Abigail, don't try to fly :)

The last of the children just went to sleep and the house is quiet. I have papers to grade, a couple letters to write, a sewing project to work on, and long to spend some time in prayer. But I wanted to write to let you know, by the grace of God, we are all alive and well. :) I know some of you worry when you don't see a post for a while.

Sigh...while I have more than enough things I want to share...things the Lord is teaching us, how He's working in our hearts and the people here... I have 12 children. :) And they are growing so quickly. And it seems while as they grow, they are able to help do so much more, I'm needed all the more as well.

They need my time, my attention, my love, my teaching...and I find more and more, the need to lay my desires aside to give myself to them. My desires may be good, but I want to chose to lay aside the good for the best.

The longer I've been a mother, the more I've come to need the Lord. The more I yearn for His grace in my life and in the lives of each of my children. And the more I see my own flaws. And the more I love Him for His salvation.

It was an extra busy week last week. A propane line to our house accidently got cut during a plumbing job, so we were without stove/oven, hot water or dryer for a couple of days. My clothes line had been taken down as we were finishing enclosing the back yard, so I was at a bit of a loss as to how to dry the laundry.

Then last Tuesday night, Abigail was apparently standing on the top of the fort and jumped off. Don't ask...we don't know what ever gave her the notion to do such a thing...she is like me sometimes in that she has trouble keeping her balance on the ground. :) She doesn't know why she was up there either...she doesn't remember anything.

Benjamin saw her jump but wasn't sure why she did. Poor thing, she suffered a bit of a concussion and was throwing up all through the night and into the next morning. I just added the dirty blankets and towels to my already huge mountain of laundry.

Thankfully, she recovered by the next day and my gas line was repaired soon after!

Friday and Saturday, Daniel took our two oldest boys and 4 men/young men from our church here and traveled 5 hours north to a mission's conference. What a blessed time they all had! Brother Juan, Juaquin, and Ivan shared testimonies of the time there last night during our evening service. It was so exciting to them to see other Christians who have the same Lord and faith!

I need to get going, but thought I'd post a few pictures from last week.

We got a surprise care package in the mail...we were really excited!! How sweet...literally!

I love mornings! New day, new beginning...children scattered around working on their chores, reading their Bibles and waiting eagerly for the call for breakfast.

Oh, and I can't forget to share about our second trip out to the town of Zaragoza Thursday. We had a whole group of teens listen to the entire message. Daniel preached right to them! Praying they will return this week!

The Lord is so faithful and good! What a wonderful God we serve!