A Mexican Thanksgiving

Tim and I have been experiencing a continous outpouring of God's love, protection, and blessings in our time here in Mexico. Since the last time I've written we have both been growing in faith and fellowship. A couple weekends ago, Tim went to a men's retreat with our church. It was 3 days and 2 nights jam-packed with fellowship, and teachings. Tim is getting sooo much better at Spanish and was able to follow some of the conferences - and during the others, he read about a third of the Bible. He came back so excited and so re-energized about his faith and learning about the Bible and being a man-of-God. He really got to know alot of the men from church and feels much more connected.

When I was home alone for that weekend while Tim was at the men's conference, I too got more connected, with the women of our church. One night I went to Damaris's baby shower. It was nice to just relax and talk to some women of the church I'd never met. Then the next day I spent 4 hours with Angelica and Lupita - they invited me to dinner after church and we ended up just sitting on Angelica's bed talking for hours. It was wonderful! It made me feel so much closer to both of them - they are wonderful women-of-God and I am excited to start being so much closer to them. I know that God made that opportunity to spend time together because that morning I'd talked to my parents on the phone and was getting very sad thinking about how much I miss my family and girl friends from home and how I really dont' have any close friends here. Then it was so calming and such a blessing to have time to really connect with those two wonderful ladies! It felt like college again just sitting on a bed till late talking about anything and everything. I am thankful for Angelica and Lupita in my life!

The blessings continue to pour out on us. Tim and I have truly been growing in our relationship together! We've recently made a point to go on more dates and make and effort to have quality time together. Its been so much fun! Tim suprised me and took me to a movie, we went out for pina coladas once, and we have been having fun talking together and doing a couples devotional. God is certainly blessing our marriage - we are both so in love and very happy!

This week was Thanksgiving. It was so much fun! On Thursday, we had a half-day at school and the whole time we spent playing games, make indian or pilgram outfits, coloring, painting, and eating. It was really nice to just have a fun day to enjoy time with out kids instead of having to be teaching them and keeping them under control. Here's a short video clip of my kids trying to eat donuts off a string http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMai9J1VOi0 Thursday night, we had a Thanksgiving potluck with the English service at church. With everyone inculding kids there was abotu 25 people there. We had delicious food and great fellowship for the whole night. At the end of the evening, all of the adults sat around a table and we each talked about what we are thankful for and praised God for all the blessings in our lives. Tim and I certainly have so much to be thankful for: for our new and wonderful love and marriage, for the opportunity to be here in Mexico and the experience we are having, for the ability to be teacher and the learning experience that is for us, for our health and happiness, for our families and friends, and for the love that everyone at our church here has shown us. These are only a few of the millions of blessings we are thankful for in our life!

Last night, we had Fernando (our caving/cenote going buddy) over for dinner. He was here for about 4 hours. We shared dinner together, then sat on the couch talking - it was great to have a relaxed evening with him just catching up on life!

So as you can tell, we are happy, healthy, and blessed beyond belief! Praise be to God!