Grand News from Gracie Lynn

From a young age, my two older children always asked questions about God and how He worked. You know the kind of questions that you want as a parent, so that you can seize the opportunity to teach them about letting Him be the Lord of their lives. Not Gracie Lynn. This free spirited, carefree child of mine never came to me with these types of things. Honestly, I assumed she did not think much about the matter. She is just that kind of kid. Nothing to deep but sweet and happy all the time. :) So, I had been having an ongoing conversation with God about how much I really wanted Him to be talking to her sweet little heart and drawing her to Himself. I had also mentioned to Him several times that I really saw no evidence that this was taking place. :) Will I ever learn? Tuesday night she called us into her room and told us that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart. Out of the blue, no questions for mom and dad. Just a decision. We asked her several questions to establish her understanding of the matter and then we listened to our sweet daughter pray and ask Jesus to live in her heart. It was a precious time as the whole family celebrated with her.
Then I took a few moments to think about how amazing God is. He was working all the time. Just like I asked Him to. Just like He said He would. I did not see evidence therefore, I decided He was not doing His job. Life lesson #billion and something..... God is working. Even when I can not see it with my human eyes. He is working.

Gracie Lynn made an art piece this week to show how her heart used to look before she asked Jesus to live in it and what her heart looks like now. :)

Living Large at 40!!

Today, my wonderful hubby is 40 years old! Time flies when you are having fun! Happy Birthday babe. I would not trade life with you for anything in the world! Thanks for being the best husband and daddy that we could ever ask for.
We love you!
One of our friends from school made this fun shirt so that Tim could celebrate his big day in style :) Thanks Michael!

Don't forget to wear your green!

My little leprechauns had a welcome reprieve from school uniforms today and got to wear their GREEN!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Beautiful Faces

A few weeks ago, the opportunity to begin a Bible Study with young pregnant girls and new moms literally fell into my lap. I must say that I am very unprepared and inadequate at this point to attempt this, but I know that it is where God is leading. Our first meeting was this afternoon. We had 9 girls attend! 2 of them brought their young children. I am so excited about what God is doing in this place! I was able to share my testimony in Spanish (of course I had good notes) and visit with the girls. The girls were all so patient with our poor Spanish. They really seemed to enjoy visiting and talking with us. I am more motivated than ever before to learn Spanish quickly! The other leaders are Janna, Dodie, and Teresa. Please pray for us on Tuesdays as we work with these young girls. Here are the beautiful faces of the girls.

Tim's Trashy Ministry

For the most part, Costa Rica is a beautiful country. However, there seems to be an issue with trash. People just throw their wrappers, cups, you name it on the ground. It is actually kind of nuts! One of the first weeks that we were here, Tim decided that he was going to clean up our street. He got the kids to join in (actually I don't think he gave them a choice) and they began cleaning the trash off the street one afternoon each week. They spend 20 minutes or so and collect tons of trash each time! Well, last week I looked out and there is my family along with several of our local neighbors who have come out to help them! I guess they decided if you can't beat 'em, join them. So, now it has become a tradition on our street. The weekly neighborhood trash pick up, led by Mr. Tim, the trash man.