This week we have been spending some time with a very special Miskito family.

A family that I have longed to meet and dreaded to meet at the same time.

Any guesses...

Grace's birth mom, Miskito grandmother (who I have known briefly), Miskito Grandpa, and cousin

I'm exhausted but it has been GOOD.

I now have a little book of things I can tell Grace when she gets older. Little by little I learned about their family. I learned things about those first months before I knew Grace, I learned things from before she was born, I learned a few things about her birth mom, and most of all I just enjoyed spending time with them.

In other news I am supposed to be on my last leg of my residency process

 and now on to the beginning of Grace's VISA process!!




Love my two little lovies!

Happy Valentines Day! ( a day late)

From Grace's fingers to Daniel's toes...

                                 

and this much more...

WE LOVE YOU!

Here are some pictures of my little loves:



Grace's card. (three languages of course for my trilingual girl)

Grace loves her baby.



for breakfast Grace and I made pink heart pancakes.






For dinner we had a special dinner that only princess and princes could attend.
So we had to get dressed up.


The prince.

Grace getting dressed up.






but then I told her she was A REAL PRINCESS.

Grace's baby

Daniel is a precious 2 month old little boy that we have been blessed to be able to love on for a little while. 

Daniel's mom is having surgery and does not have family here to help take care of the baby so we have taken in baby Daniel for the next month.

 Grace has taken on the mama role calling him her baby. She loves to give him bottles,

 burp him, give him tons and tons of kisses, read to him, give him toys to play with,

and even share her food (that he can't eat yet).  

I am so thankful it has gone this route and not the jealous route.

We have both fallen in love with this teensy tiny chubby cheeked little boy.

My Plans or His Plans?

Before I moved to La Moskitia I met with some different people who advised me to make a 5 year plan of where I saw the ministry going.

My 5 year plan looked something like this:

 (actually I don't even know where that paper is anymore but I think it looked like this with a few more details)

Year 1 move, love on Grace, get adjusted.

Year 2 start looking for land and  build a house.

Year 3 move in the house

and then Years 4 and 5 I don't remember at all

Well whats new...

 The Lord kind of has His own plans. I just get to be along for the ride and really don't get that much say in how things go.

Here is what the Lord has planned for YEAR ONE.

move

love on Grace

adjust- kind of.

 (some things here are totally normal to me now but in many ways I am still very much a gringa)

buy land and start to build a house.

Catch that last one.. BUY LAND! IT IS OFFICIALLY A DONE DEAL.

 

the first time we saw the "possible" land in November 2011.

So there goes my 5 years in less than a year.

 I am ready for what the Lord has planned for year 2.

It is amazing how he has provided for things I did not plan for when I moved. I did not raise support ahead of time to start a feeding program. I did not find sponsors ahead of time to send kids to school.I did not raise support ahead of time to buy land. I did not raise support ahead of time to build a house. 
The Lord has provided what He has seen fit to provide for.

That little white post on the right is one corner.

I'm just a little excited to sit on my porch with that view!

Grace enjoying the room to run

and throw rocks

Isaiah 45:3

"I will give you... riches stored in secret places

so that you may know that I am the LORD the God of Israel, who summons you by name."

Grace and her buddy Aaron digging for treasure.

Hair revisited

I've only been doing this hair thing for a year and a half now and I still have questions! 

(G's hair just started growing in the past 8 months so maybe I can get a little slack there)

Here is some advice from a friend on the topics of washing,combing, products,and must haves of African hair.

Washing:
I co wash every other day (wash with conditioner only) and wash with a moisture shampoo once a week. To keep the curls after you wash apply the leave in conditioner and let it air dry. Don't touch or comb because it will frizz.

Combing:
ONLY comb with a wide tooth comb when hair is soaking wet if not it will break.

Products:
I love Cantu leave in conditioner it's a Shea Butter cream. Always moisturize her hair. I, love natural products like kinky curl, Cantu, Curls and Giovanni. Once a week I do a hot oil treatment/deep condition. I use the spray bottle on days that I don't wash it with conditioner because if you already have products in the hair from the daybefore and if you spray it with water the water will reactivate the products that are all ready in the hair . Also I if you can find some coconut oil and melt it to make it a liquid you can put that on her hair to, mainly on the ends but all over won't hurt.
Must have:
The best thing you can keep is a spray bottle, leave in conditioner, wide tooth comb and moisturizer

Anyone else have anything to add? 
 We are all going to do everything a little different but I am open to hearing how everyone does it so I have different ideas to try!

Pictures are way more fun so here are some of  how Grace has grown (and her hair) over the past year and a half:

6 months

8 months

11 months

1 year old

16 months

18 months

20 months

22 months

23 months

2 years old

Today I took the 3 boys to do something most kids LOVE to do every year.

BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING...

This year thanks to the sponsorship program 15 kids will be attending school!

Talk about exciting!

In order for the kids to go to PUBLIC school here they must have the uniform and the shoes. Without these they are not allowed to enter the school. This cuts out a large number of children from being able to attend school each year.

Today, I was able to see the Lord work a dream come true in these brothers lives.

Praising the Lord that I was able to be a part of these boy's first back to school shopping experience!

 Praising the Lord they  will be attending school this year!

 Praising the Lord as we talked about dreams they they have the chance to achieve those dreams with an education.

Praising the Lord they have a hope in Jesus Christ!

It is a good gift to give these boys uniforms.

It is a good gift to give these boys shoes.

It is a good gift to give these boys school supplies.

It is a good gift for these boys to receive an education.

BUT...

Romans 6:23

 ( I had an awesome video of the boys saying this verse but the Internet will not load it)

The price of sin is death while...

THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL FOR EVERYONE:

THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR. AMEN!

Shopping with 10 more tomorrow!