December Newsletter

Merry Christmas from Honduras! December has gone by quickly, and it's hard to believe Christmas is just days away!  Especially since it's still 80 degrees on many afternoons!  Honduras has many of the same Christmas traditions that we have in the States . . . similar songs, Christmas trees, red and green decorations, giving gifts, and celebrating the birth of Christ.  There are some differences though, the biggest being the use of fireworks!  Since November the sound of firecrackers and fireworks surrounds us every day.  And the boys in our family have joined in the fun, taking advantage of being in a place where fireworks are legal and cheap! La Providencia had its Christmas program last week, and it was really fun.  I (Erin) had been working with each grade to prepare a Christmas song (singing and/or playing recorder).  It was really neat to see them perform after all those weeks of work!  There were also skits and dances, and the families all seemed to have a good time being there with their children.  (Check facebook for lots of pictures!) On Friday night was the La Providencia staff Christmas dinner.  This was a very special (and funny!) time that we all enjoyed.  At the dinner, we welcomed the new couple, Edis and Patricia Rios, who will be joining La Providencia as parents in the third house! Speaking of the third house, it's almost finished!!  Some of the latest pictures are below.  And the fourth house will be started very soon.  It's an exciting time for Heath and Ethan to be a part of La Providencia's building crew. It's time to renew our visas again, and this time we'll be going to Panama for a few days.  While working out the details of these trips is anything but simple, we are looking forward to seeing another country and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the Panama Canal! School resumes January 4th, and we're excited that we'll have several visitors from the States in early 2016. Please continue to pray for La Providencia:  for the parents and children who will live in the new house, for the students at the school, for the children who live at La Providencia, for the people of Siguatepeque, and for strength and joy for all of us who work here.  Praise the Lord that He is keeping all of us in good health and giving us strength for one day at a time.   We appreciate each of you very much. Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful 2016!

Our Visit to the Sunshine State

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation, the first "just us 6 and just for fun" vacation in awhile!  My college roommate was getting married in Florida, and we thought (well, I thought) "Why don't we make it into a family vacation?"  So my dear husband agreed, not because he really wanted to drive nearly 40 hours in a week, but because he loves me so much.  :)

The boys have been talking about going to Legoland for awhile, but we always told them it was unlikely since it was so far away.  But  . . . with the excuse of a wedding, we decided it would be worth it and we'd make it an early Christmas present.  I made up a scavenger hunt for them, and after we set up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, they followed the clues to find out what their early present would be.  They were very excited!

So last Thursday, we drove to South Carolina, where our good friends Dallas and Kelly had just moved a few months ago.  We stayed overnight with them and drove another 9 hours the next day.  Then we arrived at Chad & Kelly's house.  Kelly was my best friend since junior high, and they had just moved from Illinois to Florida a year ago.  At both places it was great to catch up with old friends, and the kids all played well and had a lot of fun together too.  The only downside was that instead of the nice 70-degree weather I'd been expecting, Florida was having a heat wave, and it was 85 and humid!  But the skies were sparkling blue, and at night the temperature was just perfect.  However, it did NOT feel like Christmas time, so it was very disconcerting to see lights and decorations up.  They just don't fit with the summer-time weather!

Beth's wedding was beautiful.  Unfortunately her dad was in the hospital and couldn't be there, which was very hard for her.  But it was a lovely ceremony and reception.  We got to see a few of our other college friends there too, which was a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to church with our friends, and then drove to my uncle Mark's house for dinner.  It was great to see him again, and Rayanna got to meet him for the first time.  The kids did some fishing, and we played board games and had pizza and brownies.

After that we drove to Orlando and checked in to the Nickelodeon Hotel.  We looked around the grounds a bit and then went to bed.  Monday was our big Legoland day!  It was a lot of fun, and Heath and I were especially impressed by all the amazing Lego creations!  All of the following pictures are of things built out of thousands of Legos (except the roller coasters).

Tuesday we visited Gator Land.  It wasn't in our original plans, but we decided to do it last minute, and I'm so glad we did!  It was really fascinating!  I had never seen so many alligators, nor had I seen them up out of the water walking around.  So cool!  The shows were very entertaining too, and Tabitha and Jesse even got to be involved in the alligator wrestling.  Jesse got to sit on one, and Tabitha got to choose which one the performer would wrestle.

Don't worry.  This one's not real.

This one, however, IS real!

Tuesday afternoon the kids played in the giant slides and pool at the hotel for hours.  Ethan and Tabitha had the very special experience of getting "slimed" when the huge bucket dumped on them.  All of us enjoyed the water.  It was hard to believe the facebook updates we read that said there was 7" of snow at home!

Tuesday evening Jesse and Heath starred in the Double Dare show!  It was really fun to see them do that together, and their team even won the game!

Wednesday we drove back to South Carolina and stayed with Dallas & Kelly again, and Thursday we came home.  The kids were amazingly well behaved for all 2,000+ miles of driving.  We normally can't make it 10 minutes away without major fights breaking out, so I was very pleasantly surprised that they were so good on this trip.  God really does answer prayer!  We also had no major car troubles, which was another big answer to prayer.  And we had a really fun time together--both with our friends, and especially just as our family.  We made some memories that will last, and I'm so thankful we had this opportunity.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday at least since I was a teenager.  In the last few years I've finally figured out why.  It's because of its simplicity.  No expectation of gifts or disappointment without them, no required shopping, no commercialism, no debates over the right way for a Christian to celebrate it.  Just family, thankfulness, and lots of food.  It's the one major holiday that hasn't been totally commercialized and turned into a disgusting season of material splurging.

I used to roll my eyes at how early the Christmas decorations came out in stores.  (Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorations AND Christmas music!  But not before their time!)  Anyway, I used to just roll my eyes as it started earlier and earlier each year.  But this year for some reason it has really upset me!  I've always been disappointed that Easter and Valentine's Day and Halloween and Christmas take over huge sections of the stores, while Thanksgiving gets one little shelf of fall-colored paper plates and turkey decals.  But this year I'm really angry about it.  And instead of enjoying the Christmas music wafting through the aisles, it actually makes me angry to hear it.  What kind of Scrooge gets angry at Christmas music!?

But let me explain.  Instead of Thanksgiving being a somewhat-overlooked holiday, it has become completely trampled by Christmas shopping.  Now I admit, I've never had the least desire to go shopping on Black Friday.  I usually hate shopping to begin with, and who in their right mind wants to go shopping on the most crowded day of the year?!  The day after Thanksgiving has always been a special time for my family growing up (decorating for Christmas, eating leftover turkey, just hanging out), and we've continued that tradition with our own kids.  So I've never even been tempted to shop on Thanksgiving weekend.  But I've noticed the sales starting earlier and earlier.  It used to be stores would open at 7 am, then 5 am, then midnight.  Now they're open on Thanksgiving Day so you don't even have to waste time being thankful, you can just start a day early on the consumer frenzy.  It's disgusting.

This whole post is really just an introduction though.  I came across Matt Walsh's post on this, and he says this much better than I can.  I encourage you to read it.  Before you make your shopping plans this year, take some time to think about it and make a purposeful plan for your holidays.  I hope a lot more people will stay home on Thanksgiving Day and take one whole day to really . . . Just.  Be. Thankful.

Blessings

Inta and the Latvian kids arrived safely at Reagan Airport last night.  Ethan and I went to pick her up.  It was fun to see all the families greeting their kids.  One little girl couldn't come because she got sick the day of departure, but hopefully she'll be coming later in the week.  The kids (and host families) looked nervous of course, and one little boy looked downright miserable.  But most of them seemed excited, and I hope they're all getting comfortable and about to have a wonderful experience being part of a family!  I talked with some of the other host moms, and it was really neat to hear their stories and to be a part of this adventure!

After Inta made sure all the kids went home with the right families, we took her home with us.  Because of her being exhausted and the language barrier we didn't talk much on the way home.  I did find out she has 3 kids, and that it's cold and snowy in Latvia.  (Maybe I should go THERE next Christmas.)  ;-)  She seems to be very nice, and enjoys playing with the children.  She speaks only a very little English, so we've been making good use of Google Translate!  I don't think Tabitha realizes that Inta can't understand her . . . she just goes right on talking a mile a minute!  Poor Inta was probably very glad when bedtime arrived and she finally got a break!  =)  She's very friendly with the kids though, and they all like her, too.

So we've had the blessing of things going well so far in that area.  Today in the mail we also received another blessing!

It was an anonymous blessing, so this thank-you goes out to the person responsible, whoever that may be!  (And I do have my suspicions . . .) ;-)  Please know how very, very much we appreciate your kindness, and that your gift comes at the perfect time and will be put to very good use.  I hope Santa treats you well . . .  because you're definitely on the "nice list!"  Thank you so much!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.  James 1:17

Thanksgiving Week

Last week was a busy, crazy, but good one for us!  On Monday Tabitha and I drove out to Cincinnati, and the kids stayed at Heath's parents' while he was working.  She had a quick surgery on Tuesday to remove the stents in her kidneys and the tube and urine bag (hallelujah!).  Everything went well with the surgery, except that the next day we met with her doctor and found out she had a kidney infection.  So now she's on antibiotics every 8 hours until Sunday.  We'll get a renal ultrasound done here, send it to her doctor in Cincinnati, and hopefully everything will be fine.  

So now we're back to her usual routine--cathing every 4 hours and a daily hour-long enema.  Using her new Malone is much nicer than the old way of doing the enemas.  She can do the whole procedure sitting on the toilet instead of on the floor.  Hopefully she'll learn to do it by herself in the near future too.  Once she's off the antibiotics we're hoping for complete success with the enemas so that she can get out of pull-ups.  That is the worst part of all her problems.  Those of you who pray for us, please just pray that her body cooperates and she's able to stay clean and wear normal underwear.

Wednesday Tab and I came back home.  Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we had a fun day with Heath's side of the family!  That evening, my side of the family arrived at our house.  We had a second Thanksgiving on Friday, so needless to say....we've had plenty to eat lately!  It was a great weekend of fun with them, and they headed home Monday morning.  

Much to be thankful for!

Christmas Blessings

We've had an eventful Christmas week!  We were with Heath's extended family on Christmas Eve.  Then on Christmas Day we had our own family time in the morning, went to church together, and then spent the rest of the day with Heath's immediate family.

the kids with Mommom & Granddad Runkles

The next morning we left for North Carolina to be with the Stuenzi side of the family at the beach.  Just before leaving, we found out that my aunt Lisa, who's been struggling with cancer, had gone to the ER Christmas morning.  While we were driving we found out more information and it looked pretty bad, like she might not even make it.  My grandparents and all their kids had gone to the hospital in Charlotte to be with her, but the rest of the family (about 40 people) were still at the beach so we kept going.  It was a scary time for everyone, wondering how things would turn out for Lisa.  The next morning Lisa had surgery, and it went wonderfully!  It was such a relief that it went well, and such a blessing that the family could be together, and many of them be with her during this time.  We all live scattered all over the country, so having this happen at a time we were all coming together anyway turned out to be a blessing, even if it's not something you want to happen at Christmas!  You can read her story at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lisastuenzi.  It's not over yet, and we certainly appreciate your prayer for her.

We all had a good time at the beach.  It was full of the usual chaos, noise, fun, games, food, and fellowship.  I'm so glad we got to go, but I sure am tired out from it all!  We came home yesterday (New Year's Eve) and were in bed by 10:30.  I normally love celebrating and counting down on New Year's Eve, but we were exhausted!   

Rayanna's first beach experience (She wasn't too thrilled about the sand.)

Rayanna trying out Grandpa's glasses

Tabitha with Great Grandpa

Stacy, Tammy, and Debbie playing some strange late-night card game

As we end 2011 I'm so thankful for all the blessings God has given us and all the things He's brought us through.  As we start 2012, I'm looking forward to a fresh start and a year full of new adventures.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Thanksgiving and "Christmas Tree Day"

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving and so much to be thankful for!  We had our traditional pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, and then made our "thankfulness pages".  We started doing this when the boys were really little.  We each decorate a piece of paper with pictures, words, poems, or whatever we want, to tell what we're thankful for that year, and then I save them all in a notebook.  It's fun to re-read the old ones, like when Jesse was thankful for scissors and Ethan was thankful for the number 9.  =)  After a relaxing morning at home watching the parade and dog show, we went to Heath's grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  We ate way too much delicious food, but it was a nice time visiting with the relatives on that side of the family.

Each year, for as long as I can remember, the day after Thanksgiving has been "Christmas Tree Day."  When I was little that was how my family did it, and we've carried on the same tradition with our kids.  This was Rayanna's first Christmas-Tree-Day experience of course.  But it was kind of anti-climactic.  She didn't really even care!  The good news is she hasn't been attacking the tree ornaments like I thought she would.  We had a lot of fun getting all the decorations up, and thankfully there was no Stink-bug Surprise awaiting us this year like there was last year.   =)

I found a cute little advent plan online that we started December 1st.  Each night we read a Bible passage or a book and do a little activity or craft.  Then we open that day's door on our nativity calendar and take out the miniature ornament inside.  And at the end everyone gets a piece of candy.  The kids love the special routine, and I have to admit, I do too!  Today we started making some Christmas treats, and of course I have Christmas music playing most of the day to set the mood.  In those rare moments when it works and everyone's getting along and feeling the holiday cheer, it's delightful!

Now, if we could just get some snow . . .

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Revenge of the Stink Bugs

Last week we had our annual "Christmas Tree Day" (a little later than usual since we were away the weekend after Thanksgiving. So Heath brought in the Christmas tree and ornament boxes which had been in the garage all year. We've learned a very important lesson: stink bugs do not die off in the winter. They merely hibernate and come back to life as soon as they're in a warm house.

Memorial Day Fun

On Saturday I took the boys to Middletown park for a Memorial Day "kids parade." It was pretty fun! They even had free ice cream and a clown making balloon animals. I don't think the boys really understand the significance of the day yet, but I tried to explain it at their level, and we put a few things in the donation box for our troops. Thank you to all of you who serve and protect our country. You are much appreciated!