Family Update

We're having more and more beautiful blue sky days after too many cold gray days. Summer is approaching and with it Christmas and the end of the school year. School ends this week. The kids have all grown incredible leaps and bounds this past year -- specifially in the area of language, speaking/writing and reading in English and Spanish. As they finish up the year this week all three are participating in end of the school year/Christmas shows to help us celebrate Jesus' birth. We're all excited to start summer break and are especially excited to welcome 'Papa and Ganni' (Ryan's parents, Jerry and Linda Smedes) on Wednesday, who will stay with us through Christmas!

Many have been asking about our physical health. Thank you so much for your concern. As a family we're having a much, much better year than last year and thank the Lord for overall good health. Gabe continues to be more susceptible to common colds which escalate incredibly fast to asthma symptoms. We're blessed with a great pediatrician and with his help are still trying to figure out how to keep Gabe healthy.

In September we were glad to host Ryan's cousin, Ted and his wife, Sarah for a few days. It was so fun to have family visit and hear about some of their interesting experiences as they are currently on a round the world adventure. Then in November we welcomed Dennis and Candie Lambert into our home for a couple of days after their tour to Machu Picchu. We appreciated having friends from Seattle visit and really appreciated Dennis' help to put a roof up in our laundry area and the kids loved the extra playtime with them. We love to have y'all visit! Let us know when you're coming and we'll get the room ready.

Toby celebrated his 6th birthday on November 8th! He is an amazing gift from God. It was such a joy to see him so loved upon both at school and by his siblings on this special day.

To help eliviate the stress (see Ryan's blog update) and connect as a family we escaped to the north coast of Peru for a beach vacation Mancora in the middle of November. It was exactly what we prayed it would be, relaxing and fun to be together as a family. We give thanks to the Lord for allowing us this time to rest and reconnect.

In November we were also invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with a large group of Americans from our church, Camino de Vida at the pastor's house (also an American). I'm not sure if Ryan and I will ever get used to celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in warm climate (this will be our 5^). We celebrated Thanksgiving with a beautifully warm day right on the beach. The kids keep asking when we can get out the blow up pool….soon.