Hello everyone,
We hope this finds you all having a great year so far. We got back from holiday vacations January 10th and have been running non-stop ever since.
In December, the kids and I went to Alaska for a month to visit with my family. My parents and all their kids and grandkids were home for the holidays and it was a very special time. Oliver and Reagan really enjoyed it and still talk regularly about their time at GiGi’s house and how they want to go back. Adeline loved her uncles and the her new girl cousins, one of whom was born while we were there! Oliver celebrated his 4th birthday in Alaska and his Uncle James and GiGi took him to see his first movie at the theatre, and then for ice cream, he had so much fun. Walter went to Canada for the week of Christmas and stayed with some family/friends/long time supporters of his. It was a much-needed break for us all, but we definitely look forward to the day we can travel to the USA together and not have to split up.
December 2017 marked the end of Walter’s 10 year ban for entering the USA. We are currently in contact with an immigration lawyer in California and working on determining the best way to get his paperwork taken care of. We have faith that this Christmas season we will be visiting with friends and family in the USA.
This year Walter has been busy with back to back builds, family selection, family interviews, site visits, and follow-up. In February I oversaw our regular Homes of Hope Family Selection Day and received 214 families with interest in receiving a YWAM home, of those 114 went directly to the qualification process which is the first step to receiving a home. We will be doing this again April 19th.
After more than 6 months of leading our family selection team, this week I have transitioned back into the role as Team Contact for our HOH teams. I will be doing this over the next 6 months or until we can find a more permanent replacement. It involves a lot of time-consuming emails and communications, schedule making, etc…but we will figure out how to make it work.
Oliver has continued in the preschool on base and Reagan has joined him this month. They go 3 or 4 mornings every week and really enjoy it. Adeline just celebrated her first birthday, which is hard to believe. During work hours she hangs with me in the office, taking many needed breaks to go walk or play outside to keep her distracted.
We will be moving house again over this next week! You may say, what, again?!?!? How many times is this?!?! And yes, we are, for the 4th time in 2 1/2 years. But this house is on the same street as the base, behind the new hotel by the OXXO. So this move will be worth it! With us working so much, it will be nice to be within walking distance of the base, and to even be able to work from home during this time of the base being remodeled. The house is bigger, the yard is bigger, and the little extra money we will spend on rent won’t even equal what we were spending on gas every month to drive from our other houses to the base. We are so thankful that God opened the door and that everything is falling into place. We will have a guest room setup for anyone who wants to visit 😉
Prayer Points for this season: For the work that both of us do and how to balance that and family life which can be very hard, and that God would make it clear to us what we should do for Walter’s visa/green card and whether we should take time away to pursue his citizenship and if so, when.
Below are some pictures from our vacation and other stuff going on over the last 4 months.