jesus...for the visit today..."

...I am beginning to believe that maybe it just WAS Jesus!

Yesterday

Yesterday I walked outside to find this! It was so pretty. Daisies always make me smile!

Toothless Kids

I think toothless kids are just soooo cute this is Isaac and Maria's girl. She is such a blast! She has such a wonderful, outgoing personality. She and Edson get along so good. I just love this girl!

November 15th

Edson's Birthday

We wanted to share this special moment of Edson's birthday with you. The kids are some friends from church.

The candle "four" is backwards to the video because he wanted it looking at HIM! (Check out that watermelon in the backround!)

Friends

Last month we went to Chaco, Argentina to visit some friends. They invited Oscar to a Youth Retreat. Argentina had a holiday weekend, but we didn't. I let the kids skip school on Monday. I can't believe I did that...we NEVER skip school. Anyway, we had a great weekend. Now, our kids are friends with our friends kids. Isn't that cool?

1. Edson and Mildren

2. Gaby and Brian

3. Gaby, Brian, Brandon

4. Brian and Brandon

Monday Falls, Ciudad del Este - Paraguay

Beautiful Things...

Beautiful sights on our trip...

9th grade Field Trip

Visitors...Argentina and Honduras

It has probably been 20 years since I last saw Tito. He married a missionary from Honduras in May and they came to do a conference on how to prepare people to do effective camps especially with children (4-14 age group).

Carlos was also from Honduras and we got to talk about some recipes and traditions that Gaby and I researched earlier in June. I think that made Carlos feel good, too. At least we knew something about his country. He is a principal in a Honduras public school. It was good to compare notes and talk about school stuff.

The interesting thing about this fast visit was that Edson loved Tito. He would sit with Tito, want to be held by Tito, talk, draw, sit by and walk with Tito. Tito loved it! They have no kids of their own, yet. Edson just thought he was wonderful.

Thank God for friends. These special people just dropped out of "no where" to bless us for two days.

Friday

Friday was our "exposición gimnastica" at school. We were waiting until 6:30 pm to see if we were going to cancel it or not. The weather was not good. It thundered, rained a bit, and then the sun came out with a rainbow in the sky. We didn't cancel, but during the whole show there were strong winds and lightning. Right after the last number, the rain started coming down along with HAIL...as big as ping-pong balls! The storm did a lot of damage to some homes with just tin roofs. The hail cracked the Marcel's (our accountant who lives next door to church) windshield on his car. It was a strange way to end the program. People started running to take cover and leave as fast as they could.

Oscar told me that in San Pedro there was a lot of damage near his mom's (brother's) house.

Liliana's Little Girl...Abi

Liliana and José Luís live/work at the Quinta. Abigail is 1 1/2 months old. She is our smallest little baby at church until December.
Liliana is in the back left of the second picture. Her mom was one of the first Christians in San Pedro.

Gaby's baptism

Gaby along with four other friends, all kids who grew up in church, were baptized on Sunday. A couple and their daughter were also baptized. José had some problems with his health and the Lord healed him! He lives in front of Pastor Pedro's house and Pr. Pedro visited him often. The whole family talks about this new person in Christ! José's wife was raised in a Christian home, but as a young girl stopped going to church until now, when she saw the huge miracle in her husband and the change that the Lord made in his life.

Flowers!!

God Makes Me Laugh

After we went on our little "outing" (to Hotel Excelsior) the other day, we bought the kids some sandwich stuff and a bag of nachos (that I can only find in big supermarkets in town). I paid for the small amount of groceries with a debit card. The next morning I remembered that I didn't take it out of my jeans pocket and reached into the washer and found my card, some change, but I couldn't find my paraguayan identification card, the card I always have to show along with my debit card.
I prayed, I searched, I prayed, I cleaned, I prayed, I took the washer apart, I prayed, I went back to the supermarket...all the way in town, I prayed, I took the seats out of the car...I prayed, but couldn't find it!
We realized last week that we wouldn't be able to leave Paraguay for our Argentina trip if I didn't have that ID card.
So...we started the LONG process of getting a new one. I went to the police station for one paper, Identifications, for another, here and there for this and that, one paper had to be notarized, one stamped, one in 48 hours...
Finally, I went to the police station again and they gave me a special paper giving me permission to travel while I round up the rest of the paperwork.
It worked! We got to Argentina and back!
I washed two loads of clothes last night, and stuck in one more this morning before the kids went to school. I opened the lid and my ID card was on top smiling at me!
I started laughing and thanking God! Where did this ID card come from? The clothes I was washing were the kids' clothes, there was NOTHING in there of mine!
I still think its so funny. I must have washed 20 loads since I lost that card...how could this be???
I got half of the paperwork done already! I'll stash it way for the next scare!
So, anyway, I have my paraguayan ID card...and I'm still laughing at the mystery.

Como Papá...Just Like Dad

Edson has been picking clothes that closely resemble his dad's styles. He even stands to pose and show us that he actually DOES look like his dad. He wants a belt, shoes and all. I try to tell him that he doesn't have to LOOK just like "papá", but he keeps insisting.

It all got me thinking...do I want to look like my (Heavenly Father) Dad just as much as he wants to look like his (earthly) dad? Does it really matter to me THAT much...insisting on dressing like my Father? Am I trying THAT hard to be just like Him?

...are you?