Are We Crazy or What?

We added another family member last night. Jonathan has been wanting a cat (and Erin too) and said he would pay for it and everything. Jim asked me what I thought and since I love cats I wasn't adamantly against it. Well, we stopped by the pet adoption place near our house yesterday and they had a kitten there that the kids, of course, fell in love with. She is about three months old and cost twenty pesos. That's about $1.50 in US dollars. They had another kitten that looked like she had just been spayed. We asked about it and they said that it had been and that he did it right there at the shop. So we asked how much it would cost to have the one the kids were looking at spayed. He said it would be one hundred pesos ($7.70 USD)for the kitten and the spaying and the kitten would be ready in two hours. So, we broke down and let the kids get her. They split the cost of everything - the kitten, kitty litter, litter box, food, etc. They will continue to split the cost of the food and litter in the future. Now we just need the kitten and the dog to become friends. Ha! Ha!

Our Anniversary and the Staff Retreat

Today Jim and I celebrated 26 years of marriage. It was wonderful that it was also the day that the staff at Esperanza Viva was treated to a day retreat. We went and played soccer and we were also able to go swimming. Apparently the last time they did something like this was two years ago. As we are learning, the staff here gives 110% and they were well deserving of this break. We had a wonderful day! Here are a few pictures.

This is a picture of Mount Popocatépetl with another smaller hill in front. I like the church on the small hill.

Playing soccer.

Friends


More soccer.
Jonathan even played for a little while.

Can you tell that the ball was down at the other side of the field for a while?
Eating sandwiches, chips and ice cream at the end of the day.


By the way, I am coming up on three jobs I have accepted through the end of the year. I will be buying the groceries for the groups prior to their arrival, setting up translators for those groups with no Spanish speakers, and I will be helping out with activities which means making sure the groups have everything they need and that they get started and ended on time. I am really looking forward to these and the best part is that I am helping Jim since he does things with the groups also. We love interacting with the groups so this is perfect for me.

Thoughts...

We have been singing a song at church that is my prayer. Many times I fall short, but my heart is there. I am first putting the chorus here in Spanish and then in English.

Te amo, mi esperanza está en ti,
Cristo Jesus
Tomamé, me doy a ti.

I love you, all of my hope is in you
Jesus Christ,
Take my life, take all of me.

Today was kind of difficult because our friends, the Dixons, left to move back to the states. I began a friendship with Sandy on the phone while we were still living in the states and we hit it off very well from the first time we met here. We went to the grocery store together, she helped me pick out fabric for the curtains in our bedroom, and we spent time at each other's houses. Although we have friends here that make the journey more fun, in the end, we came to give our lives, to give all of ourselves to what God has called us to do. That is the most important thing. When we sing this song at church, my heart just cries the truth of the words. All of our hope is in Jesus. We want Him to take our lives, to take all of us and use us in whatever way he wants to.

Music is such a great tool that gets to the center of our hearts. Down here in Mexico, even though I don't always understand everything that we sing, I know that we are all worshipping the One True God and there is no language barrier in that. I would love to know what songs are touching your hearts so please feel free to comment.

By the way, Sandy if you read this, give Luke a big group hug from Jonathan, Erin and me. He kept mentioning it and then if it happened, we weren't a part of it. So, you all give a big group hug to each other and know that it is from us. We love you guys and we will miss you.

An Afternoon in Cholula

We recently found out that the the Great Pyramid of Cholula is free on Sundays so we went to Cholula Centro for the afternoon with our friends, the Dixons. Even though they had been to Cholula Centro, they had never been to the pyramid. While walking around to the entrance we walked through the market and came upon some cultural aspects of Mexico. There were Aztec Indians who were performing dances and what seemed to be prayer rituals. My heart broke at the thought of these people going up for prayer and knowing that only the One True God would ever meet their needs and yet they were believing in the prayer of these people to their false gods. The people here are steeped very deeply in their religion and it is so sad to see. There is such freedom in Christ, but in these religions there is such bondage. We have been singing a song in church that speaks of being free. When we sing the chorus, people just start dancing because many people here are freed of such bondage when they come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is such a beautiful thing to see. Below are some pictures of what we saw today while in Cholula.

Here are pictures of the Aztec Indians performing their prayer rituals and dances.

This is the market we walked through.
You can actually go inside the pyramid. Here are some pictures of us in the pyramid.


This obviously leads up some stairs a lot further. We were not able to go up there.
Pictures from outside the pyramid.
This is some artwork that was on one of the alters.
We were not exactly sure about this guy but I thought I would take a picture of him.
Jonathan, Erin and Luke on an alter that was used to sacrifice young children to the rain gods.



After five trips to this area, I finally went all the way to the top of these stairs.
Here is a picture from the top. Down to the left of the big tree standing by the stairs is my friend, Sandy. My she looked small from way up there.
These guys twirl from the top of a big pole. It's rather interesting.
Erin bought this from one of the local vendors outside the pyramid. She likes to shop.
When we went to the centro, there were all kinds of dances going on with really neat costumes.

That's all for now.

Rice and Beans and Beans and Rice

Before we moved to Mexico, we told the kids we would be eating lots of rice and beans and beans and rice. Well, the rice part has certainly been very true. We bought a rice cooker before leaving after using our daughter's and we have used it for probably 85% of all our dinner meals. I love the rice cooker because my rice turns out great and I don't have to watch it closely.


I tried my hands at making homemade refried beans also but they didn't turn out very good. Thanks again to my daughter who put a web site about crock pot cooking on her blog, I found a way to cook my beans in the crock pot and then freeze them to use just as you would using canned beans. So I have prepared a whole bag of black beans to use with different recipes. To find out how to cook them, just click here.


If you like beans and want to save some money by not having to buy canned beans, try it, it works really well.