Answering a couple of questions

We've gotten a couple of questions so I thought I'd take a break from packing and take few minutes to answer. :)
Question 1-
oh wow. i have never made bagels before! they look so yummy too. were they hard to make? I was wondering how you pay for your bills, house, and food, clothing for the kids..I know you said your husband spends his days praying with the neighbors, but do they pay him for that?

Several people asked about the bagels and they were really quite simple to make. My only complaint was that they didn't last more than about 5 minutes. Next time I will have to make a double batch. :)
I got a bagel recipe a while back off of tammyrecipes.com. All it required was flour, sugar, salt, water and yeast. I let my bread machine do the work of mixing while I finished teaching the children and after it had risen, I put a pot of water to boil on the stove and the children helped me divide the dough into balls and then shape each ball into a bagel. We boiled them for about a minute each, and then put them on a cookie sheet, brushed them with egg white, and baked them for about half an hour. I haven't had a bagel in years as they don't make/sell them here, so we were very happy! :)
Often times people wonder how a missionary pays for his expenses while on the field. A missionary is supported much the same way a pastor is supported~ through the giving of Christians. In the case of a missionary, he is sent out by his home church and then supported by that church and other churches so that he can dedicate his time to preaching the gospel.
So we are sent out by our home church in the USA. They, along with other churches and brothers/sisters in Christ support us both through prayer and finances enabling us to live and share the gospel here in Mexico.
While Daniel is able to physically be here walking the streets, working, preaching, knows the Spanish language, understands the culture ect... other believers have just as important of a part in reaching these precious souls with the gospel through their prayers and giving.
Daniel does much more than pray with the neighbors. He would say his job description is simply to preach the gospel, although he does so much more. He preaches, walks from house to house soul winning, disciples new believers, visits the widows and sick, trains and teaches those young men who desire to serve the Lord as pastors/missionaries themselves, plus the never ending physical work that is always in abundance here.
The Lord has so faithfully provided all our needs. And how it has increased our faith more and more as we see Him care for us.

I was curious about your road trip home. Do you take turns driving to break up the trip? Where do you sleep during the 3 day journey? Tents or hotels? Do you pack food for the trip? How do all the kids do in the car for so long? DVD players?

Daniel does all the driving when we travel. Occasionally, if we have a very long day of driving and have no time to stop for a short rest, I will drive for an hour or so so he can get a nap, but that doesn't happen too often. The road along the peninsula scares me to drive especially since we pull the trailer. It's so narrow, no shoulder, only one lane, and the semi's drive by so close! :) Before we came to the mission field, Daniel worked for 5 years for a company where he drove a truck all day, so he's so very skilled and we ask the Lord throughout the day to protect us as we travel. If I do help drive, it is only in the USA :) We do look forward to the day when we will have children old enough to help with the driving too :)
We stay the 2 nights we're on the road in a hotel. We stay in one hotel here in Mexico and then one hotel in the states. We are blessed to have found a hotel in both places that allows us to only rent 1 room! The rooms are spacious; daddy and mommy get 1 bed, the girls all share the other, and the boys camp out with their blankets/pillows on the floor.
Yes, we do pack some food for the trip or stop at little markets on the way to buy things to make sandwhiches or burritos. For breakfast, Daniel will get us all bananas, bread, and yogurt. I sometimes bring our electric skillet and we can make egg burritos too which is nice. Once we cross the US border though, believe it or not, the children can't wait until they see a taco bell....they just love their bean burritos and so that is always a special treat we do on the way up.
The children do well traveling...they've had lots of practice :) No, we do not have a DvD player, but they bring things to keep busy. They each have their own back pack they "pack up" for the trip...books, games, notebooks, little toys, snacks ect... help the time pass. We like to sing and visit together of course. We also bring preaching tapes, music tapes, Scripture tapes, and we have some story tapes too (Pilgrim's Progress, The Hiding Place).
We do all have times of getting bored of course...it's a llooonnnggg drive! But the "goal" of reaching "grandma's town" is good to help everyone endure. Usually right around 8 pm, we hit what we call "melt down" time...that's when usually 4-6 of them start crying and fussing all at once. But the good thing is that is a sign of them being too tired and within about 10-15 minutes, they all fall asleep :)