CATCHING UP...FINALLY
So can you really ever catch up??? I know that when I am feeling so far behind I don't even know how to try to catch up...so here I am looking at our blog that is almost a year behind and I am wondering how many of you have just given up that I would ever catch up...eeek!
I thought that I would catch up through pictures and a few written words to let you SEE what we have been up to over these last months.
APRIL
Visitors from Iowa. Glenda Oakland and her daughter,Emily, came to visit us for a night. Emily was in the after school club in the church we served in and Glenda was the nurse that caught MaKayla when she was born. How special.
Our Spanish family...celebrating Lupes bithday... We are thankful for the family God has given to us here.
Visitors from Iowa. Glenda Oakland and her daughter,Emily, came to visit us for a night. Emily was in the after school club in the church we served in and Glenda was the nurse that caught MaKayla when she was born. How special.
Our Spanish family...celebrating Lupes bithday... We are thankful for the family God has given to us here.
Easter...our kids are growing up.
... but we are never too old to color eggs. We celebrated Easter with Kami, our apprentice...she is in the middle...and Emily, an Iowa State student studying Spanish in Caceres.
...then we did our Easter egg hunt...not a Spanish thing at all...but MaKayla's friend loved being a part of the fun.
Our team in Spain along with the Spanish leaders that are leading the churches in 5 different cities. It is exciting to see God slowly growing the churches in Spain and seeing Spaniards choose to serve God.MAY
Nathaniel is #10. He is not dreaming about being Larry Bird like his daddy did...but he is dreaming about playing for the Spurs some day. You never know.
Can you find Hannah? She is on the second row sitting on the right. She has been learning to play the piano for a year and this was her recital.
Nathaniel graduated from 6th grade. Here he is with his teacher Louis.
MaKayla has finished 2 years of guitar. She loves to play. My friend Betsy Shaver from Atlanta came to help us out for 2 weeks at the end of May as Tim and I went to Madrid to welcome all the European summer interns and lead them through a week orientation retreat. We are so grateful for our support group back in the states. That's all of you...what would we do without you???
JUNE
We started June off by hosting 6 interns. It was an exciting 6 weeks of having them here in Spain learning more about what God is doing in this country. I will post a picture in another blog of this group as I want to share more with you about our internship program.
At the end of June, a group of 15 people from a supporting church in Wisconsin came to run a basketball camp in our neighborhood. It was an great week of loving on over 80 Spanish kids.
We also did an English camp at the same time as the basketball camp. The kids would play basketball and then have English class. It gave us great opportunities to connect with parents and kids.
This group of teenage girls came every day to both the basketball camp and English classes. They connected with the ladies from Wisconsin and it has allowed us to keep up our friendship with them.
The older group...so many of these kids have come to other basketball camps for years and we are encouraged to see the friendships continue to grow.JULY
Spain won the world cup....and we discovered that our kids are true Spaniards at heart.
...they were amazing fans all the way to the end...
...and the party is just getting started...
...but I can't believe they really jumped in the yucky fountain...it was a memory.
Our youth have grown up and had babies...the little guy Tim is holding is little Timothy...one of our youth from years ago in Iowa...Matt Rusch...honored Tim by naming one of his sons after Tim.This summer Matt and his wife Catie came with their twin boys to spend a few weeks seeing what serving in Spain is like.
And I thought I put a picture in here of the whole family but ooopss...technical difficulty on the blog ...
In July, MaKayla and Nathaniel went to France to an English camp put on there for missionary kids. 
They had a great time getting to know other missionary kids...being challenged to live out their faith courageously, and studying English.
Nathaniel loved the extra time he got with his cousin Malik as he also went to English camp.
AUGUST
For two weeks in August , we hung out in Madrid, at a house our mission owns, with my sister Lynette and her family. How thankful I am that our kids get time with some of their cousins. They spent a day at Warner Brothers Park in Madrid. They don't look happy at all...
My superhero...no not superman...TimMyMan...and sweet Hannah...always having fun with her daddy.
A refreshing drink in the heat of a Spanish summer.
Hannah turns 9 years old. This year Hannah has loved to pretend-play being a teacher. Oh my does this remind me of myself at her age. So her cake was a chalkboard.
It was Hannah's day all day long...we started with pancakes...her favorite...we swam all day...she is a fish...and we ended with hotdogs on the grill and smores...special memories with our special gift from God...she is growing up too fast.
SEPTEMBER
VeggieTales comes to Caceres. This year we had the fun of a visit from LarryBoy. It was exciting to see the park filled with over 50 kids every night and then be able to go to Arroyo de la Luz , a neighboring town, to reach out to the kids there.
...and now who could that LarryBoy be??? Tim did a great job and was the hero to the kids. He was able to share very clearly that Jesus was his superhero and it was Jesus that filled him with strength and courage. The kids drank up every word.
It was great to watch how the members of the church got excited about this ministry...they do an amazing job. It is a real team effort.
It was exciting for us to baptise two young men this year. And one was Nathaniel. To hear them share how they love Jesus and want to serve Him is so awesome.
We are so thankful for how real Jesus is to Nathaniel. We have watched him run to Jesus through all his struggles with health, school and friends. His favorite verse is Isaiah 41:10. We see him holding onto Jesus' hand.
First day of school...Nathaniel joins MaKayla in middle school. Can you believe they are in 7th and 8th grade??...WOW...
The kids are the bestest of friends...yeah...and Nathaniel and MaKayla love on Hannah all the time...she is our princess...
Hannah is in 4th grade. It has been a hard year as her teacher is really needing to retire...meaning you can tell that he is burned out on teaching and boy does that show in his class. Hannah is being a trooper and doing a great job despite the situation. Yeah Hannah!!
Youth activities...it has been so much fun for us to see the 5 girls from the basketball camp continue to come to the youth activities. On this day we did a day in the park...frisbee football...and hot dogs and smore...they love the American touch on the activities.
And I thought I put a picture in here of the whole family but ooopss...technical difficulty on the blog ...
In July, MaKayla and Nathaniel went to France to an English camp put on there for missionary kids. 
They had a great time getting to know other missionary kids...being challenged to live out their faith courageously, and studying English.
Nathaniel loved the extra time he got with his cousin Malik as he also went to English camp.AUGUST
For two weeks in August , we hung out in Madrid, at a house our mission owns, with my sister Lynette and her family. How thankful I am that our kids get time with some of their cousins. They spent a day at Warner Brothers Park in Madrid. They don't look happy at all...
My superhero...no not superman...TimMyMan...and sweet Hannah...always having fun with her daddy.
A refreshing drink in the heat of a Spanish summer.
Hannah turns 9 years old. This year Hannah has loved to pretend-play being a teacher. Oh my does this remind me of myself at her age. So her cake was a chalkboard.
It was Hannah's day all day long...we started with pancakes...her favorite...we swam all day...she is a fish...and we ended with hotdogs on the grill and smores...special memories with our special gift from God...she is growing up too fast. SEPTEMBER
VeggieTales comes to Caceres. This year we had the fun of a visit from LarryBoy. It was exciting to see the park filled with over 50 kids every night and then be able to go to Arroyo de la Luz , a neighboring town, to reach out to the kids there.
...and now who could that LarryBoy be??? Tim did a great job and was the hero to the kids. He was able to share very clearly that Jesus was his superhero and it was Jesus that filled him with strength and courage. The kids drank up every word.
It was great to watch how the members of the church got excited about this ministry...they do an amazing job. It is a real team effort.
It was exciting for us to baptise two young men this year. And one was Nathaniel. To hear them share how they love Jesus and want to serve Him is so awesome.
We are so thankful for how real Jesus is to Nathaniel. We have watched him run to Jesus through all his struggles with health, school and friends. His favorite verse is Isaiah 41:10. We see him holding onto Jesus' hand.
First day of school...Nathaniel joins MaKayla in middle school. Can you believe they are in 7th and 8th grade??...WOW...
The kids are the bestest of friends...yeah...and Nathaniel and MaKayla love on Hannah all the time...she is our princess...
Hannah is in 4th grade. It has been a hard year as her teacher is really needing to retire...meaning you can tell that he is burned out on teaching and boy does that show in his class. Hannah is being a trooper and doing a great job despite the situation. Yeah Hannah!!OCTOBER
Youth activities...it has been so much fun for us to see the 5 girls from the basketball camp continue to come to the youth activities. On this day we did a day in the park...frisbee football...and hot dogs and smore...they love the American touch on the activities.NOVEMBER
...and then we did a foto scavenger hunt. MaKayla has been inviting her two friends as well to the youth activities...they are on either side of her.
...and then we did a foto scavenger hunt. MaKayla has been inviting her two friends as well to the youth activities...they are on either side of her.We were thrilled to have a couple from our supporting church in Massachesetts come and spend a week with us in November. They helped us prepare and clean up for our Thanksgiving outreach which was a huge blessing. Thanks Kelly and Mike...you all are the best. P.S. we need fotos from your time here...where was our camera???
DECEMBER
We had a Christmas party for the youth and decorated gingerbread houses. What a fun...funny...time. Of course they had never done something like this before so they loved the new experience
Here is team number one and their house...it held up under all the candy.
...and team two had to do some architectural adjustments as a cave-in occured on the house. BUT we all had fun!!!
Our red-nosed reindeers...the noses even blink...thanks Auntie Jan!
JANUARY
Oscar and his girlfriend came to visit for a day. Oscar was the Spanish teacher that came home with us 4 years ago to teach our kids while we were in the states. He is one of the family...
King's Day...January 6...the big Christmas holiday in Spain...the kids put their shoes under the tree the night before King's Day and the three kings bring them three gifts. I think our kids love living in two cultures...there are a few benefits.
Here is team number one and their house...it held up under all the candy.
...and team two had to do some architectural adjustments as a cave-in occured on the house. BUT we all had fun!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Our red-nosed reindeers...the noses even blink...thanks Auntie Jan!
It was special having my parents and Djamila, my neice, spend Christmas with us. We love having family come and visit...so know that you are always welcome to come and 
hang out with us!!
hang out with us!!Our kids always make Christmas all the more fun and each year it just gets better...we played tons of games, watched movies, laughed, ate, and enjoyed having time together.
JANUARY
Oscar and his girlfriend came to visit for a day. Oscar was the Spanish teacher that came home with us 4 years ago to teach our kids while we were in the states. He is one of the family...
King's Day...January 6...the big Christmas holiday in Spain...the kids put their shoes under the tree the night before King's Day and the three kings bring them three gifts. I think our kids love living in two cultures...there are a few benefits.AND...that brings us to today...phew...thank you all for wanting to keep up with our lives and for being patient as we let the business of life keep us from communicating. We pray that this new year will be full of God sitings no matter where you are.
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