A sneak peek

Is this the coolest thing you ever did see?

Kid's Clausura

This year didn't disappoint with our kids' closing program. I have to admit, kids programs aren't usually that great but our school does a bang up job on providing a pretty cool artistic program.

This year's theme was the Road of Life and instead of trying to label on the actual video, I thought I would just list off the names of the scenes here:

1) The Divine before the beginning of time
2) Atoms
3) Stars
4) Our sun
5) The planets: look at our lil' mercury!
6) First life form
7) Sea life
8) Dinosaurs: ours is the tall long neck with yellow on his shirt
9) The comet hits!
10) First humans
11) The Divine is still present

A Pretty Momentous Event

Growing up, I never knew about my biological dad. I had lived with my biological mom until my pre-teens, but she gave no name, only an originating country and very little details. I was put into foster care and inherited the most wonderful family (in case some of you were wondering about my family that came in July, hey, they are kind of white compared to Kathy!).

I still have some occasional contact with my biological mother, but not much. There was a pang of sadness in my life right after giving birth to my first born, a sadness that I couldn't tell him where he got his curly hair from or his cartilage-free nose. See, my biological mother is white and so all my relatives, blood or not, are white. There is a part of me as a black woman that longed to know my black roots.

But a few years ago, I sort of came to terms with the fact that I would never know my biological father. And I had peace about it because I had received an amazing father and mother already. Sometimes there are things that we don't know this side of heaven.

Well, a few months ago, we had a visit from my biological mother and Carl asked her again, for what seems like the millionth time in our marriage, about my biological father. I had gotten weary about getting the same tight lipped response. But it was like the Holy Spirit kicked her in the back, and she said his name.

!

To make a long story short, we googled the name, found an email address, emailed it and commenced contact with my biological father. It was utterly amazing to find out that he is living in the same city where we are from in Canada and has been for the 10 years that we lived there. So close and so far away....

So him and his wife decided to come and see us here in Bolivia. They wanted to meet us all and didn't want to wait. They came bearing gifts for us, which was very overwhelming, and spent almost 2 weeks with us.

Sort of interesting getting to know someone who is connected to your past and looks like you, but is unknown to you. I must say that it was quite the experience, and I needed time afterwards just to rest. I'm still in the process of processing this all, and maybe I'll post about that in the future.

So herein lies the opening of another chapter in our lives that we thought would never be explored. Yeah, a pretty momentous event I'd say. Thank you God for continually amazing us with unexpected blessings.

Asha Totally Called It

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Since the coffee colour ultrasound was inconclusive, off we went for a 3D one a few days ago. The older two kids were able to come and were really amazed. Kezia was most impressed with seeing the spinal cord.

Even though baby wasn't cooperative to show the face (hence, no cool 3D face images...yet, the Dr. said I could come back for FREE) they were totally cooperative with flashing their behind.

Yes, Asha called it, despite what everyone else insisted.

There's definitely a girl in there.

Summer Vacation is Official

Here is a slideshow of pictures from Joel and Kezia's last days at school. They love posing with their teachers, and then giving the picture to their teacher as a memory of them. One of Joel's teachers got teary eyed she was so touched.

And then of course, all the shots with their best friends. The kids both had an awesome year. We are so blessed with the quality of education here and the learning environment that our kids get to be in. I get goosebumps thinking how much my kids love school.

Stay tuned, I will post a video and more pictures of their closing program....planets, make-up, dinosaurs and flashlights. Any guesses to the theme?

MCC Retreat

Here are some shots of our annual MCC retreat that we enjoyed at the end of October. We went 2 hours north to Buena Vista where the theme was Walking with Jesus in the midst of Diversity. Our speaker was Thomas from Maryknoll in Cochabamba, and he did an excellent job of leading us through discussion and personal reflection. I quite enjoyed all the food, the interaction with my co-workers, all the goofy fun, but most of all the meaningful insights that I came away with.

Birthday Man

Carl celebrated another birthday this past Sunday. Can hardly believe the man is 38?! We've known each other for 15 years and it seems like the time has flown by in a blink of an eye. He's like a good wine, gets better with age.



He is an amazing father and even though three kids (soon to be four!) require A LOT of attention, multi-tasking and energy, it never ceases to amaze me how patient and involved Carl is. I'm thankful for his hands-on parenting style. Not every father is like that. I must add that this year, Carl has mastered the daunting task of doing his daughters' hair. He can put in a perfect bun and manage to style Asha's hair with those tinsy little elastics. Seriously, there should be an award for that.




Carl is a gifted and talented man. He's always reading something, always trying to challenge himself intellectually. His passion is theology and how it is demonstrated in people's personal lives. He is constantly asking hard questions and is never satisfied with a ho-hum faith. He's handy and can fix almost anything, he can iron, and makes the most delicious food and divine desserts. And one great quality of his that I admire is that he has the gift of discernment.

I'm so fortunate that I'm married to him. I'm glad that I didn't continue giving him the cold shoulder after our first traumatizing encounter. Gosh, what would have happened if I hadn't said yes to that movie?

I would have missed out on an amazing man. I love you so much Carl and wish that this coming year will be a year where you will be challenged and blessed.