Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve with Steve's family, and had a blast reconnecting with his siblings and aunts and uncles from out of town. It was a HUGE group in a very small space, but it was good to be together. When we got back to my parents late that night, we were surprised to see my mom there since she was supposed to work Christmas Eve night, but she had been called off because of not enough patients on their floor! So we decided our best Christmas presents were having Grandma home all day with us and the SNOW that fell over night - we woke up to a white Christmas morning!!! It has been such a blessing to be with family this Christmas...

Celebrating His birth with you!

Ready, Set, Go!

Well, we received official medical clearance to return to the field, our renewed passports just arrived in the mail, and we got our tickets today so we are all set for our January 11 return to the Philippines!

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We are waiting to tackle the final shopping and packing until after the holidays, and we are looking forward to spending our 1st Christmas with our families in 5 years.

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The kids' last day of school is tomorrow so please be in prayer for them as they say some tough goodbyes to their friends.

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Here are a few pics from decorating the tree and a Christmas pageant the kids were able to be a part of at our church. Zach was Joseph, Ben was a shepherd (the one closest to the manger in the pic), and Mikayla had speaking & singing parts. They all had fun in their first ever Christmas pageant.

Hope you all are finding joy this Christmas season as you celebrate our Savior's birth!

SNOW!!!

Just a few pics from this past week...

Got about 1 inch of snow this morning - the kids were THRILLED. They are still hoping for more so that they can build a snowman and have a snowball fight, but at least now they got to see some for sure before we head back to the Philippines.

Their Papa bought them these great shirts... :)

Miss Jennifer (the speech therapist from Alabama who visited us in the Philippines last year) came to see Ben for a few days this week to help him with speech and help me to learn to teach him "r" when the time comes. He did GREAT, and I feel ready to tackle that tough sound with him now. We are so thankful for the sacrifices their family made to let her come!

Both Mikayla and Zach had a concert at school this past week and did a great job. :) Zach even surprised us with a solo!

I better run - we are sharing at our church tonight about our ministry with the Agta. Praying that lots of people can come and hear what God is doing!

Not for the faint of heart...

Apparently injuries can happen anywhere - even the cereal aisle in Walmart! Zach wasn't goofing off; he simply pivoted to turn around, and he was suddenly flat on his face. A wet spot? His hands were in his pockets so he couldn't catch himself. Poor guy tore his lip up pretty good. He is complaining of his teeth hurting too; we are praying there is no damage there since they are his permanent ones already. :(Needless to say, after much screaming and bleeding in the cereal aisle, we abandoned our shopping and headed for home. Zach is doing ok now. We are just praying it heals up without any lasting effects to either his lip or especially his teeth. Always an adventure - in the Philippines or even Walmart!

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(So are you feeling at all guilty about this, Jeremy? :) )