2 baptisms and a Wedding

This past Sunday, two more people from the hispanic ministry were baptised, as well as two people who are not from the hispanic ministry! Praise the Lord!

This first picture is of Fabio and our pastor, Dave Prince, introducing those who are to be baptised.














This is Chupis ~ remember him from our trip home from Milwaukee? He has been with us for nearly two years and we were so excited to see him take this step of faith. He has always struggled with not feeling "good enough" to be a Christian, condemning himself every time he didnt measure up, and sometimes disappearing for months at a time when he felt bad about something he had done.
But, glory to God, he finally understood the message of GRACE, that we can't be good enough! It is only through the grace of God that we can be saved, and this does not depend on us! "Not by works, lest any man should boast."



Fabio translated as he shared this testimony with the church, and he was very emotional as he emerged from the water. So was I!












This is Maria. She started coming to the Spanish ladies Bible studies last spring, but not to church. Then she disappeared for a while. Then, a couple of months ago, she came to church for the first time, started coming to Bible study again, and fell in love with Jesus for the first time! She testifies that life finally makes sense, and that all the time and money she spent on psycologists and anti-depressants was in vain; what she really needed was Jesus, and now she no longer needs anything else! Praise God!




"I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth." III John 4

Even though these two are older than us, we understand John's sentiment when he wrote this. There is truly no greater joy in ministry, or as parents, than to see our children walking in the truth and growing the the knowledge and grace of our Savior.





The rest of these pictures are from my cousin's wedding, which we attended last Saturday near Springfield, IL. It was really good to go, and see all of my mom's side of the family, but it was tiring, as we made the trip in one day and got home around midnight. :)


















This is Joshua's first full suit, and he was pretty excited about it. :)














This is us, my mom, my grandma and her husband of 14 years, and two of my second cousins.











Here is my cousin Mandy and her newly wedded husband, Will. They seem to be quite happy together and I wish them a future of felicidad. :)

Milwaukee

The Peruvian pastor who founded the Peruvian church in Japan, which Fabio and I attended (and later pastored when he left), now lives in Milwaukee with his family, pastoring a church there.
They invited us to come this past weekend to speak there. We left Saturday morning, and Saturday evening I gave a class for women on raising children. It is not something I pretend to be an expert in, but it is something I am passionate about, and I was thankful to share some of the things the Lord is teaching me in this area.

Then on Sunday morning, Fabio preached. He did an excellent job and I was so proud of him. It was "mission Sunday" at their church, which they have once a month, and Fabio spoke on fulfilling YOUR mission, what God has for you to do, regardless of whether that means going to another country or staying here. The theme verse was from 2 Timothy 2:4 "No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier." He talked about loving God above all else and being willing to leave behind all else to fulfill whatever He calls you to, for love of Him, and to seek His glory and His Kingdom rather than your own.







Many people were touched by the Holy Spirit and we had a powerful time of prayer ministry after the message.













Lovebirds. :)












Here we are with Caty, the pastor's oldest daughter.












And Genesis, the pastor's youngest daughter. He has one middle daughter who was married this past April. You may remember the video clip I posted of her wedding? Well, unfortunately, the weekend was SO busy and we were running the whole time and I didnt get a chance to take a pic of her and her husband, nor of Pastor and Ana on Sunday! Monday I wanted to take a pic of them, but they hadn't had a chance to shower yet when we left and didnt want me to take the pic of them in their jammies!


We had a wonderful time, but BOY was it tiring! Both Saturday and Sunday we were up LATE, and the kids still woke with the roosters, of course. And both days, we had barely gotten them down for a nap when we had to yank them out of bed to go again! Joshua's Sunday afternoon nap was all of ten minutes!

And after that kind of an exhausting weekend, we had quite an adventure awaiting us on the way home! Read the next post for the details! (It wouldnt let me post all of the pics on one post.)

Milwaukee Trip Home Saga

Our trip home was FAR more exciting than we had hoped for. Heading south on 94, the car started to tremble and Fabio got in the right lane. Just across from Six Flags Great America, the wheel grew wings and flew away!! He quickly pulled to the shoulder and screeched to a stop on a bare disc, as you can see in the picture. I had been rather comfortable in the backseat, trying to recover from a tiring weekend, but... that jarred me from my little comfy nest rather abruptly!


We started making phone calls to try to figure out what we were going to do. We called my brother, his mechanic, some friends, and the secretary at our church so she could get online and find a tow place close to where we were. Then we called 3 different places, but being after 4pm, there was no place that would be able to fix it that day, and it would be nearly $400 to tow it home! Then Fabio called Chupis, a Mexican friend who has a trailer and a truck, and he said he would come right away. We were relieve and thankful, and also knew it would be *at least* two hours, so we settled in and tried to figure out how to keep a couple of crabby children happy until our help arrived. They were already tired from the weekend, so it was a bit more difficult task than it might have been on a typical day. First we hung out in the van, reading books and such. Then, we decided to go outside and play for a while. I was SO thankful I had brought their winter coats because it was cold! Here they are, entertaining themselves watching the people on the roller coasters and we also played some games with some pieces of rope we found on the side of the road. I, of course, had to pee, which was a real problem! Luckily, there was a row of trees behind where this pic was taken, but I soon realized there was a fence RIGHT behind the trees, so in order to be covered, I had to wedge myself inbetween the fence and the pine trees! I was laughing hilariously the whole time!
















After about 45 minutes out there, a benevolent couple stopped and asked if we needed help. I told them help was on the way and we just had to kill a couple of hours until it arrived.
Anyway, we ended up piling in the back of their BMW and they took us to a nearby McDonalds with a really nice playland! What an awesome blessing! We ended up spending about two hours there and the kids had a wonderful time playing, while Fabio and I got to rest a bit and not freeze!
Here is Dominique with her new friend, Ronald.








Here is Joshua with his new friend, Joseph.

Finally around 7pm, Chupis arrived. YEAH!! He had come in his utility truck, pulling behind him his trailer. Then, he had put his 4 door sport truck on the trailer, so that I could drive that home with the kids in it. So, after a little while of unloading the little truck and filling the gas tank, we were on our way. .......... BUT, just as soon as we pulled out of the McDonald's parking lot, the transmission went out on his little truck!!! This was really odd, because he bought it new last year and it only had 40,000 miles on it!
Soooooo, we had to load it BACK onto the trailer and we were back to square one trying to figure out what to do with our van! We considered the possibilities of a hotel for the night, or a rental car home, but all the rental car places were closed and Fabio had to work in the morning. Finally we decided to have the van towed to a local garage to be fixed, and all pile in the cab of Chupis' truck for the ride home.

We headed back out to the interstate then to wait for the tow truck by our van and were VERY thankful that it had not been towed already. So, the tow truck came and got our van and finally we were on our way home! Or were we???
When Chupis tried to start his big truck, he realized the battery was dead! Impossible! It had only had the flashers on! UGH! Now where would we get a jump from? Well, the guys had the brilliant idea of taking the battery off the little truck on the trailer to use it for a jump. I dont know what kind of trouble they had with that, but it took FOREVER to get it started! The kids really were troopers through the ordeal, but by then they had about had enough, and I had about exhausted all the finger rhymes and games I could think of. It did give Dominique a chance to learn to sing "Jesus Loves Me" in sign language, though!


Here is the back of the utility truck and the front of the sport truck while they were trying to get the battery going.










Finally we got on the road and Joshua was asleep immediately.













It took Dominique MUCH longer, and she cried a long time before she finally fell asleep. Then, after sleeping a while, something woke her up and she proceded to cry the rest of the way home!







Here is our rescue hero of the night, Chupis.
We ended up getting home about 10:30 or 11:00, I think. Chupis had to work all night after that, and then when he got off, he picked Fabio up at 6am for work!

Another friend, Jeff, is about to pick Fabio up here as soon as his foreman brings him home from work, to take him back up there to get the van.

I got to have a nap this afternoon, and even though I felt like I could sleep until tomorrow, it was really nice to rest for a little while anyway. :)

Well, there is nothing like a little adventure, right? And in the middle of all that went wrong, it could have been much worse. We have much to be thankful for, as the Lord protected us and provided all along the way. He reminds us how much we must depend on HIM ~ that we truly can do nothing on our own. We realize in situations like this how utterly helpless we are without Him, and we are thankful for the reminder.

It has taken me nearly all day to finish these posts, and now Fabio is almost home with our van! Praise the Lord!

The Zoo!!

It's been a little while, huh? I had to print the pics I had taken in the past two months and it was a bit overwhelming to upload them all to the place that I have print them, order copies for all the relatives, sort them all when they got here in the mail, etc.... so as a result I didnt take any pictures for about a week! LOL. It was 212 pics, I think, and with reprints it was 368! But this weekend I got the camera back out for our trip to the zoo:

All ready to go and SO excited! We left the house a little before 10am, and Joshua was asking me since he woke up at 6:00 if it was time to leave yet!











Joshua was a little apprehensive about touching this boa constrictor named Slinky. He needed a little coaxing! It was hard to get a good pic, too, because of so many people crowding around.
We had just painted Joshua's face like a tiger. :)









Dominique didnt need any coaxing at all and couldn't seem to get enough of Slinky!


















Dominique and the zebras















Me and my children. :) You can hardly see my belly from this angle and with this shirt, huh? I'm thinking that maybe vertical stripes are a good thing for pregnant women. We were in the monkey house here, even though you cant see the monkeys. Dominique LOVED them!







We went with our friends the Tymms and the Cummings. The Tymm's have 5 little ones and the Cummings have 4, so we had quite a crowd of little people. I was hoping to get a nice pic of all of them here, but as you can see, that was a hopeless cause! This was the best of the five that I took.
















I couldn't believe that Joshua stayed awake all the way home, but this was the result! He fell asleep at the dinner table at just after 5:00!! He has NEVER fallen asleep at the table before!










Dominique did have a short nap on the way home, but it wasn't nearly long enough! She was rather crabby at dinner time and didnt want to eat anything but pico de gallo! I didnt want to fight with her about it under the crabby circumstances, so she just ate Mexican pico de gallo, complete with raw onions and jalapenos!












This pic was a little blurry, but I thought it was cute and shows how much she loves pico de gallo!! :)

Shipping Out

Today is the day he has been training for since January. My brother, Marine Corps Sniper Corporal Aaron P. Black will be shipping out today with his unit to Iraq. Please keep him and the rest of the troops in your prayers. He says he hopes they will all still be vertical seven months from now. Also please remember his wife, Suzy, and four children in your prayers as well.
I didnt write what follows, but I thought it was an appropriate reminder about what our men are going through in war. It is easy to forget, as we feel so comfortable here, but let's not forget about them and what they are doing for us.


You stay up for 16 hours. He stays up for days on end.

You take a warm shower to help you wake up. He goes days or weeks without running water.

You complain of a "headache", and call in sick. He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.

You put on your anti war/don't support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends. He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.

You talk trash about your "buddies" that aren't with you. He knows he may not see some of his buddies again.

You complain about how hot it is. He wears his heavy gear, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.

You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong. He doesn't get to eat today.

You go to the mall and get your hair redone. He doesn't have time to brush his teeth today.

You're angry because your class ran 5 minutes over. He's told he will be held over an extra 2 months.

You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight. He waits for the mail to see if there is a letter from home.

You roll your eyes as a baby cries.He gets a letter with pictures of his new child, and wonders if they'll ever meet.

You criticize your government, and say that war never solves anything. He sees the innocent tortured and killed by their own people and remembers why he is fighting.

You hear the jokes about the war, and make fun of men like him. He hears the gunfire, bombs and screams of the wounded.

You see only what the media wants you to see. He sees the broken bodies lying around him.

You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don't. He does exactly what he is told.

You stay at home and watch TV. He takes whatever time he is given to call, write home, sleep, and eat.

You crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable. He crawls under a tank for shade and a 5 minute nap, only to be woken by gunfire.

You sit there and judge him, saying the world is probably a worse place because of men like him. If only there were more men like him!



Aaron without the paint and garb with his family.










Aaron and I in June, the last day I was able to see him. Behind us is a sign that our brother, Scott painted, that reads: "Pray for our warriors".

Family Fun

My sister-in-law Suzy and the kids were up from Georgia last week just for a few days and it was really good to see them! We had thought they wouldnt be back up for a visit again until Christmas, so it was a nice surprise. The kids had a blast all playing together again, and as usual it was a challenge to get a decent picture of everyone! Next year we will have two more kiddos to add to the line-up! Guess we'll have to get a bigger couch. :)





















Last Wednesday Fabio couldnt work because of the rain, so he decided at 7am that it would be a good time to clean the pool and put it away! So he and Joshua went out in their boots and rain coats in the pouring rain to "work". I just thought it was a funny scene. :) And I think Fabio got wetter from Joshua's "help" with the hose than from the rain!!



Here is one more pic from my b-day, a bit closer-up in case anyone who hasnt seen me lately wondered how my belly is looking these days. :) (Incidentally, for anyone who didnt already know this, if you click on the pictures, you can see a bigger version.) I am 28 weeks along now, and I think I am smaller this time than the previous two. But, just when I think I'm nice and "little", a couple different people asked me last week if I was *sure* I wasnt having twins, and someone else told me I was *HUGE* and someone else swore I'd never make it ALL the way to December! [ rolleyes ] Oh well, I guess I'm just blessed that way, with a spacious baby carrier in front. :)

Rainy Day Fun!

Mud boots, serving their purpose... discarded on the driveway! These are too big for Dominique, and she cant walk well in them, but she has outgrown her other ones. She tried removing them three times, and I finally quit trying to keep them on her feet.







She was much happier once she could walk around freely in her sock feet! Good thing she wasn't wearing white socks! (Incidentally, she is starting to recognize and say her colors. Her "favorites", or at least the ones she can say the best right now are green and blue. I think they were Joshua's first ones, too.)














She was being unusually cooperative with the camera today, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity, and I did get quite a few cute shots! This is a sampling of my favorites.

What a big girl! She is looking less and less like a baby to me now, and rightly so. She will be two next month, and soon there will be a true baby joining our big girl!












Joshua's cheesy grin was induced by finding a whole treasure heap of worms! He has been dreaming of fishing, and collecting worms in the meantime. :) The only time he has been fishing, they couldnt find any worms and used grapes instead! The fish did eat the grapes, but apparently grapes slip off of hooks too easily, and they didnt catch any fish. This time he will be armed and ready!












Worms!













Letting Dominique hold his worms. She was a bit apprehensive at first, but eventually accepted his gift. He had an ulterior motive: he had found a pile of BB's outside the Royal Ranger shed that he wanted to collect instead of worms.









"They're kinda wiggly, but I think I like them!"






















"I wonder what will happen if I run with them, swing them around, and squish them between my fingers??"














"You know what? I dont think I like these things after all! They are too squishy! After all, I am a GIRL!! You take it, Mommy!"















This last picture is of Fabio and I in front of the big bean at Millenium Park in Chicago. Fabio took me downtown on Saturday night for a special date... for my birthday! It's not often we go out without the kids, and it was nice, but ya know what? We missed them! Everything we saw, we wanted to show them too, so we think we will just have to go back and share the joy!

I've been tagged!

My friend Bipin tagged me to do a "One Book Meme", or in other words pass on some fave books, or kind of like a mini book report. :) I'm not sure I will be able to narrow it down to only one book per category, but I'll try! So, here goes:


One book that changed your life: Well, obviously the Bible! Other than that one, Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and Created To Be His Helpmeet by Debbie Pearl

One book that you’ve read more than once: All of those listed in the previous category! Other than those, hmmm, let me think: Love Comes Softly by Janette Oak

One book you’d want on a desert island: Well, again, other than the Bible, maybe Country Women? (kind of a survival guide)

One book that made you laugh: Yes, They're All Ours by Rick Boyer - written by a father of fourteen. He has a very humorous writing style, not to mention plenty of humorous stories to tell!

One book that made you cry [or feel really sad]: Ummmm.... The Hiding Place? by Corrie Ten Boom. It was a mixture of sad and hopeful, about Christians in the holocaust, who were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews.

One book that you wish had been written: Well, I have wished on several occasions that my mother had written a diary over the years for me to read and glean from now. She has forgotten many things from early child-rearing years, and a written record would have been great. That is one of my main motivations for keeping up with journaling: my children. I also wish that a great number of good books in English had been written in Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, for me to be able to pass them on as excellent resources to various people.

One book that you wish had never been written: These are hard questions, and ones I dont sit around and contemplate often! I think Bipin's and Christy's answers are good: The Da Vinci Code and The Origin of the Species. Other than that, maybe the Harry Potter series? (Sorry, Bipin!)

One book you’re currently reading: Lying In ~ A History of Childbirth in America. Dont feel like looking up the author's names right now. It is fascinating! I love history, and I love all topics related to pregnancy and childbirth, and this is a very interesting history book of childbirth in America from colonial times to present and the development of people's attitudes and the practices surrounding births in different epochs. Good information toward my training to be a midwife. :)

One book you’ve been meaning to read: There are definitely WAY more than one! I have stacks that are waiting to be read! But, the first one I can think of is Hands On Projects for Character Building by Rick and Marilyn Boyer. It lists things you can do with your children that emphasize godly character. I have used a few of the projects, though, even though I havent read all the way through the book. :) Very good!

Now tag five people. I tag

Jody B.

,

Kristi S.

,

Lisa D.

, Englers, and Tim E.