Thanksgiving

Now that things have settled back into somewhat of a routine, I have had a little more time to reflect on our time in the states.  I am overwhelmed by people's love, support and generosity towards our family.  Everytime we come back we are made to feel so welcomed, loved and missed.  We are truly grateful for every opportunity we had to spend time with people, and sad on the other hand that we weren't able to spend time with everyone we wanted.  Thank you to everyone that made our trip so incredibly special and memorable.

Letting Go

I always tell my girls, "stop growing would you, just stop it!"  The fact is that I don't want them to grow up.  And the hard reality for me is, they are and I can't stop it.  All healthy people grow.  God has been showing me ways that I may be hindering my girls from growing up.  I want my girls to be responsible and able to do things on their own.  Recently, I have been faced with the fact that I do too much for my girls.  There is a healthy balance between serving your kids and enabling them.  God has been showing me that I need to let go a little more to let them feel the weight of the responsibilities of life.  As a mom, I like that they need me.  It's hard for me to think about them not needing me, but I know it is healthy for them to grow.  I suppose it is the unhealthy part of me that wants them to continue needing me, but seeing also that they will always need me in some capacity, just not how it looks right now.  I prayerfully enter into these times of "letting go".

Just Life

It has been so long since I posted anything I really don't know where to begin.  So I will just update a little on what my days look like now.  The days just seem to fly by.  The girls are in school by 7:00 in the morning and come home around 3:00.  Many days I come home and work out then get going on my "to do list" for the day.  Tuesdays I have the privilege of leading the Mom's Prayer group (Mom's in Touch) for the school the girls attend.  We meet at our house, which is also a privilege to have them here.  There are anywhere from 3 to 6 ladies that come.  We have a great time.  They are a great group of ladies.
 Friday's I meet with a gal named Karen for the Woman to Woman study; a study covering the woman's role through the Godly characteristics found in Titus 2:3-5.  Friday nights Ryan and I are being discipled by an awesome couple from Vida Nueva (New Life) named Jose Roberto and Paty.  They have two girls as well and our girls love to go over and play with them while we go through our lesson.  The discipleship ministry at Vida Nueva has 12 lessons and they are almost exactly the same as the 16 lessons from Graceway (formerly KCBT).  Just so you know, Julio Contreras, our pastor at Vida Nueva was at Miramonte when Jeff Adams was there, so their philosophy of ministry and discipleship is very, very similar.  So now we have the privilege of going through discipleship with Jose and Paty so we then can disciple others.
Very shortly I will start the Directions material with a gal from the Mom's Prayer group, named Michelle.  I am so excited to see the growth in her as we spend time together in the Word of God.  She is such a neat lady, that I can really tell loves the Lord and wants to know more about Him.
I have the privilege of having a husband that works from home.  So we are able to spend our days together even though we are most times working independent of each other.  Thursday mornings we have set aside to watch the videos of ¿Qué dice La Biblia? (What does the Bible Say?).  We are watching the teaching on Genesis right now.  Great stuff!
Generally my days are structured to have everything done so when the girls get home I can focus on them.  I feel so privileged and blessed to be their mom.  And am finding out that as they get older, this parenting thing gets more complicated.