Welcome! Nuestra Casa Es Su Casa ...Our house is your house

A glimpse into the life of Daniel and Jaynee Lockwood and their 12 precious blessings. Thank you for visiting; we pray that what we share here may always bring glory to our wonderful God and Saviour. May you praise the Lord with us for the great things He has done and continues to do as we serve Him sharing the gospel here in the little town of Cuidad Insurgentes, BCS Mexico. He alone is good and faithful!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Welcome Home...We have grass!

As we crossed the US/Mexican border heading back into Mexico, the passengers in our van let out shouts of "Yipee! Yea! Woo Hoo! We're almost home!" Mexico is our children's home. Timothy, our oldest, was only 7 when we moved here. Elijah was still 5. The rest of them were 4 and under. And now 4, soon to be 5, of them have been born here. So while Timothy and Elijah have some memories of living in the states, the rest of them do not. Of course, the love to visit Grandma and Grandpa and all their cousins/Aunts/Uncles, but it is not "home" to them.
I still get homesick for the states. While we've been here about 5 years now and I do feel very much at home here, I still at times long for "home". I can imagine it will always be that way for me, and I smiled as while crossing that border to head back down south put a twinge of sadness in my heart, it put so much joy in the 11 little passengers sitting behind me. And I remembered how Jesus Christ left his home to give His life...salvation for all who trust Him as their Savior...because He loves us so much. How humbled and blessed we are that He has allowed us to come here to serve Him, sharing the wonderful news of His salvation with so many who have never heard.
So as we pulled into our property about 1 am Sunday night (or Monday morning :) ), I thought, "Welcome Home". :)
Our plan was to be home Saturday night so we could hold services as normal on Sunday, but plans changed and again, we saw the Lord's wonderful care. About 2 hours south of the border, we were driving through the last really big city for what would be many miles when we began to hear a grinding sound in the car. I asked Daniel, "What is that?" as at the same time he said, "Oh no, do you hear that?" It was the brakes grinding. Just a few blocks later, we saw a brake shop and pulled in and spent the afternoon there while they made the necessary repairs. I was thankful for the seats inside the shop as well as the bathroom :), and the children were so very patient for the long wait. We were so glad to find the problem when we did as finding it in the middle of the long desert stretch would have been a different story.
The night we got home, we pulled in late with no problems and went straight to bed. Daniel unloaded a few things, our pillows and blankets, the diaper bag ect... and said we'd unload everything else in the morning. When we got up, Daniel went outside to unlock the trailer so the boys could bring eveything inside when he noticed that one of the tires was flat off the rim. And not only was it flat, but it looked completely destroyed on the inside wall...the steel was showing and torn to shreds. We never knew how bad that tire was; we were so surprised to see it like that in the morning as we pulled in fine. The Lord was so good to protect us and keep us from having to deal with that in the middle of the night in the middle of the desolate desert.
Monday and Tuesday, the children and I spent the day cleaning up, unpacking, organizing ect... while Daniel went back to preaching, going to the village, working with Brother Macario, and working on car/household/church repairs. Wednesday and Thursday the girls and I tackled 40 loads of laundry! All the blankets, sheets, and pillowcases we took on the trip were quite a sight and those combined with our trip laundry and regular laundry provided us with lots of time together to wash, dry, fold, iron, and put everything away.
Today I'm catching up on paperwork while the children are writing some letters, making a chain to countdown the days until Christmas and helping Daniel at the church. We should be back to our "normal" schedule again starting tomorrow! :)
Oh, while we were gone, our backyard patch of dirt that we seeded a while back really took off! We stood outside to watch Daddy CUT THE GRASS! It smelled wonderful...just like when I was a little girl! We are soooo thankful for the beautiful green and I love the fact that when the children help me hang clothes, drop them, or play in the hanging sheets and sometimes knock them off, that they no longer are covered with dirt or mud, but still nice and clean as they fall onto grass! :)
I know this is a bit long, but I wanted to mention how Benjamin blessed me yesterday. I had gotten up later than normal as my morning sickness has been pretty bad in the morning, and when I got up, Ben was dressed, chores done, had read his Bible, and wanted to know if he could make french toast and eggs for breakfast. I gladly accepted his offer and so while I had my quiet time and got the little ones changed/dressed ect..., he completely took care of breakfast. Table was set, juice made, two loaves of bread cooked up, and a pan of scrambled eggs hot and ready to eat. He's such a servant and a good example to me and the other children!

Ben working away on breakfast
I love his smile here...we were so proud of him and he was so happy! :)

Nehemiah working away with Daddy
A lady up north gave us some used baby items her boys had outgrown. Eliseo loves his new toys! :)
Even a flat soccer ball can be used for something...like a planter :)
Grass!!
Thank you Lord!


17 comments:

  1. your grass IS AMAZING!! Wow what a difference in the pictures! I'm so happy for you!
    I love the french toast story and find it encouraging in letting the chidlren bless and be blessed by them when they are willing! What a help and a wonderful experience for them!
    So glad you made it safely.
    Love your stories!

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  2. Oh and I wanted to mention I never had one of those exersaucer things for any of my babies except for my now 19m old and of course my newest will use it too. I LOVE it and wish I had one with my other ones before!

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  3. If you ever do a Q&A again, I wanted to ask if you see yourselves living in Mexico from now on?

    Susan

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  4. All that hard work and now you have such pretty grass!!! Talk about fruit of your labor...
    I sure hope your morning sickness eases up soon.

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  5. the grass is beautiful, I am so glad I stumbled on your blog (from cfhusband) as it's uplifting and interesting!

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  6. Jaynee,

    WOW!!! It's amazing how bright and cheerful all that green looks, especially in the middle of an Alaskan winter. :) I'm so happy for you guys having beautiful grass to run barefoot through! Also, I'm glad you made it up to Redding and back safely. God is so gracious to have the brakes on your van go out when you were still in a city, and to have that tire last until you made it home safe. Hope your morning sickness goes away soon.

    Love you, Shelly T.

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  7. Praising God for a safe return and wonderful "grass". It is beautiful. The children seem to always be so helpful to you. You should be very proud.

    God Bless

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  8. Such a beautiful lawn...what a sweetheart Benjamin is to tackle such a large task! Hope you are feeling better soon.

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  9. Wow! Your grass looks great. I love how appreciate and see all of God's gracious gifts, big and small.
    Blessings,
    Dawn
    www.homeschoolblogger.com/my4sweetums

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  10. The grass is beautiful. It is so helpful when the children get old enough to help with the things that need to be done around the house. It sounds like Benjamin did a great job with breakfast! I started my kids cooking the supper meal when #5 was about 4 months old (she is now 16). Now that my youngest is almost 14 and the kids have activities just before supper, I find I am once again fixing supper 2-3 days a week after not being involved in that for years! Having many children is such a blessing. Thank you for sharing your life with us. God bless you.

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  11. Jaynee~ Hurray for GRASS!!! I remember in Shingletown when the clothes would accidently drop on the ground how frustrating it would be cause I'd have to wash them ALL over again :-( So I rejoice with you and your yard full of beautiful grass!!!

    Glad you arrived "home" safely and are getting back into your routine in Mexico :-)

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  12. How awsome! Love reading your blog! Thanks!

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  13. Hi, we're so thankful you got back safely and that the Lord protected you. What a blessing Benjamin was to cook breakfast for the entire family!

    God bless you all and we continue to lift you up in our prayers--will especially pray for Jaynee's "morning sickness" to ease up.

    Love, The Alleys

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  14. Daniel, Jaynee, and Children,

    I'm so thankful that you had a safe trip and that the Lord continued to be so good to protect you.

    What a blessing Benjamin was to take on making breakfast for everyone!

    You continue to be in our prayers.

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  15. Hi Jaynee. So glad that we finally got to meet at the McDonalds in La Paz back in August. I could relate with so much of what you shared in this post since we have made that drive and the Lord has really taken care of us time and again! Hope that things are going well with you and your family. Will be praying the morning sickness lets up soon!

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  16. Jaynee,
    Your Ben is going to make someone a wonderful husband some day :)

    Your posts are always such a blessing to me.

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  17. Tell Booster that Aunt Jessee says he's pretty awesome! Not pretty, just awesome! ;o) Good job with breakfast that day!

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