Merry Christmas from MAG, Sonora

********It has not been my intent to go this long without updating you all...situations have prevented me from getting it done. Our laptop needs a new battery and charger. I bought the charger and was back in business and then lost the charger. For two weeks I looked...all over the house. Pesos were offered as a reward in the return of the lost charger. No luck. Finally, I realized maybe I had already "moved" it to the new house. I had been taking small loads over to an empty room and decided to check there. Well...low and behold. It was THERE! So we're back in business! ******

So my last update was July 31st. It's now 10 days until Christmas. My hope is to give a snapshot of each month we've journeyed through, more so for the sake of looking back at this blog in years to come and to remember those first early months.

AUGUST

We started the month out with a 5K Color Run around the CVE campus. Expo (4H) was also this week. Clayton was the only one in our family that participated. He did really good considering he had no training and the heat is so intense! I think we did it at like 5 or 6pm.

The girls and I helped throw the colors on the runners and Andy drove the gator behind the runners with drinks.

Clayton's shelf for Expo. Thanks to Zach Plattner for his help with this!

Sierras yummy donuts for Expo.

This was one of our favorite projects that one of the girls at CVE built. It was like a human sized bird cage swing. So fun!! There were so many cool projects this year!

Aria is always finding friends to talk with, Zach P. here.

And TJ Sutton here. Both of these guys were summer volunteers. They were great helpers and examples to all of our kids.

We didn't buy a pool this summer so this tub had to step in.

School began the end of August. Our kids attend the school on CVE property, called Colegio Verdad y Vida. (School of Truth and Life)

I never did take pictures of the inside of our little Casa Saguaro. But this is our back porch.

My first trip to Cafe Sed. I had to take this picture and send to my good friend Audrey. She loves maracuya (passion fruit) so I drank it in honor of her :)

If the kids have a day off of school, the guys in the shop are good about lining up projects for the kids to work on. I believe they were building birdhouses and benches for a little sitting area behind the school. Adam Kaeb and TJ are pictured here.

SEPTEMBER

Mexico's Independence Day is September 16. Because of Covid celebrations were not as large, however they did shoot fireworks off the night before. We had a little parade on campus.

Andy and a CVE boy came in the "trailer car" with the music. It was fun to watch!

Aria wanted to go visit Daddy at work one day for lunch.

OCTOBER

It's tradition at CVE to get a group picture on the hayrack every fall. It's hard to believe that 3 years ago, during our first visit here, I was the photographer behind the scenes and now we finally are in the picture.

Andy and I are fortunate to get out for a dinner once every two weeks. This was my first bite of steak in Mexico. Very good!

We get to the States 1-2x a month. It take 1-1.25 hours to get to the border. We can do most of what we need to do in Nogales, AZ. However, we have made it up to Tucson, which is another hour away.

Another day, another visit to Daddy. He was planting in a nearby field. Love getting to see these mountains on the regular!

When Daddy brings home a chunk of meat...

We go up to the CVE office to get our mail that others have brought down from the States and our Amazon packages. Here we are bothering Scott, the accountant.

Picture credit: Carissa Schlipf. Our Christmas Card picture 2020.

Kids T-Ball Game. It's so funny to watch the littles run the bases. So sweet!

Daddy and Clayton going to grind some feed.

NOVEMBER

We have a church in Tucson AZ and were able to visit there one weekend. It was good to be in the House of the Lord again! It's been so long! Andy had PCLM and Fatted Calf Board Meetings in Tucson, so we tagged along and made a weekend out of it. The kids were so excited to come to the States! Tori Wulf is pictured here with the girls.

Aria loves her shrimp tacos!

Andy works full time for PCLM now. Every Tuesday, you'll find him at Carnisimo Burgers, the burger restaurant. HarvestCall owns this now so essentially we are employed by HarvestCall. The other days of the week he spends time in the office doing books, checking in with the Ranch hands and keeping the Board updated. Also, brainstorming ways to keep the business as missions idea alive and thriving. Just recently, Carnisimo Burgers started selling meat products out of a freezer in the restaurant and serving breakfast burgers!

Here's a random shot of the restaurant. The quality is terrible but I was taking fast shots to be able to brainstorm some decor ideas. I'll have to do a post on just Burgers.

We celebrated Thanksgiving outside, due to COVID on the Friday after. Duane and Andy smoked a bunch of turkeys and we all brought sides to share. There were yard games, a bonfire and a pumpkin carving contest. It was such a fun thing to look forward to! It gets pretty chilly once the sun goes down!

DECEMBER

Probably the biggest news of December was the arrival of our puppy, Indi. She flew to Tucson with Codee McClure and Rose Knobloch and we met them there to pick her up. She is such a fun, energetic little puppy. She's already made me be more active as the need to walk her gets me out of the house! Typically I walk M-F at 7am with Pau and sometimes we have up to 5 dogs walking with us! Dogs are so good for kids, especially those who miss their friends back home. The love the dog gives is such an instant bucket filler! So far she hasn't been too mischievous but we realize that may come and is the price you pay in exchange for your kids to have another playmate.

Our Christmas Party was a Friday night in December. Here are all of the PCLM employees.

(L to R: Cesar, Martin, Karolina, Claudia, Nere, Andy, Jonathan, Frankie, Limon, Ramon, Hector and Fernando).

This cake was so pretty! A local lady made it. Cesar is retiring this week and Limon (Joel) and Kristi moved to Colorado this past Monday.

Thought this picture was so cute! Sierra Leman and Clayton

Duane is the game connoisseur. He made up a trivia game for the employees to play.

We also said goodbye to the Leman family. They've been here at CVE serving for 13? years and they moved to Colorado. I wish I would've gotten a family picture of them before they left:(

Limon was training Andy from August to now about the Operations of the PCLM organization. He assured us that he's just a phone call away and we appreciate his willingness to still be a guiding figure. They have 3 girls and our kids got along great! His wife Kristi was sweet to get to know. God's Best, Lemans!

This post is getting super long and I need to start packing. We plan to move this week or next into a larger home here on campus. There will be a guest room so please pray COVID goes away so we can have visitors!! Adam is planning to come this Friday and has had a positive antibody test so that's why he's able to come. He will spend Christmas with us and we are thankful!

I want to ask for prayers for my in-laws as my father in law is waiting on a lung transplant. Pray for the donor, the timing and keeping everyone healthy so he can remain on the list. Pray for the salvation of the donor, that they would be ready to meet Jesus. Amen!!