Title Change...

Sometimes there's need for change.

I know... I'm saying that.
Me.
Is that even possible? :)

This post isn't referring to a shift that is always visible, tangible, readily grasped by even my own mind -- but He is changing me.

Has changed me.
I pray will continue to change me.
Will continue to change each of us.

It's not just about "Serving my Father in Heaven," but about the journey through which we learn what it truly means to be a servant; a servant to a loving Master here on this earth. A journey that can't be undertaken, trodden upon, or continued without Faith.

And I am humbled that this Faith is only made possible through His Spirit -- because on my own, I cannot understand, comprehend, even faintly grasp His majesty, His mercy, His awesome grace, His Holiness... and I am lost in seeking His face.

But His Spirit guides these battered, twisted, pain-filled bodies to communion with HIM.
By Faith.

So this post is praise -- praise for His ability to change, to work, to break even the most stubborn -- persistent?!? -- objects, and show His perfect will.

Thank You, Lord... thank You, my Savior.
For being my Strength when I am weak.
For knowing my thoughts before I can even speak.

Help Thou my unbelief.

And with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength... teach me to love.
And to love passionately.
To praise passionately.
To live passionately -- for You.

So... this blog title has changed to "Walking by Faith."

An eternal journey.
A constant Companion.
A journey of praise.

We praise You, Father, Comforter, Friend, Almighty God...
that even these names will never capture all You are, have been, and will always Be.

You spread out the skies over empty space
Said, let there be light
To a dark and formless world
Your light was born
You spread out your arms over empty hearts
Said, let there be light
To a dark and hopeless world
Your son was born

You made the world and saw that it was good
You sent your only son, for you are good

What a wonderful maker
What a wonderful savior
How majestic your whispers
And how humble your love
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a father
How majestic your whispers
What a wonderful God

No eye has fully seen
how beautiful the cross
And we have only heard
the faintest whispers
Of how great you are

You made the world and saw that it was good
You sent your only son, for you are good

What a wonderful maker
What a wonderful savior
How majestic your whispers
And how humble your love
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a father
How majestic your whispers
What a wonderful God

"Wonderful Maker" - as performed by Jeremy Camp

What a wonderful, amazing God.
And You are worthy of our praise.

I'm Not Quite Dead Yet...

... but the bird was.

Still is, most likely.

I was inside the kitchen the other day when Diego came running across campus, arms and legs flailing, as a plastic carton tied to a string bounced and jounced and jolted across the ground behind him.

"Esteph! Esteph! Mira! A DEAD BIRD!"

And indeed it was.

As dead as it could be.

In all its bacteria-infested greatness.

So, what else could we do but call in the Great Bird Burier???

The funeral party.

(notice Jose IN the plastic hearse that had just "housed" the dead bird... did I already use the line, "in its bacteria-infested greatness"???)

Director of the Dead Bird Society, Dead Dog Society, Dead... well, Any Dead Animal Society.

And Master of Ceremonies for this special event... :)

The solemn onlookers... torn by grief.

We sang bits and pieces of "Las Estrellitas" and then separated to walk our separate ways home... contemplating the inexplicable complexity of life, and its innumerable sadnesses.

Diego was... well, inconsolable. See the video below.

Okay... I want to sleep tonight...

the video's a fake!

Diego had just taken a hard tumble onto the ground right after the funeral... but it looked really funny... ;)

There's A Little Girl Named Nere...

... who is super-cute! :)

(On a sidenote, it's interesting that my Spanish and English vocabularies have started adding "super" in front of a lot of words... did I get that from someone? Are my chameleon language-skills acting up again?!?)

Nere turned 7 last Thursday, and we celebrated by -- what else? -- smashing her face in a cake! She specifically asked for the Disney princesses, so we made an attempt at Belle -- who somehow managed to look seriously annoyed sitting atop a mound of frosting... lol. Maybe because she wasn't accompanied by her "Bestia"??? ;)

Ah, well... asi es la vida!

Right after the smash...

Joan cut out the heart in the corner for the smashing bit, which -- fortunately -- had bright, red food coloring to stain all surface area of the skin a lovely, deep pink...

... which you can see a little bit better in this photo.

Her eyelashes are so thick, that it was like two curtains of frosting after the face-plant... :)

Nere also received a ton of gifts from the other kids in the house, and some of the older girls... which was really cute.

She and Julissa played with the plastic hairdryer, hairties, curl-pins (what are these called? rollers or something?), and "pretend" make-up for a solid hour and a half in the bathroom the next day... ;)

Completing years...

I'm not usually big on birthdays.

I'm just not.

I mean... yeah, we were born.

Whoop. dee. doo.

Remember the Alanis Morisette lyric?

"... dying since the day we were born..."

"Yeah."

And then, for the rest of our lives, we have this day that celebrates US.

Because that's just what we, as selfish, self-celebrating, self-prioritized people need...

A day for just US.

[Conveniently forgetting the other five zillion people born on the same day.]

[Who are just as special.]

[Who are just as talented.]

[Who are probably annoyed that they have to share a birthday with us.]

And if you live in Mexico, you get a cake in the face!

Yeah!!!

Let's celebrate by caving someone's nose in!!!

Frosting up your nostrils...

Smeared across your face...

In your hair...

... who doesn't want this??? ;)

I know this girl.

She loves her birthday.

She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her birthday.

In fact, she has been known to have count-downs to the big day.

I still love her...

... but I think she's nuts.

Some people say it's just because my birth was so close to Christmas...

... that that's why I don't enjoy it as much.

"People just give you one gift for both don't they?" they commiserate.

Completely oblivious to the fact that I am not a total moron...

[contrary to popular opinion sometimes]

... and that it has occurred to me that people will totally use that excuse

[cough]

[Blonde-haired, pigtailed girl in 2nd grade... cough, cough]

[insert: women don't hold grudges... didn't ya know???]

...but I have an amazing family who always made it a special separate event.

And yet... I still am not huge into birthdays.

[Yes... I took into account that I will probably never receive gifts after this post from any of you. After deciding that life maybe would go on, I continued typing.]

Personally, I've just always been glad I wasn't born on Christmas.

Or born a male.

For various reasons, but this has to do with my name.

"Stephanie Leigh" I can handle...

"Nicole Noel" or "Forrest Paul" would have gotten me beaten up in school.

And deservedly so. :)

But this year...

Ah. Well.

This year was different. :)

People obviously "make" the celebrations special;

And that is the one grace of birthdays -- you get to have everyone together.

And this year...

I was given an incredible dinner by an incredible woman. ;)

And so... this is my thanks, dear friend.

A sardonic write-up, a few pictures, and a lot of enjoyment...!

My taste-buds are still singing happy songs... ;)

Jenean prepared an awesome dinner.

The menu (derived from what she knew I liked, what she figured I would like, and what she figured Jenna wouldn't like... lol) was as follows:

Apple, pear, gorgonzala cheese, walnut appetizer
Marinated shrimp
Rutabaga soup
Chips with blue cheese, mushroom and garlic on top
Mushrooms with clam filling
Rosemary-lemon chicken breast
Pork tenderloin with fruit salsa
Bruschetta boats

and
Spiced apple cheesecake with coffee

Mmmm.

And for Jenean's parents... has she shown you these pics of Candi?!?

Since I know you are so fond of these food items... lol.

We went out to eat one day, and (like me) Candi finds the grilled onions a highlight of the Mexican taqueria experience... ;)

Navidad-ness

Since the events during December were numerous, I thought I'd do a little Christmas catch-up for the blog...

Diego and José had a Christmas program at their Kindergarten, and a group of us went to see them perform. They were (it probably goes without saying) immeasurably adorable... and danced a little bit more than Aaron did last year... ;)

Aaron turned 7 on December 10, and we celebrated by smashing his face in the cake... :)

He had asked for a Gingerbread Man cake (from our storybook we read at nights; which constantly amuses me because they are German stories, written in Spanish, read by an American... lol), and so I made him one, and elected to use black food coloring for the outline of the figure and the letters... [cough, cough] which was very kind. :)

Christmas morning we had a special brunch in the house for all our kids, and the rest of the single staff who were around. All in all we had 20 people... good times!

Above (left), Bere makes fruit salad, and (above, right) Gloria was bien happy to be in the kitchen watching all the preparation take place! And (below) Joel was a trooper for sitting in the living room, watching the kids all go insane while we finished up details... ;)

LA NAVIDAD...

It was interesting this year shopping for Christmas gifts because I really had no idea what to get the kids. Praise the Lord, we are well-provided-for here, and not having years and years of experience as a mother, it took me a while to figure stuff out... ;)
However, I decided to give the kids all fleece blankets with their favorite characters/superheroes... and it seemed to be a hit! Here they are, "flying" with their new blankets [this picture is also note-worthy because it catches Candi mid-sneeze... :)].

I got a few games also for the kids... Twister (as pictured above with Aaron and Ponch... who really, really need practice figuring out which is "left" and which is "right"), Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, the ABC game, Memory (with superheroes, of course!), and...

... Hungry, Hungry Hippo!!!
(I don't know why the picture is sideways, I can't get the formatting to change...)
However... I decided after 30 seconds of battering down on the hippo tails, the screaming, the racket, the cheating, and the plastic gobbling ping of the hippos... that this game was so much better when I was younger.
Oops.
So -- they will be playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo! whenever they want; and I will be using earplugs. :)

One night, Jenna and I decided to take the kids to town for hot dogs, and then to the plaza for churros (remember the heart attacks I mentioned last time? Apparently, we like to take our chances... lol). It was a lot of fun... and above you see the kidlets of the house (except the youngest, Gloria) -- that's a lot of kids!
Who would have ever thought??? ;)

And (below)... the two crazies that try to pretend they know what they're doing with this many kids! Okay, that's not true... we don't even try to pretend... we just don't know! ;)

And... in a brief update: Pollito!

I meant to blog about this when he came for a visit, but didn't do so. So... Pollito was here for about an hour one afternoon -- Nov. 1, actually, which was my two-year anniversary at CVE. It was really good to see him, and his family. He continues to grow! I know it shouldn't be surprising, but I think we sometimes latch on to photos, memories, etc. of people at different times in our and their lives, and then when we don't see them, we somehow expect that they haven't changed at all... even knowing how much time has passed!
I praise God that their family feels comfortable visiting, and I am thankful for the opportunity to have seen him -- admittedly hard, but aren't most things with those we love?

And here he is (below) with Candi... it was neat to see those two together as well.
Thanks to Nicole for the pics!

And speaking of hard goodbyes with those we love...

... Jenean headed back to the U.S. of A. last Thursday morning, and she is going to be truly missed. It's encouraging, though, to hear that when God speaks to someone, they are obeying... and I feel that Jenean is open to His direction in her life. Please pray that she would find peace with Him as her Comforter, that her life would glorify God, and that her future would be filled with His presence -- wherever it may be!

I love you, Jenean... Dios te bendiga. :)