Haley's Haven

Lots of different things going on here. Ana with Moby, playing in his doghouse, practicing her "sweet smile" (her words!). The girls trying to share a hotel bed (ha ha yeah right). Our whole family Christmas morning posing with all our sweet loot from the Becks - thanks James, Maya, Caleb, Mimo and Baby Hud! Also, there was a neighborhood Santa on Christmas morning - the girls loved that. And last but not least, the girls relaxing on Mepa. I look at that picture and it sort of epitomizes a sigh of relief - does that make sense?

So I just unloaded our camera from the past almost 3 weeks, and this is what we had - not much. But we are back in the Charleston area and so thankful for friends and family who have been so supportive. Thanks to all of you for all your kind words - you make a huge difference. This is a major time of transition for our family and we absolutely need your prayers! These are of Haley's second birthday party - Miss Cathy had her and Ana over for the afternoon - and then we came over to their house with cake for a great pizza meal - what a nice time.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I teach until about 10:30, then from there we leave to go back to the U.S. Please pray for us as we say our goodbyes, especially to the precious high schoolers that we have come to love so much. Pray for a safe border crossing - we are caravan-ing (how DO you spell that word?) with some friends, so that helps. And pray for our very long trip - tomorrow we go to El Paso, then head off down the road to the Charleston area. And let me just say that the girls are VERY excited to see their grandparents!

This morning Matt is helping some people move, and after that we will begin to pack in earnest. We didn't want to do too much since we had that party here last night - didn't want it too look all empty and yuck. But now it begins! Just by way of clarification, we have found out that we can stay with NTM for a couple more months while we decide what our next step is. We have no idea yet whether God wants us to stay with NTM and work perhaps somewhere else, or whether we should just step out permanently. But it is good to know that we have some time to pray about all this and take time to transition. So we will still be members until that decision is made. (Some people have asked about that, so we thought we'd let you know). We look forward to seeing many of you soon! We are having some car issues so please pray that our trip back to SC would be uneventful.

She woke up and immediately was ready to talk about how different it was to be four. She even asked me if her feet were any bigger - I assured her that they were. First things first: opening presents. She asked for dolls and she definitely got them - plus a sweet green raincoat! You may be wondering what mom in her right mind would order a "LOT" of Polly Pockets from ebay for her daughter's birthday...Me, that's who. But as I saw just how MANY tiny pieces were involved, I had a shortness of breath moment. :) But it's better than having 100 Barbies, right? :)

Blogger won't even let me upload photos anymore, and I think it is due to my super low bandwidth - anyway, here is a big mush of different pictures - Some around the house - Matt keeps the girls at home while I am teaching in the morning, so here are some things they do for fun - coloring and dressing up like professional equestrians! Aren't those outfits awesome? Uncle Joel and Auntie Ashley got those for them. Hilarious. And then, some Christmas pictures - one day we will get a camera that takes good indoor pics! :) And, we hosted a progressive dinner last night for the high school - we had the bread and salad portion - it was a lot of fun! We love those guys. Oh, and how completely annoying is this slideshow? I did it for my children... :) Let's see if any of you have the patience to watch all 17 photos being pulled on screen...

...we went ahead and took Moby to the vet yesterday. He got some eyedrops for his eye gunk, his glands expressed (don't ask), he lost something valuable to him that will hopefully make him calmer and not be able to reproduce :), and the antibiotics for that. I took him in at 11:30 and got him back at 5 - the cost for all this? $65 dollars. I think my dear friend Brooke will shake her fist in rage when she reads this, in jealousy! But then again, she might not even care because she is now holding her new precious bundle of joy, Tyndelle Eve Ahrens, born yesterday, one month early, at 4 lbs. 15 oz. (she is doing great from what we have heard)! YAY!!! So excited for you guys! Can't wait to see pictures!

Here is a copy of the letter we just sent out. I would have written it again, but I am pretty tired. We love you guys! I am not sure if everyone who reads this gets our newsletter so I thought I would cover all my bases. We are encouraged in knowing that God is in control and really, this has brought us closer to Him than ever before, and I have to be thankful for that! Hello dear friends and family. Many of you have been following the news about Mexico's war against drug trafficking, and about all the fighting that has been going on between drug cartels as they struggle for power. In the city where we live, things have gotten very violent. We see that this is effecting our family, our ability to minister, and we no longer feel peace about raising our girls here in Chihuahua, so we have decided to resign from our mission work here. We wanted to say a very heartfelt thank you to all of you who have continually prayed and supported us - you have been such a huge encouragement...

Every year Chihuahua holds a "Festival of Nations" at the convention center, where people from different countries who are living in Chihuahua for business or mission work set up booths and serve food and give away or sell artisans from their home country. There are wine tastings, free samples of local foods and talent shows - it is really a neat event! I got to help serve the meal, and we were a special hit with the kids - they dug our grilled cheese, tomato soup and brownies! :)

I have some pics on our photobucket site of our weekend at the dorm - mostly just Friday night's youth meeting.

I am giving blogger another chance to attempt to upload photos for me - let's see if it works... As you can see, we are attempting to begin pottytraining with Ana - it has been off and on for a while (I am NOT a "trainer" by any stretch of the imagination - I pretty much let Haley decide when it was convenient for her to start using the bathroom :). Anyway, the cat incentive hasn't really paid off yet. We'll see. In other news, that is Moby's stray dog friend staring at him through the bars. We can't stand the animal and have been plotting to "do away with him" - he has given Moby some sort of eye illness, causing gunk and other grossness. Blasted strays. Our neighbors have been feeding him so he stays around. Well, no BIG surprise...blogger has rejected my photos again. I'll try something else. Oh, and those are our homegrown flowers in the front - the girls planted them - they are very proud. And Papa and Uncle Ted came through to vi...

Psalm 3:3 - But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. Psalm 16:8 - I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. Isaiah 41:10 - Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Galatians 6:9 - So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. Philippians 4:6 - Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Hebrews 13:6 - So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?" Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. James 1:12 - God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterword they will re...

I am super annoyed - I have tried for several days now to get these pictures online - blogger won't upload for me - keeps giving me an error message - I wonder if they don't do international? And photobucket used to work, but now I have an error message there too. WHAT TO DO??? Sorry about the lame link - at least they are visible on that sight, though small and blurry. In other news, believe it or not, we are very chilly here! It gets down to the 30's at night, but up to the 70's during the day - high desert has very huge temp changes daily. Anyway, our house likes to collect all that chill at night, and then doesn't as much like to warm up during the day:). I am wearing a lot of sweats. Matt is so pleased. :) (Side note: we DO have central heat in this house, but Matt refuses to run it because he has been told that it bumps up the electric bill hunormously. Which I understand, but meanwhile, he has to look at sweats. I think it's an appropriate tra...

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/tylerfam/?action=view&current=1e90d376.pbw

...and trying to get these pictures on here. We have some internet issues - third world country and all. Anyway, keep checking! For some reason my latest album DID upload to facebook, so if any of you are on that, you can check it out there. Love to all - expect a newsletter soon! If I don't have your address, PLEASE send it to us!

Here is one of Ashley's pictures from this week that I stole off her website - look at these cutie beauties! As you can tell, Ashley did a wonderful job picking out outfits and dressing them - I love it! Haley looks like such a big girl.

Since we did the shorter training track for support workers, vs. the complete training for tribal missionaries, we missed out on some pretty fun stuff this semester at the MTC in Missouri. Check out my friend Angie's blog for some great stories!

Here is Matt racing - check out that stride! And isn't the Tarahumara guy awesome - I don't know if any of you have heard about the 100 mile races these guys do, in sandals made from tire treads and leather straps, kicking a wooden ball - very ridiculously high endurance/high altitude, etc. We thought it was really cool to see them compete in a city race - there were even some women in full Tarahumara traditional dress. Oh, and here is Matt with the Kenyans - he hated to blow past them right at the end... :)

Click to enlarge - or see the whole thing - ARRGGGH again.

And see if you can find what TOTALLY freaked me out when I looked at these pictures - you can see it in one of the pictures I already loaded. (well, these aren't loading either, so we'll try again tomorrow...)

Papa and GC took these with THEIR new camera - they came up this weekend for a family fun time - YES!! We have had lots of fun and got to go to the fall festival on Friday night. The girls have been looking forward to it VERY intensely. How about that face paint? It was the highlight of the night! Aargh - these aren't working - I am trying photobucket again - I will just put all this weekend's photos on there.

Oh, man we love it out there. It stinks that we have had to take a vow to never return with our Tahoe. We finally got her out of the shop yesterday - it had been a full week. You should have SEEN how excited Haley and Ana were to have the car back. Haley was running around the house SCREAMING with joy, telling Ana over and over "ANA! DO YOU HEAR ME??? OUR CAR IS FIXED!!! OUR CAR IS FIXED!!! ANA - DO YOU UNDERSTAND??? OUR CAR IS FIXED!!!" It was a joyous day:) Also joyous was that my set of keys which had been missing for a week were found in our car - YES! I was afraid an unscrupulous person may have found them somewhere, but no, they were in the car the whole time - Hooray! Also joyous was the fact that our new camera came in today - SI SI!!! Pictures to come - these from Majalca were taken by Jay and Liz - gracias to them!

It is Sunday morning, and we were having some eggs for breakfast. Haley looks at me and says, "Mom, I want to go back to Mema and Mepa's house. When can we go? Are we going to go there ever again?" I said "OF COURSE, Haley! They are your grandma and grandpa - of course we are going to go to their house." Haley: "Well when? Can we go after they come for their visit?" "Some time after that." "Well, Mom, when we go, I want to go to their church. I like it there." I assured her that we would. But I share this story because I wanted to give a "shout out" to the Summerville Family Worship Center for how much they have supported us and loved us and shown so much love to our kids during the summers we have been there. When Haley thinks about where she loves to go to church the most, she thinks of Mema and Mepa's church, and it is neat that you guys have made such an impression on her already, and she is only three!

We borrowed a camera from some dear friends, but sadly our knowledge of how to work it is obviously lacking! Here are some pictures from when we went out to dinner for Matt's birthday, and then his birthday apple pie :) It is so funny - I just realized last night that I made my first ever apple pie LAST year for his birthday, and I did it again this year - my second (this time I made the crust myself - it is amazing what you can do when you have to :) Well, I have been attempting to add these pictures for two days, and it won't work - I will try on Photobucket...

Click here to read about the latest Tyler escapade. Just go to the latest news article - "Culture and Language Acquisition".

Well, today Matt got the camera out to take some verb pictures for his Spanish study, and a puzzled and concerned look came over his face as he looked at the results of his first shot. Instead of a nice clear photo he got what looked like a pinkish melting blur of a picture. We tried lots of different things, but every picture is coming out like that - THUS, our Canon friend of many years, we must now say goodbye to you and replace you quickly, for there are grandparents that need pictures, language helpers that need pictures, and you guys haven't even seen my new fabulous haircut yet! Await the new camera with bated breath, friends...! We found one online, exactly what we want, on an excellent sale - digital cameras have gotten so much cheaper. We will order it as soon as possible in order to pacify Mema and Mepa! :)

Here are some photos - I think Matt is going to write about it on our NTM site - look for it there tomorrow or next day.