Today we celebrated our Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the grave! We've been looking forward to this weekend and sharing this Easter holiday with Katelyn & Natalie. We started off the weekend getting eggs dyed and decorated for the girls. Katelyn loves being in the kitchen with and helping whenever we are baking or making cookies. This Saturday afternoon was no different. We thought it was time to show her how to color Easter eggs. So she put on an apron, climbed the chair and watched as took each egg and dipped them into different cups of colored dye. She did a pretty good job despite dropping one egg in the cup and cracking it. Not bad for a three year old. Eventually Sunday morning came and the house was bustling with activity as we prepared for Sunday morning church service and had our traditional midwestern Easter breakfast of toast with egg gravy. Mmmm! The girls wore their beautiful matching Easter dresses for service today. They looked so adorable, I had to get a picture of the two of them together outside. Somehow we managed to get the both to look at the camera at the same time for a perfect shot. Afterwards we headed straight off to church. Service was really good as we remembered what Jesus did for us on the cross. It was awesome seeing many people come to the alter to be born-again. After service we headed home and got ready for our Easter lunch. We put the spiral ham, cheesy potatoes and other sides all in the oven to start cooking. While we waited, we took a few minutes to go and hide some Easter eggs for the girls to find. Once we hid them all we gave them their baskets and let them start searching. It was funny watching Natalie as she doesn't quite understand the concept of hunting for eggs yet. Katelyn on the other hand was busy filling up her bag. We hid several eggs in plain view to make things easy and then put a few in some not-so-visible places. Well we found out real quick Katelyn didn't like that. She would just stand there with her hands up saying, "I cant' find them, they're all gone." So we gave her BIG hints until she got every last one. We'll have to make it easier on her next year I suppose. For the most part this weekend was a great time together as a family. Nothing like celebrating Jesus' resurrection, eating Peeps, Cadbury eggs and chocolate Easter bunnies. Oh yeah and egg gravy too! Mmmm.

All the schools here have closed for Spring Break so this is was the perfect time for us to get this surgery taken care of with Katelyn. By the time school starts back up in two weeks the doctor said Katelyn's incisions will be completely mended and she'll be 100% ready for school again. With Easter coming this weekend we want to wish you and your family a very special time as we all look back and remember the price Jesus paid for us and our healing. Have a Good Friday!

I wanted to give an update on the need we posted earlier about our daughter Katelyn. We were in need of $3000 U.S.D. to pay for a surgery that would correct an umbilical hernia she has had since birth. But as of today we are rejoicing because all of the finances have come in for us to proceed and have the surgery! It is hard for me to really express how amazed I was at how God used so many of our friends and family to meet this need. And I am still in awe at how fast this all took place. We want to thank again everyone for all of their prayers and their financial gifts. Grateful is the only word I can think of to describe how I feel. We have an appointment later this week with her doctor where we will then schedule the surgery and be able to give you more information at that time. Again I want to express how grateful and moved we are by the response we have received. All of our love and prayers!

I wanted to give an update regarding Katelyn. As you may know we told you about three years ago she was born with an umbilical hernia. We were told it would close on its own within the first two years. However over the past year or so we have noticed her hernia becoming more pronounced. She's also been starting to complain of discomfort and pain more than usual. As a result of this, a couple months back we took her into a specialist here in Mexico. He told us that we needed to have surgery to close up this hernia as soon as we possibly could because of the threat of her intestine getting strangulated. This is a medical need we've made aware for those who want to help us have this surgery for Katelyn. The surgery will cost $3,000 USD. to pay for doctors, anesthesia, hospital, medication, etc.  We will be having the surgery here in Mexico and do feel very comfortable with her doctor and the hospital, as it is where I gave birth to both girls.

 We have been in awe at how God is bringing in the finances for us to get this take care of much sooner than we thought. We are still lacking some of the money but are going to proceed and get everything scheduled for the end of the month. We will keep the updates coming here on this blog letting you know when the surgery has been scheduled and as the rest of the finances come in. I can't express our gratitude for each person who has prayed and or helped us financially with this need.

To me it has been one of the coldest winters here in Victoria that I have known. Which has made for a nice break from the normally hot days! However I've decided were ready for sunny warm days, gardening and not to forget, swimming. Yes, I did say gardening! I am attempting to put my hand to the literal plow this year by planting a few plants in the small yard area behind our home.  I've decided on a limited variety of vegatables that will hopefully produce a nice harvest. It has began to warm up this week and we have taken advantage of our little side yard several times. It is a small area we share with our upstairs neighbors who have three little boys the same age as the girls. With lots of outdoor toys it makes for the perfect fenced in play area with a couple orange trees for some nice shade. Another benefit is that because of the orange trees this time of year it smells delicious out there! Just another reason to be ready for the spring!

For sometime now we have had people ask us about having a place that we could talk about the adventures of raising a family on the mission field! So in this blog I am going to open up our home, heart and family to you to share with you the joys of raising a family on the mission field here in Mexico. So here we go!