Happy Birthday Benjamin

Benjamin turned 7 years old today. He's been counting down the days until his birthday for over a month now! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful little man! Benjamin is one of our two "quiet" ones. He is very organized and always seems to stay clean (no...he wasn't adopted). He is very observant too and quick to help where he sees a need. He is always telling me who needs what. If Nehemiah gets fussy, he runs over to hold him. If that doesn't calm him down, he'll bring him to me and say, "Nehemiah's hungry Mommy". He has the sweetest smile and is so fun! When he grows up, he wants to help his brothers when they are missionaries.

Thank you Lord for our precious 7 year old boy. May he give you his heart and life every day, serve you and others, and be a testimony of your love.

Nehemiah Emmanuel

I just wanted to thank all of you who have so faithfully upheld little guy in prayer. He is doing much better this week. He is still a bit coarse and wheezy, but seems to be growing better and hasn't had a fever in 2 weeks now! PTL!

The Lord has blessed us through the sweet gifts of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and we were able to get flooring for our home. Daniel has been working hard in all his spare time to install it and he only has 2 rooms to go. We were truly content to live all our days with the cement slab, but we are so thankful for the Lord's blessed provision. The cement dust each time I swept was sooo bad and seemed to bother Nehemiah's airways quite a bit. We feel so very cared for and just praise the Lord for all He has done.

We spent most of today visiting with the people in our church in their homes. It was a truly wonderful day. God is so Good! Keep praying that He will continue to work in the hearts of the people here and give the increase in this town.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Yesterday, we celebrated Daniel's 34th birthday. The children had been planning for Daddy's special party for weeks. They made special cards and then saved every peso they could to buy Daddy something at the local store. Here is a picture of their carefully and lovingly hand wrapped/decorated cards and gifts.

We had a taco dinner, icecream, and watched Daddy open all his gifts. We also played a "game" we had prepared. Over the past couple of weeks, I had he children all tell me different reasons why they loved their daddy. I wrote each one down on a post it note. We came up with 34 of them because Daddy was turning 34. After birthday dinner, the children asked Daddy to go into the back of the house for a bit while they posted the notes all over the front of the house. Daniel had to find all 34 of them...then he got to sit at the table, read them aloud, and try to guess who wrote which ones.

They were so sweet...they included things like "I love Daddy because he brushes my hair at night" (Rebekah), and "I love my Daddy because he tells people about Jesus" (Elijah), and "I love Daddy because he plays football and frisbee with me" (Benjamin)...and my favorite "I love my Daddy because he spanks me"(Timothy) :)

Happy Birthday Daniel/Daddy!