Fall on your knees

My all time favorite Christmas song is "Oh Holy Night" every time I hear it I am moved almost to tears. It's more than the words it's also the way the music ebbs and swells at the exact perfect moment. But this part gets me every time.

"The thrill of hope, 

a weary world rejoices 

for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. 

Fall on your knees..." 

Just think about that. The whole world was in the darkest of places, weary really.

If you have every really felt hopeless you probably also experienced weariness. 

It's just this feeling of being so completely drained of anything left to keep going. 

When suddenly something new and glorious comes. 

Hope that makes your heart race. 

Hope that makes everything stop as you fall on your knees to worship the savior of your soul.

Without a doubt 2012 has been the hardest year of my life so far.
There have been good and difficult things this year but when I look back the difficult things seem to overshadow everything else.
I had started this post yesterday morning with a much different idea of which way it was going to go. Then I got word that a dear friend lost her 3 year old son in a car accident.
My heart dropped because I know that pain all too well.
I spent the last day of 2012 crying and praying for my friend
and grieving all over again for my sweet Caleb.
I doubt anything shatters your heart like losing a child.
Nothing anyone says can help.
It's a hopeless, weary feeling.
And yet, I woke up rejoicing. A new day, a new year broke and it is glorious.
I could hear my boys playing in the other room.
I could feel the baby inside of me wiggling and the man I love had his arm around me.
Yesterday all I could see was the pain in this world and today I see
HOPE.
I have no guarantee that this year will be easier than last year.
But I do have hope that it can be.


God gave me this passage last year and it carried me through the difficult times so
I wanted to end this post with it.

 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:11-14a

Thanksgiving Missionary style

Yesterday we had the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving with our Missionary friends here. I only take random pictures and we all got wrapped up talking so I didn't get a group pic. But I did get these

Makes you feel like you were there with us right? check out Logan, looking like he is about to do  something he shouldn't. He probably was. As you may notice the Ens (our friends who hosted us) have 2 boys close in age to ours. They also have an older daughter. Sadly I don't have a girl for her to play with but Timothy thinks they were sent here because he prayed for a boy his age. So God sent the Ens with their 5 year old named Timothy. Our Timothy has dubbed him 2nd Timothy. So we went biblical on the nicknames and call them 1st and 2nd Timothy

1st Timothy swiping some of the cheese ball prematurely

Logan and 2nd Timothy...have you ever noticed how hard it is to take pictures of 

little boys when they haven't seen each other in awhile? 

Real Men help with the food prep

Real men also get food for their kids 

Here in Peru we don't have canned or instant stuff so we had pretty much everything made from scratch

(except for the cranberry sauce I imported ;) 

I learned how to make cheese balls which I've never attempted before but they came out pretty great if I do say so myself. :P One of the girls there made her first ever "from scratch" sweet potato casserole 

everything was amazing. I'm actually a little sorry I didn't think to swipe some leftovers. :)

I will be making Thanksgiving dinner for our church next week though so hopefully I can do 

justice to the food we had yesterday. I'm hungry again just thinking of it. 

I haven't participated in any of the 31 days of gratitude things people have been doing on twitter (and FB I think...) But there are a few things I'm especially grateful for that I wanted to mention.

God and his grace, mercy and faithfulness. I know it sounds like just the right thing to say but I am seriously feeling so grateful for Him lately.

Jose. I could not have found a better man or husband if I searched for 1000 years. He isn't perfect but he's perfect for me. I love him so much

Logan and Timothy. They make me laugh all the time. 

They are always there offering to do all kinds of helpful things. Like sleeping in my bed at night 

or mopping the floor with lemonade before I wake up.

But they are sweet, sweet boys and I thank God for them everyday. 

My life would not be as full without them.

A healthy pregnancy and baby

True friends here in Peru and also in the states. 

As Philippians 1:3 says "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God."  

It is really amazing to know that there are so many people I could call up and they would 

be happy to hear from me even if I just need to ask for help or prayer or a listening ear.

God is so faithful to provide for all of our needs no matter how big or small. "friends" might not seem like that big of a deal but sometimes they are more valuable than you can imagine.

And now I will leave you with the one picture of me. 

Right before we started eating I asked for this picture to be taken. 

Enjoy our goofy faces.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

To Timothy

6 years ago today I went to my drs appointment not expecting to meet you for another 4 weeks. 

Little did I know you would be born about 2 hours later. 

Ever since then life has been an adventure and full of surprises.

You and I have a very special connection. 

I'm fairly certain it's because of all the hours I've spent praying about you. 

You have always danced to the beat of your own soundtrack and you often sing it to us.

Nobody else knows the words but that's ok, it's your song.

You are great at cheering me up and getting me to laugh when you are in trouble.

You love spending time with your family.

I love it that no matter what we are doing you want to be in the room with us.

You are just like your daddy. 

I love this picture because it shows how much you look alike. 

Sometimes you give me a glimpse of what he was like when he was your age.

I know that you will follow in his footsteps and be a great man one day. 

Timothy means Servant of God and Joseah means Fire of God.

You are already so full of faith that whenever you want something you pray for it until it happens.

You never doubt that God will do what you ask him to.

This year we lost your baby brother Caleb. 

You were really looking forward to having him here.

When we talked about it you asked if they have a bed for him in heaven.

You are so sweet and straightforward about everything. 

I love that you aren't shy about talking about Caleb. 

Logan is your best friend. You love him so much.
I love watching you follow him around and trying to be like him. Most of the time you guys go together like peanut butter and jelly. Other times...not so much. But I know you will always be there for each other.








One of your favorite things in the world right now
is movie credits. When we watch a movie you
always want to watch until the music is over and
the screen goes black on it's own. This is just one
of the ways you are uniquely you. Daddy and I
joke that one day you will be the guy who designs
movie credits. You already play at it with your
Jengas.
Some other things you really love are
Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
Happy Monsters
Pirates &
Chocolate.

Happy Birthday Timothy

You brighten up our lives in ways you can't imagine.

We love you!

Mommy & Daddy

Christmas Outreach

We had a great time with our Christmas outreach Sunday Morning. 

We had initially set a goal of giving gifts to 100 kids but because of the generosity of so many people (in the states and here in Piura) in the end we had enough gifts for 160! 

Here are some pictures of the highlights 

Loading up the truck with presents

Driving to Expolvorines it started to rain on the way there

Jose overseeing set up with some help from Logan and Timothy

Jose preaching on the true meaning of Christmas

 60 people raised their hands for salvation!

 Logan and Timothy liked helping...Tim did not want to give up that bullhorn 

These are some of the pictures from handing out the presents. If you look closely you will see Timothy down in the mix with the other kids.

Jose and Patrick did most of the work to make this happen

The whole team plus 3 kids from the outreach

(the shacks in the background are houses. They have no running water or electricity)

People thought we were crazy for doing this on December 25th. 

Most people here celebrate Christmas on the 24th and sleep all day the 25th. 

But God knew what he was doing. We had a ton of help and an overwhelming response from the kids and families of Expolvorines (the area outside Piura that we chose for the outreach)

On our way to the outreach it started raining and it continued until Jose finished preaching.

So our volunteers not only set up but they did it in the rain. Once it stopped raining it got really hot.

We all have sunburns to show for it. 

Most of the volunteers are just getting introduced to us because of this outreach. 

(only 5 in the picture were members beforehand) 

It was awesome for us to work with them and they are all excited about the things Powerhouse Church Peru has planned. 

We were so blessed to be able to be a part of this and just want to say thank you to all of you who donated to this and prayed for it. 

We can't wait until next year!

Christmas Outreach

We are really excited to be doing our very first community outreach for Christmas. 

There is a little area outside of Piura where there are tons of impoverished families. 

Our plan is to bring Christmas gifts and dinner to 100 children. All it takes is $11 per kid. 

If you would like to participate please click the Children's Christmas Outreach donate button on the right of this page  and your donation will go to our goal of $1100.

You can include a message to the kids if you want and we will make sure the kids get them.

I will take lots of pictures and post them here and on Facebook.

Thank you for your help to make this happen! We can't wait to see what God does.

So Thankful

I'm almost a week late but we have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

We had 25 people at our house on Thanksgiving. I made my first Turkey ever (actually 2 turkey breasts because my oven is tiny and I was afraid a whole turkey wouldn't fit), I also made my first pumpkin pie complete with crust since you can't buy pre-made crust here and gravy for the turkey. Aside from that I made stuffing, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes. All of those things were new to the Peruvians we invited over. (mashed potatoes are actually somewhat common but not the way I make them ha) the pastor Jose has been mentoring came and brought his family. His wife wanted to help and was walking around the kitchen as I was cooking saying "what is that?" "Are you sure you don't want to peel these potatoes?" "what are you doing?" She was very helpful, but I did for a moment want to banish her from the kitchen. In the end we ran out of almost everything and everyone was surprised that they liked the american food cooked by the gringa. ;) Apparently US americans have a reputation for not being able to cook. How we got the reputation I don't know.

The one picture I took of the night/food.
It was an awesome night and I Tarzan-ed my way through several conversations before I just started telling people I don't speak spanish after 10. Actually I barely speak english after 10 so I'm doing ok I guess.

I am now 30 weeks or 7 1/2 months pregnant.
We are trying to get family pictures today or this week so I will hopefully have some to put on here soon. I'm not that great at self portraits. I thank God for sustaining this baby and keeping her safe. She moves around a lot and every kick and hiccup is a reminder that God is watching over her.
We are only 8 weeks away from meeting her on the outside. I cannot believe how quickly this pregnancy has flown by!

Some highlights of the past month have been
~Pastors GF and Rose and the team from Powerhouse that came to visit
~Jose's dad Pedro came and spent a month with us. He also took time to make lots of improvements on the house while he was here. Such a blessing!
~3 day trip to Ecuador to renew our visas
~Powerhouse Church Peru had our first baptism's Logan and Jose's dad were 2 of the people baptized
~We hosted our first men's/pastors meeting with 20 people
It has been an awesome and full month

We are looking forward to a few things in the next month and year and will update more as the details are put together.
We have also updated our Prayer Needs tab. Please continue to pray for us!
 

5 Years

Wednesday (June 15th) our baby will be 5.
This will be a bittersweet celebration because he won't be the baby anymore.
Next year there will be another little Lopez taking that title, so the celebration is way more sweet than bitter. :)

Timothy is my shadow.
He loves to sit in the room with me and play while I do whatever I'm doing.
I can always count on him to keep me company.
I can also count on him to always make me laugh.
I never want to forget the way he started memorizing words (including the spelling) this year.
Words like Walt Disney Pictures Presents, restroom, all of our names, cake, exit, men, and monsters inc.
He loves to spell them out. For example if he needs to use the restroom he says "I need to go restroom, r-e-s-t-r-o-o-m-m-e-n"   And before he figured out what that spelled he would say
"I need to go potty m-e-n"
He also thought e-x-i-t spelled "get out of here" so when he was ready to go he would say
"let's e-x-i-t, get out'ta here"

He will always be my baby. Even though he tells me "No, not baby. I Timothy!" 

whenever I call him baby.

Timothy Joseah, thank you for allowing me the privilege of raising you. 

You are a sweet, funny, caring little boy with a mind that is totally your own. 

I thank God that you are who you are. I wouldn't change you, or trade you for anything in the world.

You are awesome. Don't you ever forget it!

Love, 

M-o-m-m-y Mommy

Over commercialized?

I don't know that any men read this blog but this has been on my heart and I wanted to say something for the women I love. If you are a man and you read this understand that doing what I'm suggesting will only encourage your wife. (and probably get you some) so seriously, what do you have to lose?

A few women I know were talking about Valentines day. One of them mentioned that her husband hates valentines day and the best gift she could give him would be to cancel the day (I am totally paraphrasing here) Some of the other women agreed and still others starting talking about how horrible that attitude is. To the best of my knowledge every woman involved wanted to celebrate the holiday. This whole conversation got me thinking. I've heard a lot of men complain about the "pressure" and "commercialization of V-day" but I don't think those guys really think about what their complaints say to the woman in their lives.

The average married woman with children gets officially celebrated about 4 times a year. V-day, mothers day, birthday and anniversary. Yes, there are other holidays that are celebrations and some of those include gifts but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about days where people tell this woman how happy they are that she is around. (in more than one way) Again, I'm talking about the average woman so I am generalizing; but most women spend their whole life taking care of other people, making other people feel important, giving up things she wants/needs for the greater good of her family.

When a man says he hates valentines day no matter how rational a woman tries to be there is a message that comes across to us that goes a little like this. "I don't find you important enough to plan ahead a little. Set aside some money for a gift and a date, make a reservation at a restaurant and take you out." I have heard women say their husbands are just so stressed or money is just so tight or restaurants are just so busy and he hates all that. And as women we all know that if you have no money. none. then you can write a really heart felt letter. If you are bad with words then a woman who loves you will love reading something from you because we know it took a huge effort. If you don't like going to restaurants that are busy, order in and set up something nice at the house.

Here are a few ideas for those of you that are out of practice
~ Take her to dinner and dancing or turn your living room/bedroom into a bistro. Make your bed the table and clean up so that you can dance after dinner and you never even have to leave your room
~ Do research! Find out if there is a restaurant she has always wanted to try or a type of cuisine she loves and you never eat. Find a great place and MAKE RESERVATIONS!
~ Recreate your first date.
~ Buy her flowers. Ask her way ahead of time (like today) what kind of flowers she likes. Not every girl likes roses. (WARNING: if you aren't going to buy flowers don't ask this question right now. It will only set her up for disappointment)
~ If she likes old movies see if there is a revival theater in your area like landmark theatre in river oaks (Houston) they may or may not be showing something old and romantic. If not rent one of those black and white classics she loves and watch it with her. Worst case scenario your bored and she's happy...who knows she might watch sports with you sometime because of this
~ Most theaters show some kind of rom com or girl friendly movie. Let her pick

Girls if you have any other ideas leave them in the comments section! Help the men out

And another thing ladies. If Valentines day is not the perfect fairy tale you envisioned BUT you know your man tried say thank you. Also do your part. Don't make valentines day be all his job. If you want to make something amazing at home let him know you got that part and the rest is up to him. Make valentines day a mutual thing.

I will leave with this. There is a song that is a little old and might seem dated but the overall message is a good reminder for you boys. Read this and think of your wife

She may be weary

Women do get weary

Wearing the same old dress

And when she's weary

Try a little tenderness

She may be waiting

Just anticipating

Things she may never possess

And while she's without them

Try a little tenderness

It's not just sentimental

She has her grief

And her cares

But a word

Soft and gentle

Makes it easier to bear

So much easier to bear

You won't regret it

Women don't forget it

Love is her whole

her whole happiness

And it's all so easy

Just to try a little tenderness

You've gotta try

You've gotta hold 'er

You've got ta squeeze her

You have to try

You've got ta try

And always please her

You won't regret it

You won't regret it

Oh

Try a little tender-ness

Happiness and Cheer! Christmas for orphans

I hope every one of you had a Merry Christmas!

Every year La Casa Del Padre does several Christmas outreaches this year we helped with the one to bring Christmas to orphans and very underprivileged children. It took tons of people and together we were able to bless over 1000 children


my hilarious children being all "vanna white" here. and check out Tim's ever present jacket. It's really hot here but he still thinks he needs a jacket every.single.day. ah, children.

It was a long and exhausting day but it was awesome to see the children blessed


I loved that we took our kids too. Logan handed out snacks to the kids, a mini panaton (fruit cake thing-very popular and traditional Christmas treat)  and chocolate milk to each kid. We were in the room where the kids got their toys and they had to get the snack on the way to the toys. Many children were so focused on the toy that they walked right past Logan. All he knew how to say was "Feliz Navidad" so he would chase them down and shove the snack in their face all the while saying "Feliz Navidad" in a somewhat irritated voice. heartwarming, right? lol. O.k. I admit I thought it was ridiculously cute and understood his frustration. I go through it all the time.

This week we are going to Carmella's house to bring her some presents. God put it on some friends hearts to donate money for this project and we are all so excited! Jose and his dad went to her house yesterday to kind of get an idea what needs to be done. First of all *she* did all the wiring for her house and it needs to be fixed. thankfully Jose's dad is great at that kind of stuff and is going to take care of it! Next she doesn't have any fans in her house. Trust me it gets hot here. I am sitting with all the windows open and the fan on in hopes of getting some air circulating. I cannot imagine what it would be like if there were 8 children running around making it hotter in here! So we are going to get her a couple fans to cool off the rooms (Again Jose's dad is handling this because he's awesome) She also needs a rug, and would like a slide for the kids to play on and a shelf in the kids room. Aside from that we plan to put together a basket of food for her and her kids. This is all really phase one of a project that we think we could work on until we leave Lima. If you would like to make a donation into this project send me a message @ jkmission2peru@gmail.com that is also our paypal address. or you can give through the link on the right of the blog.

I will leave you with our Christmas card because I am super proud of it since I made it! (using pic's taken by my friend Jami)

Happy New Year!

A first time for everything

Happy Thanksgiving!
Today was our first time hosting Thanksgiving. I made everything but the Turkey! Our friends James and Marlith came over and they made an amazing turkey. My contributions were my "famous" (per jose) mashed potatoes, stuffing made from scratch, candied yams, and a dessert I decided not to serve because the chocolate pudding never got thick enough (but I made whipped cream for the first time! go me!)  Jose's Grandparents are visiting from America right now so they were here too. We were too busy eating and enjoying our time together to take too many pictures but I did take a few of the food, haha. Now you know what's really important to me ;)



I was really having a difficult time preparing because nothing is the same here. I was worried I wouldn't have everything the way I wanted it.  I "missed out" on some things like pumpkin pie because I just couldn't find the things I needed to make them. But in the end everything was perfect. We had a great time and the food was amazing *if I do say so myself*

A fellow first year missionary mentioned that they were starting their own family traditions since they are away from home and some traditions are impossible to continue. I liked that idea and we decided to start our own. One of them is we are going to do holiday crafts. Logan and I love crafting and timothy likes tearing up paper so it's a start. We even got daddy in on the action. :)

We made handprint turkeys as name plates. They didn't really get used since our food kind of took up the whole table.  But, everyone loved them and took theirs home and it was fun to make them.

So here's to Holidays, Family, Friends, Food, and Traditions. I hope your Thanksgiving was everything you hoped for. Happy Thanksgiving and now we can really say it! Merry Christmas!

Happy November!

November is one of my favorite months. I love the Holiday season and the preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year we will be celebrating in Peru. I will be making Thanksgiving dinner for my first time ever! I haven't gone looking to see what they have available for a traditional style thanksgiving dinner. (I'm not even sure if they they have Turkey!) I'm looking forward to the challenge though
I have to say I thank God for the foodtv website and allrecipes.com without them I would be making everything up as I go along because I did not bring any cookbooks.

As I have mentioned before it is Spring here. Which feels really strange. I want to decorate the house with fall colors but everywhere I go there are pinks and purples and signs that say "welcome spring!" It feels a little weird. I have to admit though It was cold when we got here in August and I am ready for it to get warm (the weather here plays at getting warmer, then there is yet another cold snap and I spend my days in the house wrapped in a blanket) My children are getting stir crazy too they need to spend days in the park releasing their wiggles. So as much as I want to decorate the house like it's fall I am really happy that Spring is here.

I have begun a daily habit of drinking tea here. I have always liked tea. I mean I drink it when I go to starbucks and whenever I'm wanting a warm caffeinated beverage (I'm not much for coffee, though I have tried to be) I'm usually a cold drink girl though. Sweet tea (I'm southern alright?), coke and water almost frozen are generally how I roll. My favorite kind of hot tea here is Hierba Louisa. MMmmMM.

So anyway, I've been thinking of doing a giveaway on here. Peru is home to some of the best chocolate, and coffee (I hear). Plus they have some pretty cool little handmade things, and we can't forget the tea. So anyway. I'm still looking into the logistics of sending a package to the states and what I can/can't send etc...But if you want me to do a giveaway, comment on this post (with your name if you post anonymously) If I get enough responses I will do one