Spring Activities

~ by Rubia

We have been enjoying a beautiful and active spring this year in Oklahoma! It’s hard to believe we’re less than a month away from our end-of-school vacation to Virginia! It’s also hard to believe we’ve only been here for 9 months, yet have done so much, made many great friends, and are making good memories. We feel very blessed!

This post contains pictures from Roma’s camera roll, so these activities were ones that involved her and me; however there were things that the others recently did without us that I do not have pictures from. For example, Dad went on a business trip to Minneapolis, and Bianca and Ben went on a trip to Texas. Perhaps y’all will see posts from them soon about what they’ve been up to. J

This is a picture from Easter Sunday. Roma dyed these eggs.

The siblings on Easter Sunday. We enjoyed a breakfast fellowship at our church called the “Love Feast” with communion and worship.

A few weeks later Roma and I were invited to a birthday party by a friend from youth group. She turned 13, and is a very sweet girl with a very creative family that threw what Roma and I called, “A pinterest type of party.” J They had a perfect back porch and yard with adorable decorations and *really incredible* homemade chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. We enjoyed seeing other friends from church there and playing fun games that afternoon.

The dessert table.

Look at the cute décor and bright colors! The birthday girl is in the blue shirt closest to the camera.

We learned “The trash can game” at youth group and have had fun with it. J You gather with your friends around a trash can, and then try to pull each other to touch the can and get each other out. The last person to touch the can wins.

Y’all, guess what?!! We finally built a chicken coop and purchased 6 chicks!!

Dad and Josiah worked on the coop together. Now we have an adorable bright red chicken coop!

Next Dad will build a run for them. Right now our 2-week-old chicks are in the garage and doing well! We did have to return 2 that died and one injured, sadly. We’re not sure why they died. They were replaced at no charge. We love having our 2 Black Australorps, 2 Silver Wyandottes, and 2 Buff Orpingtons to cuddle with every day. J This family of egg-eaters is excited for future eggs as well!

Had to put in a property picture. We’ve so enjoyed the recent gorgeous days and our property out here.

Roma and I have had the privilege of serving a couple of times in the kid’s ministry at church. We look forward to continued involvement! We love working with kids. This class has kids about 4-6 years of age. Miss Shawna is the teacher and does an amazing job with them! 

Bianca and Ben have been enjoying their involvement in the college ministry at church. Since our church is in a college town, they’ve had the opportunity to make lots of new friends. A few Sundays ago some of them came to hang out and play basketball at our house. Of course Josiah joined them.

There’s hardly ever a lack of adventure around here. This big tree looked healthy on the outside, but was actually rotted inside and took us by surprise when it fell over the driveway one windy morning. Thankfully, it came down moments before Bianca and Ben were driving there on their way to work…and just before Roma and I returned from our run. God is good! Everyone was safe and no damage was done to anything—the tree just missed the cottage workshop, and the chicken coop.

Now you get to hear about the HEARTS homeschool co-op! It had been years since we were involved in a homeschool group, and never had we tried a co-op before. But Oklahoma is a very homeschool-friendly state with lots of opportunities for homeschoolers. The HEARTS co-op meets weekly during most of the school year at a church close to us. They offer classes that are mostly fun, extra-curricular types, with opportunities to fellowship with other homeschool families. I am so glad we joined for the Spring semester. We loved it so much and look forward to next school year! Josiah especially had a blast and will get to be a part of it for years to come, Lord willing! Since he graduated from 6^th grade this Spring, he got to be part of the graduation ceremony!

I did an art class with these sweet girls and painted my first gourd. There were some awesome creations! The class was unique because while painting was a part of it, perhaps the bigger part was talking with each other, getting to know one another and sharing lots of stories! 

This class of little ones does the Five-In-a-Row curriculum. Roma loved working with these kids over the last semester! 

Roma and I participated in the drama class and had a lot of fun! We had a big, all-girls class with lots of silliness and laughs! On the last day of co-op, we did a short, funny play. Here Roma (as Katie Lean) is interviewing a mermaid.

I was more than just Elsie the cow from Jack and the Beanstalk…I was a Chick-fil-A cow!! J (That was, at this moment, an unhappy protestor.)

On the weekend before the last co-op meeting, the co-op’s secretary and her family hosted their annual end-of-the-year party at their barn & ranch! This was our first time going out there and we had a blast!

The Barn at Gooseneck Bend.

Bianca and Ben were in Texas during this event, so it was Mom and Dad and the rest of us kids. (We were the only ones involved in the co-op anyway.) Pictured here are my lovely parents. Dad enjoyed sitting near the John Deere tractor! J

They had a great barn with a dance floor. I thought the Daddy-Daughter dancing to the left was cute. J

Later, after eating barbecue for dinner, one of the girls asked me, “Do you like dancing?” To which I responded, “Well yes, I did ballet for a couple of years.” But she actually meant barn dancing. I need to do that more! I remember doing it once in our barn in Texas with some friends. I was glad at this moment that I had already learned the Virginia Reel!

Getting started! I was learning slowly…but had a great time! It got way better with the Virginia Reel. I believe here we’re trying to do Cotton-Eye-Joe. It had been awhile since I’d done that one. 

While those were two of the “barn dances” we did, we also stopped at one point for an 80’s throwback and did YMCA. J

Part of our drama class had to get a dramatic picture. (Or two or three.) 

Huge bonfire to end the party!

The next weekend was the graduation ceremony at co-op for the graduating kindergarteners, 6^th graders, and seniors!

The band was youth-led by the praise and worship class! We’ve got some musical talent amongst these homeschoolers.

Our 6^th grade graduate with Mom! (Dad was in Minneapolis.) So proud of Josiah and excited to see how God will use him in the future as he continues to learn and develop his skills. 7^th grade, here we come! 

The siblings.

The next weekend (coming now the end of April) we drove about two miles down our road to the church where Josiah’s basketball coach preaches. They hosted their annual Echo Knights basketball banquet to celebrate the end of the season. Awards and basketball cards with each player’s picture were also given out. The Echo Knights sure had an amazing season! The middle school boys (Josiah’s team) finished undefeated this season for the first time in Echo Knights history. So thankful that JoJo had this opportunity to be a part of it and make great friends and memories.

Josiah and his buddies holding up their basketball cards.

Roma and I spent the next day (Saturday) babysitting our adorable neighbor kids for a second time. We had a wonderful day with Z and L! Josiah was also helpful because he is close to Z’s age and could come play with him. They’ve become good friends since we’ve moved here.

Helping L skate on the driveway.

And that wraps up the highlights of April! So thankful for the milestones, moments, and memories all in just this past month. God bless y’all!

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

Guatemala Mission Trip

~posted by Roma

Back in July, I had the wonderful opportunity to take my second mission trip! It was refreshing to be back on the mission field again, after 2 years. (In 2012 our family went to Haiti.) Our whole family didn’t go on this trip; just Bianca and I. Bianca went for an internship with other interns for 3.5 weeks, then the last week our youth pastor here in Texas led a team from our church. And I wanted to go! So after having a garage sale here with the help of my family, raising all the funds, packing my bags, putting my pigtails in my hair and grabbing my jacket, I was ready! It took a step of faith to commit to going even if I didn’t know where the funds would come from, and traveling without my family was different, but at least I had a team with me. J

The night our team got there, Bianca came up behind me, swung me around in the air, and squeezed me! It was great to be with her again after a few weeks. Her Birthday had been celebrated in Guat. over and over again, and in this picture we are having one of her celebrations.

Our team. There were lots of other dear people to me that are not in this picture—our translators, the missionaries, the fellowship Guatemala team, and the interns—but this is the team I came down with.

Guatemala was a great experience as all mission trips can be, and this blog post may end up being shorter than I’d like just because trying to share every detail could take so long. All the words and pictures can’t even do it justice. I would encourage you to go to Guatemala yourself. It’s eye-opening to drive past zone 3 (there are 25 zones in Guat.) where no one goes in, and no one goes out, because of the drug cartels. It’s eye-opening to walk along a train track where the people are living in absolute squalor and kids come running up to you to hug you even though you don’t know them and they don’t know you. We went through dirty places, smelly places, and big wealthy houses with sugar cane fields. (We went through a variety of places in 7 days.) There was poverty, and people were broken.

But on a happier note, Guatemala was also a wonderful place to experience Hispanic culture. I will always adore Hispanic culture, being half Puerto-Rican myself. Getting up late in the morning…drinking strong black coffee with cane sugar…never being in a rush…always being on “Guatemalan time” (which is really late)…going to bed at 2:00 a.m. so slap-happy and exhausted; your stomach hurts to death from laughing! Hispanic people coming to the mission house to visit you even though you don’t know them. They’re all smiles talking with you even though there’s a language barrier…it’s AWESOME! And when I got home, it was hard to do the “Texan routine” instead of the “Guat. Routine.” This trip also had plenty of inside jokes and funny memories that make the mission trip even more memorable. J

The things we did during the week were going door to door evangelizing, visiting different churches and a hotel with a church in it, and VBS with kids in zone 25. (pictured above.) VBS was awesome! Everyone took turns teaching every night, (including me J) we got our faces painted, and DANCED.

All these girls in the above picture are precious new friends of mine and sisters in the Lord! Two of them, S and M, have already visited my home in TX. All these girls are great. I’ll be seeing them again for sure.

Some of my favorite memories of Guatemala were: riding on the huge, colorful bus with blasting music on the way to touristy Antigua; shopping in the market for souvenirs for the family; getting a semi-permanent blue and black braid in my hair; panicking for a minute when two Guatemalan Police came up to me and I thought I was getting arrested. But they just wanted me to have my braid done outside of the town square. J So guess what--I was escorted outside the square!

In Antigua, with Mt. Agua in the background. Pastor D has climbed it! I want to climb it! J

Me with the missionaries Pastor D and his wife O. They are an incredible couple!

The most impacting part for me was the first day that we were going to zone 25 to evangelize. We arrived at pastor O’s church and everyone got silent when going inside because a prayer warrior was kneeling at the stage praying. I never learned this woman’s name or anything about her. I just know she was praying, singing over and over again “Gracias Cristo.” It makes me want to be more thankful. Looking around the room, I noticed that an American wouldn’t think there’s much to be thankful for. Pastor O’s church consists of a room, plastic chairs, a stage, and a bathroom that I won’t even get into. But this lady was absolutely grateful. She faithfully prays for her community every day. You can start praying for “the prayer warrior in Guatemala”, and pray God would hear her prayers and do miracles in her community.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and captions, and Bianca will probably post more on her 3-1/2 week internship later. I hope I go to Guatemala again--maybe for June 2015!

Weekend Youth Retreat

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to help lead a group of high schoolers to a youth retreat at a camp a couple of hours from our church. I wanted to go on the retreat as a camper last year, but I was saving money for my summer missions trip. Since I was asked to go as a leader this time, I didn’t have to pay. I can’t argue with that!

Eight of us (3 leaders and 5 high schoolers) met at the church Friday evening. Once we had things packed up in the two cars, we drove off! We stopped at Raising Cane’s for dinner and then arrived at camp around 8:30 p.m.

We checked in and unloaded our things to our cabins. Then the kids made their way to the sports field for a snack while the leaders had a brief meeting. We went to the gym for the first session.

Every time we had a session, we leaders formed what was called the “gauntlet.” We would line up on either side of the doorway and the kids would run through us to get in. Meanwhile, we were dancing, giving high fives, etc. J It was pretty funny!

After the camp staff welcomed everyone, we played a life-sized game of battleship!

The kids piled into the kayaks and played guys against girls. Several people on either team were blindfolded and had nerf balls to throw. If they hit one of the boats, they were out. The guys won of course!

After that we had a time of worship. The band—The Avid Light—is a local band, and very talented! They did a great job leading our group in worship. Next we heard the speaker. He was very good and engaging. His first session was focused on the gospel. He really knew his Bible well and had the kids constantly flipping back and forth between passages.

After the session, our youth group broke up for discussion time. Basically the girls went back to their cabin and the guys went back to theirs (it was a little too cold and late to stay outside for our discussion group.) We made it to bed around 12:00 a.m.

Saturday morning, I got up around 7:30 a.m. to shower and do my devotions before breakfast at 9:00 a.m. All the leaders came into the dining hall before the kids. We stood on top of chairs and they played “Good Morning” by Mandisa as the kids came in. J

The food at camp was quite good! After breakfast, the staff made a few announcements and then dismissed everyone. Campers went to have quiet time while the leaders had a meeting.

Then we all went back to the gym for our next session. The title of the message was “The Bible Isn’t Boring.” The speaker did an excellent job of making certain mundane parts of the Old Testament come to life! He even made a human timeline to illustrate some of his points!

We had our discussion time as a whole group. Pastor D really challenged us to think about how everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. After that we went inside the dining hall for lunch. Then we were dismissed for afternoon free time!

About half of our group had signed up to go tubing on the lake. We donned swimsuits and lifejackets and headed to the dock. We had to jump off and swim out to the boat. It was a little bit chilly!

Believe it or not, I grew up in Michigan surrounded by the great lakes . . . but . . . I had never been tubing! I really enjoyed it! Since we were already wet, we decided to take a dip in the pool and go off the high-dive. Once we weren’t dripping anymore, we popped into the camp store.

Then we dried up and changed clothes. We still had a little time, so we headed over to the zipline. The only zipline I had done was very small and tight, so this was a new experience! It required me to temporarily suspend my fear of open heights and free falling. ;-)

Ready to go up the tower!

Getting ready to jump. I shrieked like a girl during the free fall. J (Those of you that know me know I’m not a screamer at ALL!)

Part of camp. You can see the sports field, the lake, and the dining hall.

After ziplining, we adults went to another leaders’ meeting while the kids in our group headed back to the cabins to nap before dinner. Dinner was quite tasty, and welcome after such a long, active day!

After dinner, we had another session.

They started off by asking for one leader from every church. Pastor D wasn’t in the room at the time, so I got pushed to the front by my group. Turns out, they wanted to have an Oreo-eating contest. Needless to say, I did NOT win! That was followed by having one girl from every church come up, get blindfolded, and then attempt to brush the leader’s teeth and gel their hair. Oh, and the staff was so kind as to mix chocolate syrup with the hair gel. :-P It was a memorable game for sure!

We had a session on God as our Father and how we are to view ourselves in relation to Him. We had a great discussion time as a group. Then we quickly ran back to our cabins to put on dark clothes for the upcoming game of Espionage.

The kids went out on the field for a snack and then into the gym for their instructions. We leaders went to the bottom of the huge hill in camp. In this game, the leaders take flashlights and go hide all over the hill. The kids receive a pinto bean at the bottom of the hill. Then—without flashlights—they have to try and sneak to the top of the hill without getting caught.

When they were noticed, a leader would shine their flashlight on them. The leader could either take their bean away (then the camper had to go to the bottom of the hill and start over) or they could make them do something before they let them pass. Most people made them sing something. I hid at the very top of the hill and was 50/50 mean/nice. J I sent about half of them back down and let the other half go after they sang something. The kids that reached the top got a wristband to commemorate their success. J

The game was really fun! Most everyone has some sort of bruise or cut to remember the night by. We went to our rooms to clean up and then headed to the bonfire where we enjoyed s’mores.

It was pretty windy that night, so standing around the fire wasn’t too pleasant. So our group went up to the game room and played Spoons.

Part of our group playing spoons.

I think we went to bed around 1 a.m. Of course, everyone wanted to shower after Espionage. We fell in to bed quite tired!

I slept in until almost 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I was so sore and tired from the day before! But I had to get up and pack since we were supposed to move out before breakfast.

Before breakfast we went out and took a group photo! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to get to know these guys a little bit better. J

After breakfast, we had one final session, which was on the Holy Spirit. We had one final group discussion, which was really good. I think a lot of us felt convicted over the weekend that God is so much bigger than we realize. He is in control! We all came away with a desire to spend more time in the Word and in prayer as well.

After a quick lunch of pizza, we left camp. We made it home later that afternoon, and were very thankful that we didn’t encounter any bad weather. I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on the retreat, and I look forward to going with the middle school group later this year!

2nd Annual "A Child's Hope" Gala

This past weekend, our family had the opportunity to go to Houston to attend the 2^nd Annual Charity Gala for A Child’s Hope (the organization I work for that is building an academy in Haiti.) The gala is something that we really anticipate! J

This year, our whole family got to go (last year, Dad was on a business trip in St. Louis.) We drove down on Thursday, despite the rain and hail we encountered as we left! :-P We made it down there in time to check into our hotel and then go out for dinner.

We ended up at a local pizza place. The food was good, and different!

When we got back to the hotel, we donned swimsuits and headed down to the pool. It’s not often we get to swim at hotels anymore. Unlike the northern states, most of the hotel pools here in the south are outdoors. Somehow or another, we end up in hotels during the few months of the year when it’s too cold to swim outdoors!

The next morning we slept in a little bit and then went down to breakfast together. Afterward, we ironed our clothes for that evening, and then headed over to the gala venue to help get things ready. We assisted with a variety of tasks, including setting up the items for the silent auction, setting up my table with the missions trip info, and helping sort, label, and stuff the programs for the evening.

After a few hours, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the actual gala! We knew it would take awhile considering 7 people needed to share two bathrooms. J

All dressed and ready!

When we arrived at the gala, I stood by my table and chatted with people about missions trips. The rest of the family mingled, talked with the missionaries from Haiti and with our friend who flew down from Michigan, and enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres. The silent auction also went on in one of the rooms.

Our table all set for dinner.

A friend of mine that I met through the College Plus program lives down in the Houston area. We had an extra seat at our table, so we invited her to join us! When she arrived, I enjoyed catching up with her. She also does a lot of work in Haiti, so we have a good deal in common. J

Finally, dinner time rolled around. J The food was delicious! But what I enjoyed the most was getting off my feet for a little while. :-P

During the dinner, we had a program. Several board members spoke, and several videos were shown about the work being done in Haiti. This was followed by the live auction. That is always interesting, and slightly nerve wracking for the board. It went well, and $105,000 was raised just through that!

After that, a band started playing and they opened up the dance floor. I stayed by my table for a little bit to try and pass out as many informational pamphlets on the mission trips as I could before people left. But then I joined the dance party for awhile. J

Mom and Dad with our friend, Miss D, from Michigan (she went down to Haiti with us in 2012.)

Me with my friend H in front of the mission trip table.

I don’t think we went to bed that night until 1:30 a.m. It was a long day, but so much fun!

             

The next morning, we couldn’t sleep in much. We went down to breakfast and packed our things up in order to make it back over to the conference center by 10:00 a.m. We helped load all the silent auction stuff back into the box truck so it could be delivered. Then we went out to lunch with the missionaries and part of the board so that we could discuss mission trip details.

The restaurant was really nice and the food was delicious! It was great to have some time with the board members.

After that, we headed back home. It was a short weekend, but we really enjoyed it! We are excited about the upcoming mission trips and look forward to the next gala!