Back to life...and blogging!

The house is eerily quiet right now...Owen is napping, Eliana is at preschool and Kevin is out taking a friend to the airport. Although, it probably is not the latter who normally makes the most noise around here! A lot has happened in the last few weeks, our summer Avancistas headed home in a flurry of hugs and tears, not to mention a mega rainstorm the night before they flew out! We also had time to process and express our appreciation for our YearOut/summer leadership team. Almost all of them have headed back to the U.S. now and we are definitely feeling their absence :(. On the upside, we are excited that Alisa and Jackie will be coming back for more! Alisa has a heart for unreached people groups as well as medical missions (she is a nurse), so she will be spending October-December in either  Oaxaca or Chiapas. Jackie wants to continue to explore her call in missions and the way God has gifted her in social work, so she will be returning in January. We are also excited that Kevin Johnson will soon be headed to Columbia long-term to serve as a professor at the seminary there.

Our Summer Team

August 2nd (the very same day all of our summer Avancistas left) my sister, Katie, and her two kids, Jack and Emma, came to visit! We missed Brian, Katie's husband, but hopefully he will be able to make it next time. It was a wonderful experience and more than a little crazy at points! Eliana was beside herself with excitement pretty much the whole visit. If you want to see, in pictures, the visit from Katie's point of view, check out her blog here. She has several entries, so scroll down to see them all. One of my favorite parts of having visitors is experiencing the city through their eyes. I often feel like I notice different details because of a new perspective. We love sharing our city, who wants to come next?? :) Another highlight of my sister's visit was simply sharing more about our work here with Avance. She was able to meet our YearOuters and hear from their perspective how God has used Avance, and their time here in Mexico City to form them in profound ways for the future.

Trying hard to get a picture of four wiggly cousins: Emma (2 years), Owen (11 months),
 Jack (4 years) and Eliana (3 years)

August 13th my sister and her kids left but we also welcomed back Paul, Nydia and family. It was wonderful to see our friends/colleagues again. We have begun to plan together for the year ahead (which begins mid-September). We will be welcoming four new students: Robin, Erik, Amanda, and Elizabeth. And, as I mentioned earlier, Alisa and Jackie will join us in October and January respectively.

August 19th Eliana headed back to school. This will be her last year in preschool, which means that Kevin and I have to begin very soon to consider what will be our schooling plan for next year (enrollment generally happens in February!). Please pray that God will give us wisdom and insight as to what is the best plan for our family.

My little "girly girl"She wanted to wear something much fancier, I had to convince her that "fancy"isn't so appropriate for school!

On Thursday Kevin will be leaving for ten days to go on a partnership-building trip in Los Angeles. Please pray that God will begin to open doors for us to bring our monthly support up to what it needs to be, and also for survival for Eliana, Owen and I back at home! :)

Another exciting addition to our life is that Kevin will be beginning his MA in Global Education (through long-distance learning) this week. We hope that what he learns through this program will be a major asset for our Avancistas and will also help LAM forge partnerships with academic institutions. Kevin has a strong vision for the future of missionary training, he wants to partner the academic with on-field training in order to produce young people who are more fully equipped earlier on for the vocation of missions.

There are so many other details that are swimming around in my mind to share with you, but I will hold off for now in order to not bog you down too much with the details! Thanks for walking this journey with us and including us in your prayers.