Why We Celebrate Christmas

~ Posted by Roma

“This is a very old picture of us kids in Michigan back when we were really small in 2006!” J

It has come to my attention, especially this past year, that there are a number of Christians who actually do not celebrate Christmas. Some Christians celebrate parts of Christmas, but may not do all the things other Americans love doing—such as a tree, Santa, presents, etc. Some Christians really emphasize Thanksgiving (which is good—Thanksgiving is wonderful!) because they know they will not be doing any celebrating in December. Other Christians love Christmas time (like our family J) and then there are some Christians that really don’t celebrate it at all and they have reasons why they don’t. In this blog post, I would like to take a look at the origins of Christmas and then try to explain why our family still celebrates it.

Before I begin…one thing I love about this free country we live in is that you have the freedom to not celebrate Christmas if you don’t want to. In writing this blog post, I am not trying to force anyone to celebrate Christmas. I simply want to share why we do. And I will be very open with you…we love Christmas time! We love Jesus. We love celebrating His birth. We go all out with Christmas tree (s) PLURAL in our home. We have so many ornaments full of memories. We exchange gifts, eat a lot, have a tiny little nativity scene in the corner of the living room, have advent activities and readings with candles at night, listen to Christmas music—Christmas is a favorite in this family.

Some Christians believe Christmas has pagan origins. And they are right. Here is what Hank Hanegraaff says in his book, The Complete Bible Answer Book:

“December 25^th was indeed a pagan festival commemorating the birthday of a false god. While this is historical fact, what is frequently overlooked is that the church’s choice of December 25^th was intentional. Instead of Christianizing a pagan festival, the church established a rival celebration. While the world has all but forgotten the Greco-Roman gods of antiquity, they are annually reminded that two thousand years ago Christ invaded time and space.”

So what Hanegraaff is saying is that Christians in the early Church decided to establish a rival holiday instead of celebrating the pagan one. They wanted to point people to Christ at Christmas. Most people know that we don’t really know exactly when Jesus was born. He probably wasn’t even born in December at all. But think about this: What if you adopted a child from…Haiti. He or she has no birth certificate. You know around the time he might have been born but you don’t know exactly when. Do you decide to pick a day to celebrate his birthday, or do you just decide to never recognize his birth and celebrate your biological children’s birthdays only? No! You would pick a day to celebrate that child’s birth because you love that child that you’ve brought home from Haiti! How much more, then, should Jesus Christ the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Master of the universe, be celebrated! I believe He deserves to be celebrated. He didn’t have to leave earth at all to save us wretched sinners. But God decided to not even withhold His one and only Son from us.

Some Christians argue that He should be celebrated every day. I absolutely agree. But even though your parents celebrate every day that you are their child, they still set aside an even more special day to remember that you have been with them another year. Angels in heaven celebrate Jesus every minute of every day. But at Christmas time, they took the time to come down to earth, mingle with people, and sing “Glory to God in the Highest!!!” To the angels, it was a VERY special occasion. As Christians, our Lord and Savior is celebrated by us every day. But we also put aside an even more special day to remember His birth—His first coming--and to remind us to love, and remind us to give.

What about Christmas trees? I mean—aren’t those really pagan? Here is the passage from the Bible that Christians sometimes point to: Jeremiah 10:2-4. At first glance, this scripture does seem to be condemning Christmas trees. Let’s take a look at it:

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree from the woods in the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.’

Hmm. Interesting. Do we use hammers and nails in a Christmas tree? No. Do we shape our Christmas trees with chisels? Usually not. Jeremiah was not talking about Christmas trees. He was talking about wooden idols, that people in his day would fasten with hammer and nails and shape with chisels, and bow down to and worship. In fact, Hank Hanegraaff says something very interesting in his book, regarding Christmas trees:

“Christmas trees originated in Christian Germany two thousand years after Jeremiah’s condemnation of manmade idols. They evolved over time from two Christian traditions. One was a ‘paradise tree’ hung with apples as a reminder of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The other was a triangular shelf holding Christmas figurines decorated by a star.”

In our house, we love to put up Christmas trees; first, because it reminded Christians long ago--and reminds us--of the tree of life that one day we will eat from in Heaven; and second, because Jesus would later die on a tree to save us from our sins. As for our ornaments, we put those up simply because they are all so special to us in different ways. One ornament has a buck and a doe, inscribed with the year my Mom and Dad got married, and it says: “Our first Christmas together.” J Another ornament in our house has a picture of us kids with one of our adopted college student brothers, O. Other ornaments on our tree are ones that we made, ones that family and friends gave us, etc.

Then there is Santa Claus. What do we do with him? Actually, he is far from being a dangerous fairy tale. “Santa Claus” is an Anglicized form of the Dutch name “Sinter Klaas” which in turn is a reference to Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas can be celebrated as a genuine hero of the faith, just like Luther, or Calvin, or Spurgeon, or any of those other great men of God. He was an historic 4^th –century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who had a reputation for secret gift-giving. He lavished gifts on needy children, and valiantly supported the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea in AD 325.

Of course, our world has taken that story and completed secularized it and changed it up. I will be honest with you…my parents allowed us kids to believe in Santa Claus when we were really little, and we loved it. We loved the idea that he was watching us in a snow ball, seeing if we were good or naughty. ;) We loved the idea that he was the one that left the gifts, came down the chimney, ate our milk and cookies, and left us a note. (Back in the day when we didn’t know what our Dad’s handwriting looked like). But when we all reached an appropriate age, my Mom would pull us aside and talk to us about the real Saint Nicholas. To this day, even though we all know the truth, my parents still label half of the gifts “from Santa” just for the fun of it. Whether or not you allow your kids to believe in Santa for awhile is up to you, but we loved it as little kids. Just like we loved the tooth fairy. J

In the end, I believe that this is all a heart issue. I believe that if your heart is in the right place, and you do not worship the Christmas trees nor Santa nor anything else on earth, and you know the reason for the season—CHRISTmas, than I think it is okay to put up a tree and give gifts and hang lights and remember the life of Saint Nicholas, and remember what JESUS has done to save you.

For us, Christmas is about how much God loved the world, that He sent his one and only Son. Christmas is about love; about giving; because God gave the best gift ever by giving us His Son, to be born and live and grow, and one day shed his blood on the cross for our sins, so that now we have a way to be with God in heaven when we die. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and trust Him with your life, if you have not done so yet.

“Christmas 2011 at Abuela and Abuelo’s house in Ohio.”

In conclusion, we celebrate Christmas because it is first and foremost about Christ, after whom it is named. We put up a tree, because Christ would later die on a tree. We give gifts because God gave the greatest gift to us. by giving His one and only Son. We put up lights because we as Christians are the light of the world; a city on a hill. Jesus is the light of the world and He lives in us. Our red bows remind us how Christ came to this earth to shed His blood for us on the cross. We put up round wreaths because God is eternal, He has no end. He has always been there. He made us. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The evergreen is also a symbol of everlasting (eternal) life! We eat—and share--candy canes, which are shaped like shepherd staffs and remind us that shepherds were one of the first ones to hear about Jesus! These candies are red and white because the blood of Jesus Christ can wash you clean of sin and make you white as snow. We sing Christmas carols that celebrate and honor Jesus Christ. Everything points to Christ at Christmas and we can take this holiday and USE it as a great witnessing opportunity. I love Christmas! HE is the reason for the season! MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

Thanksgiving

~Posted by Josiah

This past Thanksgiving, we had family come visit us in Oklahoma. My Bia and Bio, and my Uncle and Aunt and cousins all flew in from Ohio on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and they stayed until Saturday! We had plenty of time to spend with them. So us kids and our cousins got to play all kinds of games together, build a fort in the woods, practice for a Christmas play, and my 12-year-old cousin E and I ran from my 7-year-old cousin J when he and my Dad drove the giant John Deere tractor right in our direction!

Out of the way, everybody!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a huge meal! We also did our tradition of writing some things we’re thankful for on little colored paper leaves, and then hanging them up on a big paper tree my sister Roma made.

We five siblings also sang some Thanksgiving Bible verses set to music, and then cousin E gave a speech about the theological error of eating fried chicken! (You kind of had to be there!) J

Our table set for many J

Lots to be thankful for!

Thankful tree filling up with leaves

On Friday, our friends the B’s drove up from Texas to spend the day with us. Their two boys, the two cousins, and we five kids all played one BIG game of hide-and-go-seek. The grown-ups visited, drank hot chocolate, played board games, and put together a big puzzle.

Saturday morning we ate donuts and watched some of the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. At lunchtime, we drove our relatives back to the airport to catch their flight home. It was hard to see them go, but we’re not sad because we’re going to see them again at Christmas! We can hardly wait!

Our airport goodbyes…for now!

"Business By the Book" Book Review

~Posted by Ben

As assigned reading for school, I have been reading “Business by the Book” by the late Christian economist, Larry Burkett. Since Business is one of my main career interests (politics being the other) I was really looking forward to reading this book! It was published in 1990, right on the heels of a time in business known as “the greedy eighties.” This term used in business circles describes a time of economic prosperity following Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts on the wealthy in the early 80’s. These tax cuts caused a resurgence in small business investment that sparked an unprecedented interest in entrepreneurism and “climbing the corporate ladder.” This effect was the backbone of the “Reagan recovery” from stagflation.

Such changes had both positive and negative consequences on American culture, especially the culture of American Business. Although the 80’s were a time of great economic growth, blue collar cities like Detroit and Flint experienced a grave economic downturn due to disinvestment and deindustrialization. Sadly, many businesses came to the harmful conclusion, “profits over people.”

It was at the pinnacle of this time period that Burkett wrote “Business by the Book.” In it, he presents the “radical” idea that it is entirely possible to conduct Business in such a way that is profitable, productive, and Biblical. He cites the reconstruction of Japan after World War II as his prime example. When General Douglas was appointed by President Truman as the military governor of Japan, he instituted laws for business largely based off Biblical truths. This, combined with the Japanese inherit respect for authority, as well as their strong unity and national pride, propelled them beyond their teacher to become one of the largest economies in the modern world. Burkett also gives a variety of positive examples of Christian businesses in the US that have based their business plan off of the scriptures and have experienced great profit for it.

In this book, Burkett deals with a lot of required decisions in modern business, including decisions on hiring, firing, borrowing, lending, management selection, employee pay, discounting, and many others. He also, using scripture, provides answers to many questions common among Christian businesses; questions such as, “Should I hire women to be in management over men?” “Should Christian businesses hire non-Christians?” “Is it acceptable for Christian businesses to borrow money?” “Can Christians sue people and/or other businesses for money?” “What do I do about an insubordinate employee?” When addressing all these questions, Burkett constantly goes back to scripture when giving his final answer on the subject.

I would highly encourage anyone interested in business and entrepreneurship to read this incredible book! My dad and I are now doing it as a weekly study, as many of its principles apply to everyday situations we both experience at work. I’m so grateful for Larry Burkett and all the wisdom he was able to share over the course of his life!

Youth Group

~ posted by Rubia

Roma and I were first involved in a church youth group as 8^th graders, back at Legacy Bible Church in Texas. Under the leadership of 2 youth Pastors, plus other assistants, we were fed with sound teaching, fellowship, good friends, and fun activities through 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grade.

It was especially a blessing to us to count on that one day a week as an evening to mingle with other students our age. Unlike Roma, I consider myself more introverted. So at first, I was very quiet and a little drawn back, since it was all pretty new. Yet that does not change how much I enjoyed my experiences. Roma eventually “came out of her shell” and got very comfortable chatting with friends and being herself. I am also quite comfortable with who I am….as the quieter one. J Maybe slower to make friends...yet able to cherish truly sweet relationships and memories in and with our Texan youth group. (Which could be a whole other blog post!) We do miss them!

Since moving to Oklahoma and getting involved at Grace Baptist, Roma and I have attended their youth group that meets both Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. We are excited to continue getting involved! Most of the kids have expressed undeserved interest in us, and extended warm friendship so quickly. I feel thankful and blessed.

Our youth group adventures have included taking an evangelism course on Wednesday nights, studying creation and evidence for God on Sunday mornings, watching “War Room” the movie, having a cookout on the river (canoeing and kayaking involved), a girls pajama party, and a road trip to Lincoln, Arkansas to go rock climbing. J Roma and I have had so much fun, and unfortunately may not even be able to keep up with everything this group does!

Grace Baptist Church

A nice time was spent with church friends on the Illinois River!

Mikaya and Noel get covered in sticky notes at the girls’ pajama party for being the “little girls.” :p

A beautiful spot on Lake Lincoln. The fall colors were great!

This is Kaitlyn and me J

The dangers of bouldering (featuring Kaitlyn, Kara, and the brave Maddie. J)

I was pretty scared! Roma and I each made it to the top with a little boost from our belayer. J We climbed about 50 feet.

The Past 10 Weeks of Being Okies

~posted by Roma

We have lived in northeast Oklahoma for almost 10 weeks now. I don’t know about the rest of my family, but I know I have days when I still miss Texas so badly. I’m having a lot of fun here in OK, making friends and making great memories already. But sometimes I have days where it would be amazing to wake up in my old bedroom, and look out the window to see an incredible Texas sunrise peeking up from behind the pecan trees. To go to our old church on Sunday, and hug people because you know them. To see familiar faces and sights. But we serve a great God who has provided for all our needs. Our Dad, Bianca, and Ben all have jobs now and all three of them work for Christians. Ruby and I are learning really well how to drive cars. Josiah has a basketball game coming up soon. And on and on.

This is a blog post that will go over all the fun highlights we’ve had here the past 10 weeks and what we’ve done. Enjoy!

So, I should start with some pictures of the moving process…

This van looked really familiar to us. It may look familiar to you too. The van that had just moved us 32 months prior (from MI to TX) was now moving us again! The funny part is they could never bring it up our narrow driveway so they always needed a shuttle. These guys worked hard! 

Great place to play hide and go seek!

Lots of neighbors and people from church came over to say goodbye, bring us Starbucks, give us gift baskets, or take away our basketball hoop. J (We didn’t need it.) I took some last TX sunset pictures that were gorgeous, and wrote about this whole journey in my journal.

The next morning we had cereal but no milk, so I ate cereal with vanilla ice cream. J The boys took one car full of stuff, Ruby and Bianca took one car full of stuff and the two dogs in the back, and Mom and I took one car full of stuff and the tranquilized, terrified cats. I took a video with my camera of us driving away. Ben was in New Mexico hiking 100+ miles with the Boy Scouts at Philmont, so he missed the whole moving process!

And then in just 3.5 or so hours, we were there!

The house is beautiful. It has a lodge/cabin/dark lodge-y kind of feel, with 10 acres, a pond, and woods with a small trail going through them. (The dogs were--and still are-- having the time of their lives!) The front porch is really wide and has been a great place for morning devotions. The driveway is super steep and crazy to bike or roller race down. We live on a big hill, so going down the hill is amazing and going up is a physical challenge.

One thing we’ve had to adjust to is all of us kids having our bedrooms on the first floor. (Except Bianca, who is on the loft on the second floor.) But now the boys and Ruby and I share a Jack & Jill bath attached to our rooms which has been nice! There are pros and cons about every house, but overall, we really like it here! We have pretty much unpacked every box now and cleaned up, so come visit us! J

Alright, some fun things we’ve done here the past 10 weeks…

…Found a Christian soda fountain and a job for Bianca on the same day….

…Visited with missionary friends that we’ve known for a whole decade now…

Bianca got a visit from her man J and we celebrated his birthday. We went tubing down the Illinois River one day, had a picnic by the river, went out to dinner, and explored the town. I’m thinking it’s about time to go on another photo shoot in this cute town soon!

Josiah’s got this. He doesn’t need help. J

We’ve been trying different restaurants, going for evening walks, visiting coffee shops, and more. There are a lot of festivals that go on here, with lots of activities. So after we ate we enjoyed the different tents set up outside—one tent had knives, so the boys were drawn to that tent right away. J

Just beyond the tents, two guys were playing  with fire—literally!

We look forward to the other festivals that our different towns here in Okie will have in the future!

Lots of families from our new church have so graciously invited us to their homes, or to different restaurants with them to eat lunch together after church! That has really helped us get to know the families better and we’ve enjoyed the fellowship so much! This home above is the R family’s home. Mr. R is a deacon at our church and while Mom and Dad were enjoying talking to them, Ruby and I talked with their grown-up son S and his wife M for probably an hour, about different hobbies, Lord of the Rings, and more!

Then there was that one time we went with our youth group to watch the movie “War Room.” If you have not seen this film yet, it is a MUST SEE.

Ruby and I went camping in our front yard one night; then a couple days later we started school, which hasn’t been bad so far. I enjoy doing and learning new things and so far it’s not crazy or hectic--it’s pretty relaxing. We also went back to the Illinois River a few weeks ago for a church picnic! We used our Youth Pastor’s canoes and kayaks, went swimming, and had hot dogs, homemade chips, and oatmeal cream pies. Bianca and Ben were at a college conference in TX, but the rest of us enjoyed that picnic! Recently, Ruby and I went to a girl’s pajama party with our youth group girls and we had fun doing that too!

So hopefully that kind of sums up EVERYTHING. Any questions? Just kidding. J

Daddy and Bianca's Birthday

~Posted by Roma

(Before I start this post, some good news for our readers: our family has finally moved from Texas to Oklahoma, and are reunited with my Dad after 9 long months! J Things are going very well, and we are getting settled in to yet another new home and new adventure. We will do a post about that move soon!)

The last two birthdays of the year are my Dad’s and Bianca’s! Their birthdays are only a little over a week apart! So, back in July, we celebrated Dad and Bianca. We decided to combine Dad’s birthday and the 4^th of July together. So, we not only had traditional birthday cake and gifts, but we also set off fireworks and had friends from church over. (This was all while we still lived in TX) One very special thing we did for Dad this year, was creating a binder full of letters from us, family, distant relatives, friends, co-workers, pastors, and mentors. There were quite a few letters! Then I decorated the binder and Mom put it all together and we presented it to my Dad on his special day! He appreciated it so much since we had done the same thing for Mom a few years ago. The Reverend that married my parents even wrote a letter! J

In addition to the binder, we made a “Blessings of Mark” framed picture.

 We had a fun time with family and friends and Mom’s famous double chocolate ring cake and really enjoyed the day. (And now that we live in OK it has been so nice seeing Dad every night!!)

Then came Bianca’s birthday. We celebrated that everywhere! We celebrated it in Ohio, in our home in northern Texas, in Dallas Texas…so we celebrated around 3 times. J First, Mom had decided we needed to take a spontaneous trip to Ohio to surprise the family, since we hadn’t seen them in so long. Of course we were thrilled to do this and it was so hard to keep it a secret! (My Mom’s parents knew we were coming but her younger brother and his wife and two boys did not know at all.) I recorded a video of us walking into the kitchen where our Uncle J, Aunt C, and cousins E and J were sitting, and it was epic! J We had a wonderful visit! Besides doing a lot of catching up, visiting other distant relatives, going to the movies, swimming, etc., Bianca enjoyed birthday peach cobbler and ice cream, and presents.

Bianca with Uncle J and Aunt C in front of Cracker Barrel on a Sunday afternoon.

Our Mom just loved getting to see her brother again—and he loved seeing her! Here are the two of them at our cousin E’s baseball game one day.

When we returned safely from Ohio, our home-away-from home brothers K and O came over one day so we could celebrate Bianca’s birthday…again! We had a yummy dinner and ended it all with Carrot cake, German chocolate cake, ice cream, and more gifts. (We can’t celebrate enough. J)

Bianca with her favorite OLDER brothers. J

But the celebrating wasn’t over yet. We had to take Bianca on a surprise birthday trip, of course! So we piled in the minivan one day and found ourselves at…the Cowgirl Museum in the Dallas/Fort Worth area! It was the coolest museum! They showed a lot of short videos, displayed cowgirl clothes, guns, had a station where you could sit on a fake horse and watch yourself ride a “bucking horse” on the screen in front of you, and of course, there were plenty of exhibits on the history of cowgirls. We enjoyed going to a pretty unique museum for a change. Pictures were not allowed, so we got pictures of the outside. J

Then after eating a snack at Taco Cabana, we drove over to our next surprise. And boy, were we surprised! We pulled into the driveway of the H family’s house!!! We haven’t known the H family for very long, but Bianca and Ben had met their oldest son through a college gathering and they are just the sweetest, Christian homeschooled family with five kids just like us! (More like teen/young adult kids.) We spent the evening with them. They made us the most delicious meal; the fellowship was wonderful; the cake, the 10 different flavors of ice cream (YES!!); the gift basket they lovingly put together for Bianca; the rose bush they gave us to take to OK—it was such an awesome evening! We 10 kids probably enjoyed the game of Capture the Flag outside the most. Girls against boys. And the girls WON!

All of us kids posing with the H kids before we all got sweaty playing.

We ended Bianca’s sweet birthday celebration by going on a photo shoot with this guy right here being one of the photographers.

This is Jessie. Bianca recently announced on her blog that she is being courted by this godly young man. Go to her blog here for the details. I snuck this picture of them and really like it. I’ve been a pretty sneaky chaperone for the last few months haha!

Bianca

So, there you have it. No more birthdays until 2016! J There were so many great pictures of Bianca, and Jessie did a great job, but I’m going to run out of room here. Now, for a blog post about MOVING from TX to OKIE……

Have a blessed day!

Celebrating Ben and the Twins

~Posted by Roma

I recently told you about our Mom and Josiah’s birthdays all the way back in January and March, and now we are jumping forward to… this past May and June, when we celebrated Rubia’s and my birthday, and Ben’s birthday!

Ruby’s and my birthday was kept very simple, as all special occasions have been kept pretty simple this year. Dad and Bianca did not celebrate with us on our actual birthday, because Dad was working in OK, and Bianca was in Ecuador on a mission trip. But later, during Memorial Day weekend, we went to OK to visit Dad, pick Bianca up from the airport, and do more celebrating!

On our actual birthday, Mom invited two friends of ours from church to join us for dinner, cake and gifts. In the picture above, Ben is showing Jessie the architectural drawings that our Grandpa drew many years ago—really good drawings! Jessie enjoyed that. After a wonderful dinner and a beautiful sunflower cake, Josiah did a Tae Kwon Do show for all of us in the living room and Ruby and I opened a couple of gifts. We would open more in OK with Dad and Bianca later.

For dinner Mom made meatloaf, with sour cream or ketchup to dip it in, potato fries, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes, and the sunflower cake to finish it off. Daddy also called both of us on the phone that night to wish us happy birthday and talk to us. :-) It was a nice day and fun to spend it with friends as well.

Later in OK, Dad and Mom took us on a surprise birthday trip and we ended up at…the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah OK! It was neat to explore the village, have an Indian give us a tour and teach us to say: “Wado”, and tour the museum. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called “The Grille,” and explored the downtown area. We also drove past our new house (which we had not yet closed on at the time). Unfortunately I have no pictures of all this, but it was a sweet birthday for Ruby and me!

After Bianca returned from Ecuador and we were back in Texas, she took all of us out on a birthday photo shoot! We needed new pictures of not only Ben and us twins, but new pictures of Josiah too. We love doing photo shoots and here are just a few photos of us:

Now we switch gears and talk about Ben. J Ben’s birthday was actually spent in Guatemala! He opened a few gifts before the mission trip, and then during our mission trip in Guatemala with our church, we celebrated his birthday, and another lady’s birthday from our team. The Guatemalans surprised Ben and our friend with candy, flowers for Mrs. H, cake for them both, and singing! It was definitely something memorable for Ben and Mrs. H!

Ben and Mrs. H at the mission house in Guatemala with their birthday cake!!! It was SO yummy with Oreos on top.

So, that wraps up a few more birthdays in the family! Still to come…Dad’s and Bianca’s  birthdays, and then we’re done for the year! J

Our Traditional Resurrection Celebration

~Posted by Rubia

This year was the 11^th year that our WHOLE family (all 7 of us) celebrated Easter together. That is, counting all the years since Josiah was born! J We were blessed to have a very traditional celebration, even in our current circumstances…hence the title of my post. J. Dad has visited us from OK every two weekends and planned to come the weekend of Easter. It was so fun to see such a full church on Sunday morning!

Prior to that, we experienced our first Good Friday service in a long time. What a wonderful time—especially since the quiet, solemn service was contrasted with a high-energy worship service on Sunday morning! I was reminded that we rejoice because the resurrection is what changes everything.

On Easter Sunday, we awoke extra early because we young adults and teens still hunt for colorful plastic eggs. J And the only thing we’re likely to be on the hunt for every year is whopper robin’s eggs! Mom and Dad have enjoyed hiding those yearly to help us celebrate--especially after many of us gave up sweets for the season of Lent.

We also like to wake up in time to have a non-rushed big breakfast together before going to church. This year we enjoyed cheesy bacon strata. We also had fruit, orange juice, and toast with orange marmalade. (The marmalade has become more popular since the movie “Paddington” came out, apparently.J)

Our Pastor preached an in-depth sermon from 1 Corinthians 15, and explained how the resurrection had to happen, and really did happen. There are some amazing evidences that back up the truth that Christ really did die, and that He really rose. His body was not stolen. One thing I remember Pastor G pointing out last year was that it has been recorded that women were the first to see Jesus after He rose. If the disciples had concocted a lie about the resurrection, they would have said that men saw Him first. This is because women were of little importance in that culture, and their testimony carried little credibility, so who would have believed them? Thus, this is one evidence that screams that the resurrection was not made up.

Creationist and speaker Ken Ham likes to say, “Christianity definitely requires faith, but it is not a blind faith.” He says this when talking about creation versus evolution, and then points out that the faith of the evolutionist (or atheist) is indeed blind. They ask how we believe what we do, but I ask, how do they believe what they do?

Totally switching gears again, we all appreciate having Dad come often and on Easter, we all enjoyed a day of rest. Living all the way down here in Texas, we are *physically* far from extended family, so there was not present the excitement and adrenaline of a big family gathering…..however, having simply our own immediate family present for board games, visiting, a movie, and late lunch was a great blessing! Daddy headed back to his “other home” after we had lunch, with the promise that we could come to visit him soon.

To explain the food pictures J...we had honey-roasted ham with pineapple, baked redskin potatoes, peas with mint jelly, dinner rolls, Jello beans with whipped cream, and “grasshopper” pie. (This pie has a layer of crushed thin mints, covered with minty green frozen cream, and drizzled with chocolate sauce on top. J)

In closing, I would like to share from 1 Corinthians 15:16-22 as well as verses 55-57, (NASB). These verses assure us that because of the resurrection, lives are changed, and people become completely different when they believe! May these verses be an encouragement to you!

“For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Birthdays!

~Posted by Roma

Well, hello again, blog readers! As Bianca mentioned in her post, things have been a bit crazy J. Our Texas home is back on the market (after we thought we had sold it) and just recently, we bought a new home in Oklahoma. We’re hoping to be packing boxes and moving very soon now! It’s a bittersweet feeling…continue to pray for us.

The first half of the year is filled with birthdays in our family, so I thought that I would give you a very brief sum-up of the first couple…my Mom and Josiah’s birthdays! It might be hard to keep this blog post short, but I’ll do the best I can!

Mom’s birthday was actually all the way back in January. I wanted to really surprise her and do something that she would always remember. So, I asked her parents (whom we affectionately call “Bio” and “Bia” ) to fly down to Texas for her birthday. They flew down, all the way from Ohio! (They are the best!) Bianca pretended to go to work but instead picked them up at the airport in Dallas, and an hour later they came walking into the kitchen. My Mom was so surprised she started sobbing. J Then my Dad came from Oklahoma later that weekend to join us for her celebration. We had turtle cake, went out to restaurants more than one night in a row; laughed, fellowshipped, Bio sang Psalm 121 to her in Spanish, our adopted brothers K and O came to see her as well… it was a wonderful week to celebrate our Mommy!

My Mom and her Mom playing a board game called: ‘Ticket to Ride’ back in January.

We kids did what we do every year and tiptoed down the stairs very early in the morning on her birthday, to make Mom breakfast in bed. This year it was crepes--one with a cream cheese filling and another with Nutella in it.

Mom opening presents with the whole family!

March rolled around, and…Josiah’s birthday! Believe it or not, Texas had an ice storm that day! Our plans changed, since we couldn’t leave the house, so instead, all seven of us went outside and had an awesome snowball fight! Afterward, we played board games, popped popcorn and made hot chocolate, watched movies, ate chocolate birthday cake, and Josiah opened gifts. It was a more simple celebration, and because of the bad weather, we postponed his birthday trip until April…

Out in the snow on Josiah’s b-day. It. Was. Cold.

And here he is—birthday boy opening presents.

April came around fast and Mom and Dad took us on a surprise birthday trip for Josiah! We all piled up in the minivan and ended up at…the Perot Science Museum in Dallas! There were four different floors to explore, with plenty of wonderful information on astronomy, biology, geology, the human body, life, hands-on things to do, and a 3D movie about the deep sea challenger!

Ben standing in the Perot Science Museum looking over Dallas during Josiah’s birthday trip.

After enjoying the Perot Museum, we went to Papasitos cantina for dinner. They came out and sang for Josiah and gave him ice cream and a sombrero. J

Josiah at the Mexican restaurant, being, well, himself. Happy Birthday, buddy!

So, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy celebrating more birthdays, doing fun things, and spending a few more precious weeks with our Texan friends before many good-byes will have to be said. But Lord willing, we will be moving soon and finally making that transition after waiting for so long…

All for now!

Long Overdue Update

Yes, we are still alive! I can’t believe it has been so many months since we updated. That definitely falls on me as the main moderator of this blog. So I owe all of you an apology! Rather than make excuses about why I haven’t updated, I will give you an update on each of us. Then perhaps you’ll understand why we haven’t had many opportunities to post these days.;-) (I’ll give you a hint: we’re living a day-to-day adventure basically, and we never quite know what the next day will bring.)

Mark—Back in November, Dad started working his new job in Oklahoma. We have had a lot of drama involved with attempting to sell our house here in Texas. That drama has involved switching agencies, the District Attorney’s office, and other legal wrangles. Dad has been enjoying his new job, but wishes we could all live together. He had a surgery done on his torn meniscus in February, and unfortunately looks like he will need to have it done again. He is working on cleaning up our new home in the central/eastern part of Oklahoma so that we can hopefully all move in at the end of July.

Betsy—Mom has been a trooper the past seven months! She has continued to work to homeschool the four younger kids. It has taken a lot of patience on her part to deal with the frequent interruptions to show our home and still maintain a sense of order around here. It also takes a lot to keep up with 5 kids single-handedly!

Bianca—I have had a very challenging school year. I struggled to keep up with my classes last fall while I battled a 6-week illness (sinusitis followed by the flu and lots of misdiagnosis and issues with medicines along the way.) I worked as the assistant to our new student/college pastor from November until May. That was a stretching but very beneficial working experience. I was able to catch up on school, and now am only 3 credits away from being a junior. I spent 10 days in Ecuador in May, and 8 days in Guatemala with my family in June, doing missions work. In July, I will start working part-time at a local soda fountain. My dog Tex—a blue mountain cur that I acquired back in December--has kept me very busy with the various scrapes he gets into. Generally, he finds a skunk once a month.

I’ve had another big event this past year. ;-D You can read all about my courtship over here!

Ben—Ben worked very hard this fall and spring to wrap up his Eagle Scout project (landscaping several areas at our church.) Thankfully he completed the project before Texas turned into a swamp! Many people came to celebrate his Eagle Scout Court of Honor with us despite the monsoon-type rains we had that day. He is still finishing up his high school math and chemistry, and should graduate at the end of this year. He has been very busy keeping up house maintenance.

Rubia—Ruby has continued to be diligent with her school work this year! She has been a great help with taking care of our growing menagerie of pets (plus a few neighbor dogs that need a little TLC.) She is faithful to run with Roma and work out three times a week. She also keeps our refrigerator free of spoiled food so that those of us with poorer senses of smell don’t accidentally eat something bad. ;-P Rubia was ecstatic to go on a mission trip to Guatemala for the first time this year.

Roma—Roma continues to keep us all focused on the bright side of life. She has been very helpful and positive over the past several months. Like Ruby, she has been diligent in her school work, but also finds time to make treats in the kitchen for the rest of us to enjoy. She has been the most interested in continuing to blog, and you may see her start to take over some things here in the future as my life continues to get busier. ;-) Roma loved going back to Guatemala this year! She also went on a missions road trip through several large cities in Texas over Spring Break, along with Rubia, Ben, and me.

Josiah—Josiah has been busy this school year! He gets the majority of Mom’s homeschooling time since the older kids are mostly independent. He has also been hard at work in Tae Kwon Do. He may be able to test for his first brown belt before the summer is over! He has absolutely flown through the belt levels and receives lots of praise from his instructor. He had a blast on his first missions trip (our trip to Guatemala in June.) This week, he is enjoying sports camp at our church!

So there’s a small update on the family! Hopefully we’ll be able to post a bit more frequently here over the summer. Thank y’all for sticking with us during this busy season of our lives!