Family photos and a church need

The first Sunday in December we always do a family picture day. This usually gets some of the family members of our church members out for a service. This year Stu added backgrounds to out pictures and they turned out really good! Here is ours.

 

 

If anyone is interested in a special Christmas project (you can take advantage of those after Christmas sales!), we have a few small needs for our church that I thought I would share. We need kids scissors for our S.S. classes. We are also needing some puzzles and games that could be used at the end of a class to give the kids something quiet to do until the adults get done. They would be fore ages 5-10. The games would have to either be simple games that I could write out the instructions in Spanish or some that were already in Spanish.

November

We have been doing a lot of catching up since we got home from the hospital so I have not had time to post anything. Stu was released from the hospital on the evening of October 22nd. We didn't have our car there, so we were going to call a taxi. BUT GOD....sent an angel. :) Our neighbor showed up just as we finished getting everything together and he drove us home. What a blessing it was not to have to ride in a taxi. Stu had to stay at home for a week, taking it easy until his follow up visits. It was hard to keep him still! He answered the phone one day and it was for me. I was outside taking care of something and he called out the window of the office that it was for me. I picked up the phone as he was walking back to the bedroom (I was downstairs and he was upstairs) and heard a crash! Well, I was very jumpy still because of the accident so I threw the phone down and took off running upstairs (stubbed my pinky toe on the way). I found him laying on the floor in the hall. He had tripped and was not able to catch himself. I got him up and back into bed and told him for my heart's sake to please stay there! The next morning I was in the kitchen with Juls and I was looking at something on her back when her head went down on the microwave. I asked her what she was doing and then her head went up and banged back down on the microwave so I grabbed her arms to turn her around to see what was going on and she went limp. Thankfully I was able to lay her down on the floor. At first I thought she was having a seizure but quickly realized she had passed out. As I was telling Stu about it a little bit later, I finally lost it and started crying. I guess the stress of everything had finally gotten to me. I did take her to the doctor and her heart rate was slower than normal and a bit off but the doctor thinks it was post traumatic stress since she had helped me take Stu to the clinic after the accident. She seems ok now. Stu was cleared by all the doctors and is doing better but is still having a few problems. He is still having headaches, but not as many, and still has some jaw pain. His short term memory is VERY SHORT, worse than before. He also has problems getting what he is trying to say to come out right. And he can't focus well when there is a lot of noise or a lot of different things going on at once.
 Please keep praying that these things will get better quickly, especially since his load is about to double. The Wessons are leaving for a 6 month furlough on Tuesday. Please keep me in your prayers to as I will have to start driving the Wednesday night route and it is not a safe time of the year to be out on the roads after dark.
Seth took up the offering in church for the first time ever. When Bro. Josh called him name, he looked up with such surprise on his face and all the people went, "ahhhh". :) Stu was up front in a classroom with a sick headache, trying to get ready for his class, so he missed it.
We have also been fighting a war the last month. We have been overrun by biting ants. They are everywhere!!! They have even been in our beds. For some reason they like to bite Jesse's eyelids, so he wakes up with swollen eyes for a few days. We have sprayed and put out every kind of poison possible but we still have them. They disappear from one room and show up in another. Then we realized that we have rats again too. Stu got one with his hockey stick and we got two more with poison. I just want to be able to go in my kitchen to cook and not have ants or rats joining me! Jesse is scared to go downstairs by himself because of the rats. If anyone has any suggestions for me, I would love to hear them!

Surfing accident

This is the whole story of Stu's accident. It is as much for us to have a record of as it is to inform anyone who may not have heard. 
Friday, October 18th, we were at the beach and Stu was heading out in the water with another guy to surf. On the way out a wave came and the other guy lost control of his board and it hit Stu in the face and knocked him out, the problem is that none of us saw it happen. We are not sure how long he was under the water. I had looked out and saw Stu's back, it looked like he was bending over with his head under the water. I thought maybe he was fixing the strap on his ankle. Finally the other guy realized that Stu wasn't there and went looking for him. I saw him pull him up out the the water and realized that something was wrong and took off into the water (I don't swim). On my way out, I yelled to Juls that something was wrong with daddy and to go the the restaurant and get help. I also yelled to Delayna to watch the boys and yelled to them to get out of the water. There was only one other person on the beach so I yelled for him to help. I got to Stu and we started carrying him out of the water.  We were able to get Stu into the shore, but the time I got there I was so exhausted that I could hardly stand up. He had come to and was yelling, but had no idea where he was or what happened. He had a hole in his cheek with blood going everywhere, we got a towel on that and he started coughing/vomiting up water. Juls brought two guys from the restaurant and they helped me get Stu into the van and the one guy led me to the clinic. I took Juls with me to help and left Delayna and the boys at the beach. He coughed up water the whole way there and asked about every 2 minutes where he was and what happened. We got him to the clinic, a small 2 room clinic with no back up power, and they started hooking him up to an IV and oxygen. They had me ask him some specific questions to see what he remembered. He knew who we were and where he lived but he didn't know what town we were in or why we were there or what happened. At one point, out of the blue, he started singing "I saw the light" (of course he doesn't remember it) and I told him to stay away from the light! They gave him some meds, took an x ray of his chest and got him into a room. I had Juls call the manager of the villa we were staying at to see if he could go get the other kids from the beach. He was more than happy to help. The kids of course were very scared and crying. Juls kept asking if Stu was going to be ok. So he got the kids back to the villa and got them something to eat (we were supposed to be leaving Saturday morning, so there was no more food left). A man that we had met while we were there, came to the clinic to help us. He talked to the doctor for me and let me know what was going on. God does provide help even when you are in a town where you have no friends or family! They got his face sewn up, which he didn't enjoy! Sometime after that he started remembering things. He now remembers everything except for from about 5 minutes before the accident until about 3 hours afterwards. We stayed the night there but didn't sleep much at all. Every 30 minutes his oxygen machine would go into a high pitched beep until we reset it. Plus the power went out and since they had no back up, we were very hot and uncomfortable. 
On Saturday, my birthday, after talking to many people and feeling very stressed because the kids were alone in the villa and I was trying to go back and forth to take care of them and Stu, we were able to get him transferred back to Santo Domingo. Me and the girls were able to pack up and load the van with the help of a Canadian couple we had met. After they loaded Stu in the ambulance, we headed out. A friend met us halfway and took over the driving since I hadn't slept or eaten in two days. 
Being back here we are well taken care of, the hospital is much better and we have many friends to help with the kids. He did get an infection in his lungs but it looks like that is clearing up, they are just concerned about a couple of other things. His CAT scan results were normal and nothing was broken or dislocated in his face. If everything is looking good tomorrow, he might get to go home. I know that he is ready, although he will still have some healing to do. He still gets tired very easy and has quite a bit of pain in his face and head. Thank you all so much for the prayers. We appreciate them so much!!!

Vacation Bible School

We survived VBS! Before the week started we kept talking about VBS and the boys asked if they got to go. We said yes and they got very excited, "yay, we get to go to VBS!" Then Jesse asked Seth, "What's VBS?" and Seth said, "I don't know!".
We had from 100 - 150 kids each day. We only planned for 100, so I had to scramble to come up with extra crafts each day. We had several saved and we had half of the kids and some of their parents come to church on Sunday. It was a good week but I am glad it is over. :)

My Girls' Adventure!

My girls made it safely to Toronto today, although without their suitcases. :) They are hoping to get them tonight or tomorrow. I guess the suitcases took a different flight. This is the picture I received of them enjoying Tim Hortons and of course I noticed the Walmart bag right away!!! Their adventure has begun.

A trip!

The girls are going on a trip. They leave on Wednesday (please pray for them as they travel alone) to go to Canada to spend 2 weeks at camp and then they are going to the States to visit both sets of grandparents. They have worked to raise their money for the tickets. Thanks to many of you buying her paintings, Delayna was able to raise all of her money. They are very excited. I think Jesse wants to go to because he was hiding in Delayna's suitcase. :)

A tunnel!

This is a tunnel I made the boys one day while Stu and the girls were at camp. They had a great time with it for  few days.

White People!

We have a church group here this week. There are 29 total, but 8 of them are sleeping at our house. The first morning when Seth came downstairs and they were sitting in the living/dining room eating breakfast, he kept hiding behind me. He is not normally like that so I asked him why he was hiding. He told me that he was embarrassed because we have never had that many white people in our house! :) He is used to the Dominicans coming over but those gringos startled him!

Fun with Friends!

Making Smores, indoors!

Happy Birthday Delayna!

16 years ago today, God gave us our firstborn! I can't believe how fast she has grown up! Happy 16th Birthday Delayna!!!

The boys' water balloon war!

Everybody wins this war!!!

Our Puppies

Busted!

Please keep us in your prayers! Besides the whole driving situation, :), we have had many things "go wrong".  We feel that we are under attack right now. Some of the things have been "big deals" and others have been small irritants! Just when we think it's over, something else happens. Last night while my husband was out visiting, someone busted out the back window of our jeep. I don't know if they were trying to rob us or just being mean! I was just thankful that he wasn't in it at the time. It was a minor thing, compared to other things, but it is getting discouraging.
Over the next few months, I am going to try to post some pictures of our life. It probably won't be every day, but I will try to do it often. If you want to see a specific picture of some aspect of our life or ministry, just let me know! Enjoy!

One reason we need your prayers!

A friend of mine just posted an article from the Washington Post that I found very interesting! Just one of the many reasons your prayers are so important to us. :) 

I've copied part of it below, to read the whole article you can go to... 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/07/a-map-of-the-countries-with-the-most-dangerous-roads/

Lots of people think that their home town has the worst traffic, the most aggressive drivers, the craziest cabbies. Sometimes they have strong anecdotal evidence. Russian drivers often employ dashboard cameras to record seemingly inevitable collisions with reckless motorists. In the United Arab Emirates city of Abu Dhabi, a three-day Blackberry phone outage coincided with a 40 percent drop in traffic accidents. When I visited Cairo, where just crossing the street is a sort of art form in itself, I presumed no roads could be more dangerous until a friend who had just returned from Indonesia assured me that Jakarta’s are far worse.

So who has the world’s most dangerous roads? It turns out, based on a comprehensive World Health Organization report that measures road safety by the number of motor vehicle-related deaths per 100,000 people, the answer is the Dominican Republic.

The Caribbean island nation (it shares the island of Hispanolia with Haiti) reports a staggering 41.7 driving deaths per 100,000 people per year. That means that, in any given year, a Dominican person has a one in 2,398 chance of being killed by a car. That’s not so bad until you extrapolate out by 70 years and find that, over a lifetime, a Dominican’s odds of dying in a car-related accident are one in 480. The WHO report notes that the Dominican Republic has weak helmet and speed laws and even weaker drunk driving laws. More than half of driving related deaths, 58 percent, are of occupants or drivers of two- or three-wheeled vehicles. In other words, motorcycles.

A new kind of Hockey

Most of you know that my husband grew up in Canada so therefore grew up playing hockey.  Well, since we have ben here in the DR, he doesn't get to play much hockey.  He keeps his stick handy in case the opportunity arises. Yesterday morning that opportunity came. I went down to the kitchen to get him some more Sprite, we have both been sick the last several days, and when I walked in the kitchen, something moved on top of my stove. You guessed it, another rat! I called for Stu to come down to help me and the first thing he asked for was his hockey stick. After several minutes of trying to get the rat to come out from behind the stove, it finally did. Stu started practicing his slapshots.  He smacked that rat against the door over and over until it stopped moving. I was laughing so hard and wishing I had a video camera. When it was all over, I told the girls that they better marry a man who knows how to use a hockey stick. :)

May is gone already!?!

Is it really June already??? May seemed to fly by. It probably helped that my sister and her family were here. We sure enjoyed getting to know my niece. She turned 1 year old while she was here. The poor thing got smothered by all of us wanting to hug and kiss her!
May 26th was Mother's Day here. On the Friday night before, the men put on a Mother/Daughter banquet for us. They did a really good job. On the way home that night it was me, Joy, my girls, her daughter and my sister. There were lots of police out (they have upped the patrols due to more violence) and as we passed through a road block they stopped us. They looked in the van and said "oh, a van full of beautiful women. You must not be Dominican, you are too pretty." then they let us go. :)  We were glad not to have nay problems.
It has been raining a lot here the past couple of weeks, which has been nice! After it rains here a bunch of flying ants come out. We don't notice them as much when we are at home because we have screens, but at the church they can be a bother! One Wednesday night it had rained quite a bit and as Josh started preaching the flying ants started coming out. As they would fly under a ceiling fan it would push them down onto the people. There were so many of them that we were being swarmed with them. People started swinging and swatting, waving and picking them out of other peoples hair. It was very distracting! Then one flew into my sisters mouth and she started gagging. At that point, Stu was chuckling and I was having a hard time holding it together but I was doing ok. Then one flew into Josh's eye and we all lost it. The whole church was laughing. After Josh saying it was a good thing they were ants and not roaches we got back to business. After the services there were so many dead ants all over the floor, you could tell it had been bad.
We have had a special evangelistic campaign going on since Thursday. The devil has really been fighting, there have been so many complications. On Thursday morning we were informed we could not use the building that we had secured several months in advance because the Catholics were going to use it. We ended up having the meeting outside on a basketball court. In the middle of the service, between the two preachers, while they were singing, it started pouring! Everyone started running. Joy spread herself over the keyboard until someone came to help her, she was drenched by then! Then last night in the kids service, Stu was about to pass out a few prizes to some of the kids who had won and a riot broke out. As soon as the first kid held up their prize everyone rushed forward. They broke the sound system, trampled people and then started throwing rocks and eggs. Because the sound system wouldn't work, they had a hard time getting it back under control. Needless to say, some of them were nervous about what would happen tonight! I do know they have had a good attendance and at least 18 saved so far.
Seth and Jesse are done with school for the year (YAY!) and the girls are getting close. We are working extra hard to try to finish on time. We are looking forward to summer break this year, especially me! So, if you don't hear from me this summer it will be because I am laying out back in the pool trying to stay cool and enjoying my break. :) Not really! I am going to be taking two Spanish classes a week through the summer. I am nervous and excited all at once. Please pray that my Spanish will improve greatly during this time.

Fighter?

When I came home yesterday Seth looked like he had been in a fight! Him and Jesse had been in the pool and while Seth was looking down into the water and Jesse came up out of the water right into Seth's eye.  He immediately had a huge knot. Today it was black and swollen. When I told him he looked like a fighter, he said, "I don't want to be a fighter". That makes me happy! :)

Didn't have to visit the jail!

Praise the Lord all went well today. I know it was due to your prayers! We got there this morning and as we suspected the other guy didn't show up. You would think that would be a good thing for me, but the other accidents where one party didn't show up, had to go back next week and try again. After we heard the people in front of us saying that, we were thinking that we would be taking another trip down there next week. Well, when it was my turn, the lady asked about the other guy and we explained that he wasn't there and we couldn't reach him on the phone. She tried to call him and couldn't get through so she said well, I guess I'll give you your license and documents back and you can go. What a surprise, but a huge blessing!  Now we get to start the insurance process of trying to get the jeep fixed. That could take a while. Thanks for all of your prayers!

My first trip to the police station.

Well, I had to make my first trip to the police station today! It all started with a quiet afternoon. The girls were gone with friends and Stu had taken the boys out. After working on my to do list for a bit, I decided to run a quick errand that was just a couple of blocks away. As I was leaving the entrance of our neighborhood, I had to cross traffic to turn left. I waited until it was clear except for a motorcycle that was quite a ways down the road and I headed toward the center to wait for one car to pass the other way. Instead of passing he stopped right in front of me and I couldn't move. The next thing I know I heard screeching tires and saw the motorcycle fishtailing his way towards me. He smacked right into my car right at my side view mirror. He busted my front windshield, broke off my mirror, dented the front side panel and knocked my bumper loose. I think I just sat there staring at him, I couldn't believe he hit me. He had plenty of room to go around behind me, which is the lane that he had been in. He picked his bike up and I backed back into the entrance of my neighborhood. There is a police compound across from our entrance and a couple of them had been pulling out, so they came right over. They were very nice and agreed that it was not my fault and that I shouldn't be upset, but I was very upset. After realizing that I did not have any minutes on my cell phone, one of the police used his phone to call Joy for me. She called Stu (who was out with Josh and the boys) and then she walked up to the entrance to help me out. We ended up having to go to the police station to file a report. When we got there the guy suddenly gave a whole different story than mine. We also found out he didn't have a license, but they didn't do anything about it! So, because he was hurt (he only had a couple of scratches on his stomach from my mirror) they kept my license. And, because our stories didn't match up, we have to go back Thursday morning at 8am (I think for some kind of a hearing to sort it out).  It is so frustrating dealing with the way they do things here. Please pray that we won't have any problems Thursday and that I will get my license back. I will try to update you afterwards. Thanks!

Just so I can end this on a good note, I am adding a photo of my handsome men on their way to the driving range.

Another side of our ministry.

I just want to share a few things from our ministry that have been on my mind a lot lately.

We have a group of women and children that we pick up from a very poor area. Some of them have been coming faithfully for a while now. One family is the mother and three children that we took a Christmas box to this year, some of you may have seen the photos on my Facebook page. She is always bringing visitors with her. Many of the ones she brings are mothers with babies. Because they are so poor, many of them don't get to eat three meals a day like we do. In fact, on Sunday mornings in our Jr. Church, I have started serving a snack because so many of them haven't had breakfast. They seem to pay attention a bit better when they have food in their tummies! One of the girls that had been coming, named Francesca (who is not saved yet), was pregnant, we found out recently that she is only 16. I don't know a lot about her, but I do know she is living with a grandpa or grandma, not sure which. Anyways, she had been coming regularly and then we didn't see her for a month. When she came back a few weeks ago, she had her new, month old baby with her. Over the last two weeks, we found out some of the things that have happened with her in the last month. We found out that she almost died while giving birth (some of you may remember my story about the deaf lady from our church who had given birth and how bad the clinics are here). It is a very common thing here for girls that age to die while giving birth. They had to give her two units of blood afterwards and the first one poured right out her nose and mouth. While she was fighting for her life in the clinic they had to give her baby formula. The reason that is a bad thing is because now that she is home, (because she is so poor) she can't buy formula for her baby or food for herself. We found out that she has begged a little food here and there from her neighbors. We also found out that she is giving her baby carrot juice, because that is all she can get. We were able to get her a box of food and a bit of formula. We are currently in the process of trying to talk to a company here that makes formula, to see if we can get some donated for these ladies that we are working with (she isn't the only one in this situation). After hearing about this, one of my family members gave some money to get her some formula. The Bible gives us many verses about feeding the poor so I believe it is something we should take seriously.

Deuteronomy 15:11 - For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

Proverbs 19:17 - He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.

Proverbs 28:27 - He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.

Proverbs 14:31 - He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

Matthew 25:35-40

³⁵ For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

 It's hard sometimes to remember that when we are constantly bombarded with people begging. It's easy to become calloused to it. I noticed Wednesday night that one of the little boys who comes was having problems getting his shoes on. When I bent down to help him I discovered that his shoes were too tight and were cutting into the back of his foot. I traced his foot on a piece of paper and when I got home I searched through my boys shoes and was able to find a pair of sandals that I think will fit him, it's not tennis shoes (which is what he was wearing, pink ones at that) but it will work.
I love giving to others. I love putting a smile on someone's face by taking them a little treat! And I also love to receive gifts but I have such a hard time receiving gifts from people who hardly have anything! There are two people, who are among the poorest in our church, that have been bringing me "gifts". One is an older lady from a very poor area and she has been bringing me a little bag of veggies every Sunday. I feel so guilty taking it from her but I can't hurt her feeling either! The other is a blind and deaf man in our church. He started giving me little bags of flavored peanuts and then the other day gave me a bag full of them. I feel so humbled when they do that! There is so much that we could learn from them.  They have so little but have such a giving spirit! If only we were all so willing to give of what we had. I pray that God will bless them richly!
Why did I tell you all of this? Is it because I am hoping to bring tears to your eyes? Is it because I want you to consider helping us with donations? Is it because I want you to see how good you have it? No, none of this. I just wanted to share what been on my heart lately. To share a bit more of our ministry with you. To show you how you can pray for our ministry. Maybe to personalize our ministry a little more. Thank you for your interest in our ministry.

David, the one who needs shoes.

German, deaf and blind, loves to bring me peanuts.

Don't let those chubby cheeks fool ya! She is very skinny!

Antonia, the one who brings me veggies.

Church or Art?

As many of you know Delayna has been taking art classes for a few years now. I posted some pictures of her paintings recently that she is trying to sell to raise money for a trip to go to Camp YES in Canada this summer. She normally has class on Friday afternoons from 2:30-6:30, but sometimes she has to leave a little early for a church activity. This past week, due to Semana Santa,  they had class on Wednesday since Friday was a holiday.  When she arrived to class, she informed her teacher that she would have to leave early because of church that night. Her teacher then told her, "you need to choose between art and church!" At first Delayna thought she was kidding with her, but after a minute she realized that she was serious.  At that point all kinds of things were going through Delayna's mind. One of which was that maybe she could stay a little later to please her teacher and still have enough time to get ready for church. Then she made her decision. She paid her teacher for the past month, packed up her stuff and walked out! We are so proud of her for taking that stand! But then, I believe, God blessed her for that decision. She was well on her way home and her teacher came running after her and told her, "if your faith means that much to you, you can come back". That night at church during our prayer meeting, Delayna requested prayer for her salvation.
Sometimes we wonder about kids that are raised in church and don't have a choice about going. What will they do when they are tested? When they have to make a choice without us, what will it be? It was such a blessing to see her make the right choice when faced with a test like that.

At church

Her paintings

Birthdays and Girlfriends?

We had Pastor Ken Shaver and his wife here with us the beginning of March. He preached a family conference for us and our church's 6th anniversary. We had 225 on Sunday morning and a couple saved. We really enjoyed having them stay with us. They sure spoiled us rotten. They brought a suitcase full of goodies for us and the Wessons. My kids immediately adopted them as grandparents. :) We were sad to see them leave.
On March 7th Jesse turned 6 years old.  He was so excited for March to get here because he knew he was going to get a box of presents from his Nanny, one to open each day of the month. He had watched Seth do it in January and he was ready for his turn. He has loved it. He lays it out each night before he goes to bed so he can pick it up on his way downstairs in the morning.
One Saturday, Stu was out passing out flyers for the family conference. He had given one to a lady that was in her yard and when he was done telling her about it she asked him if he wanted a girlfriend. He told her no, he was happily married but she acted like, so what, do you want a girlfriend?! I'm glad he said no. :) It is very common in this Country for the men to have both a wife and a girlfriend and they both know about each other. We've had to deal with those situations a few times.
We live on a cul d sac and the kids love going out on "the circle" to play. Most evening our kids and the Wesson's kids are all out there playing along with some neighbor kids. The other night Seth came in  from playing and said "Mom, I need to tell you something bad that I did.". I asked what it was and he told me that he had pulled a branch off of one of the trees. The neighbors like to keep the circle looking nice, so there are a couple of trees the kids can climb and the rest they are to leave alone. I told him that he knew he wasn't suppose to touch them. He said, "but it wasn't me, Ashlyn (Wesson)  forced me to." I told him that she couldn't force him to do anything, that it was his choice to obey or disobey. He then said, "but mom, she looked at me with that face and I had to do it!". It took all I had to keep from busting out laughing.

Delayna's Paintings

Delayna has been taking art lessons for a few years now and is an excellent painter now.  She is trying to raise some money to take a trip to Canada this summer to go to Camp YES and visit friends and family. Because of where we live, there is not a lot she can do to work to earn money so she is trying to sell some paintings. I am posting some pictures of some that are done, but she also takes requests. You can either give her an idea of what you want or find a picture for her to look at. It usually takes her approximately 1 - 2 months to paint one. They cost around $30-$50, depending on the size and the paints used. That is not framed, but if you are interested in having it framed here (I don't know how much it costs in the States, but I don't think it is too much here) before we sent it, we could check on that price for you. If you are interested or if you have any questions, just let me know. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Stu!

Today is my husband's 40th birthday! I am so thankful to still have him! He has had a few close calls lately! In fact, last Wednesday night on his way home from church he was attacked (at least it was attempted). He was taking people home and his last stop is down a long dark road. On the way down he heard something crash into the side of the van, even made his deaf passenger jump! He was slowing down to check it out and he saw some guys hiding in the ditch, so he decided to floor it and keep going! He assumed they threw something at the van trying to get him to stop so they could rob him and that was confirmed later after talking to the police. Our van had a huge dent and the paint is gone, but thankfully Stu and his passengers were safe!
We had a surprise party for him yesterday. He was surprised, he didn't suspect anything! I about made myself sick with the anxiety of planning it and keeping it from him! I had fun, but I am glad it's over. He got plenty of Coke and chocolate to last him...a few days,maybe. Everyone here has learned that he loves those two things. We had lots of old pictures, a skit to make fun of him and some fun games, like pin the toupee on the bald guy.

Jesse told me this morning, after seeing my dress laid out for church, " I like all of your dresses, even your black spy girl dresses". I guess he had been watching to many spy movies. :)

Happy Birthday Seth

I figured that I had better hurry up and post something before January ended so it wouldn't seem as long since I last posted. Even though it has technically been 2 months. Ooops! I am not a good writer to begin with and when I get so busy it is hard to make myself sit down and write. I would rather go organize something!
Well, we are all healthy at the moment, which is so nice! I did finally go to the dentist and ended up having a root canal done. I go tomorrow to get my filling. I had to go to one dentist to be dagnosed, then to another for the root canal and back to the first dentist for the filling. I am not in pain anymore but will be glad when it is finished. I hope this doesn't become a yearly thing for me, since this has happened two years in a row now.
We had a wonderful Christmas. After all the church activities were done, we were able to have a couple of weeks to just take it easy. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have some family here.  We were happy to at least have the Wessons. We spent Christmas eve together and had a great time eating and playing games. On New Years Eve we had our church teens over for the night. I was fine with it until about 3 in the morning when I had been trying to go to sleep but couldn't because they were outside of my window yelling. :)
Seth turned 7 on the 17th. He is really growing up! He's not my buddha baby anymore. My mom sent him a box of presents, one for each day in January. He loves getting up each morning and opening his present. He had a lego birthday party and was so excited to find several new lego "guys" on his cake. Now Jesse is already planning his party. :) Seth has lost two more teeth, so that makes three. I gave him some money for his most recent one and he said, "so, you're the tooth fairy" I said, "no, she just gave me the money to give to you." :) He knows it's really me though.
We have been having a problem with thieves in our neighborhood lately. It always gets bad around Christmas but it hasn't calmed down yet.  One day, close to Christmas, I was in the living room and saw someone walk by the front gate. When I walked closer to look I saw that he was down on the curb half hiding under our car. I saw another guy walking around our circle and at first thought they were playing around. Then when I saw a police motorcycle pull onto our circle, I knew it was something else. I stood up on my wall and pointed down so they would know where he was. One of the police came over and grabbed him and told me thank you. I later found out that he had stabbed a woman and had run into our neighborhood to hide. Yesterday someone tried to break into the house behind us and then climbed up onto our wall to escape. He must have ran on the walls until he got to the street. Anyways through all of this we were talking to our neighbor (a professional baseball player) who has a friend who is a sargent in the national police. He called him to come over and he gave us his cell number and said to call him personally if we ever had any problems. It's actually good for me when this stuff happens because it reminds me that where I live and to be careful. I get too comfortable here sometimes.
Thanks for the prayers, We appreciate them! I know they help keep us safe!