Some Pictures from our trip...

We had a nice Christmas. It wasn't the same, but it was nice. We decided to treat the boys to a special night of Mcee D's for Christmas Eve! They loved it! We had no where else to go, so that was their special night. Christmas Day we had some friends get together and did a nice Christmas dinner that consisted of WAY to much food. We had a good time though. It was actually kind of relaxing not having to do the run around from place to place that we are normally used to. I wasn't able to cook/bake ALL the holiday goodies that I am used to, but we managed to make a few. I decorated the house as much as I could. Thanks mom for all the little decoations you sent. We used everything and it gave it all the more "Christmassy feeling."

The day after Christmas we embarked on our first outing as a family out of the country, to mainland Spain. Our three month tourist visa was up, so we had to leave. (We are currently just a couple of weeks away from getting residency though, and that will make things much easier for us.) We had a really great time. We were blessed to be able to stay in an apartment that a friend of ours owns. We traveled up to Malaga, got to go to an aquarium, eat lots of "american" type foods, see a huge mega mall, and lots of other little things. The highlight of our trip though was going to Gibraltar. We visited there and spent New Years Eve there. It was a blast. We had monkeys climb on our backs! It was aweseome, the boys loved it and we got to see fireworks, like the fourth of July fly overhead. We even had a huge ball of fire fall out of the sky and land literally about 10 feet from us! That was a bit scary, but we were ok, no one was hurt thankfully!

Now, we are just trying to get back into some routine. With the New Year comes new goals, new dreams, new challenges, but we feel that we are ready to face them! It will be a great year! I turn 30! Wooohooo! and It's our 10 year anniversary! So, we are hoping and praying that 2009 will be an awesome year for our family.

Programa Navidad

Ahh, we are now officially on Christmas break! I am so looking forward to being able to sleep in a little bit more and not hit every morning with a rush. Yesterday they had a little performance at the school with each of the boys' classes. It was a mixture of cuteness and chaos! Julian was enjoying it at first, but then got stage fright or something and got a little scared looking. When Evan's class walked up on stage a teacher grabbed Evan's arm to place him in the right spot and that made him mad, so he stood up there upset during the whole song! DJ did great! He knew the song and the motions and was able to participate, but he was standing in the back and we could hardly see him. Each grade sang a song and then went and sat down. It was ok, but by the end the kids were getting bored and wanted to go home since Mama and Papa were there, but they had to wait with their class.

We are looking forward to some down time. It gets pretty hard on me going back and forth to the school 3 times a day (Dom takes them in the morning, otherwise it would be 4). The boys are really excited too. We got some Christmas decorations up and a couple of presents under the tree so it is beginning to feel a little like Christmas here. We sure miss everyone and it is especially hard this time of year! But, we are creating new memories and learning how to keep traditions alive on the other side of the world!

Missing a piece of home...

This morning I woke up to the rush of the day. Getting kids dressed, fed, ironing hubbies clothes, all in about a half hour time span. I was grumpy, kids were grumpy and now I sit here emotional in a quiet empty house listening to the rain outside after looking through all the updated pictures on Facebook. I should be spending time with the Lord and I will after posting but just wanted to say how very much I am missing family and friends. I think being away for so long you really realize that life continues on even if you are not there. Like in some magical way only my kids are growing and everyone else is staying the same...(NOT) Seeing photos of kids growing, families celebrating holidays together, puts me back in reality. We are here, they(you) are there. Seeing my nephews and nieces growing without us there leaves quite an ache in my heart at times. I shouldn't have looked at the pictures this morning, but I did. With how the day started, well it has just made me even more teary eyed. It is amazing the wave of emotions that you experience when you live overseas. It is something I am still learning how to adjust to and some days are much better than others. Today is one of those days and I suppose I will get through it, but it is so very hard. I am missing PEOPLE, not things...just family and friends! Missing creating memories with my nephews, being able to talk daily to my sister, hearing my kiddos run into the arms of their grandma, driving to a friends house...seeing people who are familiar.

The bottom line is that life is a journey with many crossroads and paths and today even though it is difficult I choose to cross the path of thankfulness and not fear. I choose to walk down the path that says I am thankful that I have so many wonderful people in my life TOO miss, thankful that HE has given me wonderful friends, and thankful that He has called us here, thankful that we have a job, thankful for the Internet which makes it easy to connect with people. It could be much worse, and I am grateful.

He answers even the smallest prayers!

So, one of my frequent prayer requests while driving around is, "Lord, PLEASE help me find a parking spot." You see traffic here, is kind of like the traffic you would experience in down town Portland, but without much order, people everyone, crossing anywhere they would like, not just the cross walks, and lots and lots of honking. In most areas there is kind of like a security guard guy that helps direct the traffic, help cars to fit through really tight places, and may even watch your car for a couple of dirhams. So, today, after driving 3 times in a big circle to try to find a parking place in front of the boys' school I realized I hadn't prayed my prayer and so I did! Low and behold, the guy that helps with the traffic told me to go around one more time and he would help me. There was NO where to park. So, I said ok and tried again. Well, he saw a car leave, held the spot for me and guided me so I could park the car. It did entail driving in reverse for about a block...but I did it without hitting anyone and I got a great parking spot! HA-HA-HA!!! It normally isn't a huge deal because I would just park in front of the school where you really aren't supposed to, put the hazards on, and go and get the boys, but today I had a meeting with DJ's teacher and would be there longer! Oh, He is just so good!!! It really helped me with the stress of it all!

Sardines Anyone???

The longer we are here, the more we get to learn and experience life here. A lot of the learning process includes friends taking us around so we can learn where to go and what to do and basically just how to get around. Well, today we got to go to the port and eat with our friends. The sardines that the fishermen just caugth are brought in and grilled for the customers. We picked out which place seemed to have the freshest catch in and waited for them to be cooked and ate lunch right there at the port! It was fun and a great experience for the boys. Evan seemed to enjoying the "picking" at the fish rather than eating it! He was thrilled with picking out the eyes! Yuck! Our hands stink, but the experience was great!

So, I am trying to start posting again...

We are doing well. It has been a little over 8 months since we have been here in Morocco. We have two blog pages started, but I like blog spot a little better for some reason and I have finally figured out how to sign in and get the language setting back to English and not French!!! I have to admit, I have gotten quite caught up in Facebook and do a much better job at updating in there, but to those of you who don't have a Facebook account I suppose I should write in here more!

Everyday seems to come with a new set of emotions. Some days are GREAT and some days are really DIFFICULT! But overall, we are really enjoying life here and the journey that we are on. We are growing in ways we never dreamed and being stretched beyond belief at times, but we are thankful because it is all a part of the process that God has us on. He is shaping and molding us and hopefully in the process, we are becoming better people because of it.

The boys are doing good. They got their first hair cuts today by a Moroccan. I usually do it, but I take way to long and just didn't feel like doing it. So for about $1.50 each, all the boys got their hair cut and they all look so handsome. Evan wants to grow his hair out to look like Anakin Skywalker....hmmm...I am trying to convince him otherwise ;) we will see how I do!
Julian has been climbing into our bed every night and it makes for a pretty rough sleep. A couple of nights ago he fell off of our bed. I was trying to let Dom at least get a nice sleep so I put myself in the middle, and somehow he rolled off and landed straight on his nose. Not fun at 4:00am!
DJ is growing so tall. He is doing well, but definitely has his rough days of missing his friends and family from "home."

So, for now, that is my little update as I try to figure this out again! I will try to add to it more!