Let there be Spring!

I'm sure many of you experienced the longing for those first moments of spring...the type that lifts your spirits after a particularly long, hard winter. When the warm sunshine dances on your skin through the window, those first blades of green leaves poke through the dark, muddy soil and all of the Easter merchandise can be seen, lighting up the aisles in any particular store.

I remember those feelings well, living in Illinois. As a stay at home mother, the anticipation of the change from winter to spring, made me feel giddy that the end of winter WAS coming and potentially better days were ahead. Could it have been that I was ready to boot my lovely children out of the door, so that I could have a moment of peace before the supper hour came and all the chatter and chaos began around the table? Yes, yes it could have been. Being cooped up inside for 4+ months is so hard on kids and their mother!

So how does that anticipation change down here? This was our first winter in Mexico and it was quite different than our winter in Costa Rica. For example, the weather here dipped down into the 60s fairly regularly and we even saw a few days to a week of 45-50s! Our bodies seemed to have changed considerably as Andy commented the other night, "Well you know that we are becoming Mexicans when we grab our jackets when its 'only' 70 out."

(I started this blog post on Monday, so this is old news...) Today is very windy and cold. The temperature reads 70 but the wind makes it feel like 60. I was washing dishes earlier today and looked out the window to see a tumbleweed spinning across the front yard. It felt very "desertish" to see that! Anyway, I'm anticipating a calm day where I can sit on the front porch and read one of the many books I'm still behind on from missionary training.

Spring also means a time of new birth and our kids are getting to experience it up close and personal! The last week of January brought 16 little piglets to the pigpen just west of our house. Clayton and Malaya have been helping feed the sows and boars and were excited when Denver told them to keep an eye out for babies from a momma pig. One Sunday after church, Malaya came flying back into the house and announced that the piglets were being born!

Of the 16, only 5 survived. It was a sad lesson in real life on the farm, but these remaining ones have grown up on constant love and affection from mostly Malaya and Aria! You can bet all of them have names.

Here's Indi on watch dog duty.

At the begging of February, Duane and Ann Wulf packed up their belongings from Casa Lobo and officially moved into their new house in Tucson, AZ. Their Great Dane, Tony, is pictured above, who makes our dog look like a chihuahua. :) We miss seeing all the Wulf's around!

New life has also been growing on the ranch! It's so precious to see the little calves try to stand up.

Andy had the opportunity to visit the "Big Ranch" with a ranch hand and a vet just recently. They were checking to see how many of the herd was pregnant and got a great percentage positive!

Our family was planning to hike at this ranch last weekend, but unfortunately it was deemed unsafe, due to some cartel violence in the area.

February was an exciting month for us as my sister Elise was able to travel to see us for a few days. It was also a huge surprise to us as she announced her engagement to Jake Roth! She was telling me the story as I was driving around Tucson, and I was clearly distracted, making wrong turn after wrong turn! Andy always reminds me that I can't multitask and this was no exception! While she was here, we got busy exploring different places like Carnisimo, Cafe Sed, Leo's and a new carne asada place in Santa Ana.

Pau went with us! We love having her along! Here we are at a carne asada place in Santa Ana. It was soooooo good! My kids call those tortillas, "church lunch tortillas". They're so big we could feed church lunch with them!

It's not too often that we get a picture of just the two of us. Sierra took this after church one day! I think it describes us pretty well, huh?

Sierra has grown up so much this past year. She loves spending time with her dog, with her friends, baking in the kitchen, doing math facts, playing piano and playing board games with her dad. She's full of life!

Malaya is our animal lover! In the time that she's lived here, she's acquired a cat, a dog, a grasshopper collection, a lizard and adopted piglets. She's also started horse lessons again and loves being in the saddle. School no longer seems to be as frustrating as it was, however she says she wants school to stay how it is. (School is done virtually, but in a classroom at CVV on campus, with a tutor.)

Clayton has been enjoying the responsibility of feeding the pigs and looks forward to payday! Usually he has his money spent before it reaches his pocket :( He enjoys being with Denver and one of the other boys on campus, even cleaning out pig pens sometimes! It's amazing what your kids will do when you aren't the one telling them what to do! Another great mentor in his life is Jason, who oversees the garbage pickup on Tuesday afternoons. After their work is finished, he spends time with them doing fun things like softball, shop work or fixing bikes.

Aria spends her time toting around "Chancha" the cat, spanking Indi when she does something naughty and going to preschool M-F. She speaks random Spanish gibberish and sounds pretty cute doing it. She even taught her parents a Spanish word once, "Ahorita.....that means later." Lol. So funny to hear her talk and take everything in with those great big brown eyes!

Most recently, one of the Carnisimo employees got married and the reception was in the backyard patio of Carnisimo. It was a very nice evening, however I felt like I was going to puke because of a migraine, so we bugged out early. I hated to miss that occasion, such a special time for Franky and Jaqueline!

(Not sure why the picture is blurry)

There are many more pictures and memories I could share, but I'm going to wrap it up here. We leave for Florida Lord Willing on Tuesday. We are looking forward to some rest and rejuvenation with family! I will try to post earlier next time!

Prayer Requests:

1. Cartel Violence has ramped up again in our area. Pray for peace and safety for the people of Magdalena and neighboring cities that it touches.

2. Pray for God to raise up a Business Missionary to join PCLM and the work down here in Magdalena. It is the Board's desire that someone would be called and equipped in language and training so that in another year or two, the position could be filled! Job description can be found here.

3. Pray that we could be continually refined in our walk with Jesus, that we would get out of the way and let Him work through us to help others.

4. And we would definitely appreciate prayers for our upcoming trip, for safe and smooth travels and that we could all remain healthy, especially around Andy's dad Glenn.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed weekend in the Lord!