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Thank you for visiting our blog.  We hope you have a blessed day!  To donate to our Mexico Mission trip fund, please see the link below.

More information is in a section of our request letter...

We are excited and encouraged to once again be writing you. It has been laid on my heart to return to Reynosa, Mexico again this year.  Through our church in St. Louis, Rooftop, I will be participating in the Homes for the Homeless projectwith Strategic Alliance again.

This year, the costs are right above $1,000 to send a servant to Reynosa.  This will cover travel, lodging, the building materials, and basic necessities such as blankets, towels, clothes, and other items the people in this area are unable to afford.

Last year, when we both attended we were incredibly blessed and filled with joy. We were amazed that the people of the colonia were happy and content with so little.  We immediately knew that our lives would never be the same.  With Stephanie's recent career change she is unable to go this year.

While in Reynosa, our group of 20+ people and around 6 other churches from around the nation, we will build houses for Mexican families who are in desperate need of adequate shelter. Strategic Alliance has been involved in building homes in this area since 1993.  This week is one of the largest programs through Strategic Alliance, as they also offer medical services, haircuts, worship times, children's ministries and a resource center with clothing, shoes and necessities.  We will also continue to build relationships with the people of the colonia and visit the families we built homes for last year.

We are asking for your assistance in anyway that you can provide it, not just financially.  We want to be in your prayers, thoughts, and conversations. We are hoping to continue to get more out of our encounters by sharing Christ with the people in the Reynosa colonia.

We need your encouragement and prayers. Please email or mail us a phrase or Bible verse that has inspired you as these will be reflected on while on the trip.

Hanging in Tremont!

The Birthday boy had a trip to see grandma, grandpa, uncle bill and cousin Noah in Tremont : )

 Uncle Bill and Noah decorated the driveway!

 E calls bikes "motorcycles"....here they are!

 Had to test drive Papa Lum's tractor!

 Cousin Noah is SERIOUS and determined to mow the lawn!

 Didnt quite figure this thing out, but still loved to play "motorcycles"

 The boys on the beach--getting ready to FISH for the first time with Papa Lum and Uncle Bill

 They ARE a pair!

 CAUGHT ONE! And it scared the poop outta him! He tried to "pet" it!

 Papa was celebrating Memorial Day with his Veteran Buddies.  Eph wanted in the action!

 Seriously cracks me up! The kid wanted a tooth pick like papa!!!

 Even more fun!

E tried on Papas hat after the event! 

Kiddo makes friends with people while we are driving around.  He waves, people honk wave and smile. He is SUCH a sweetheart and such a stinker at the same time. Growing quickly and he talks NON STOP, really.  He talks about "Noah did it." (Usually when something is broke, its Noah's fault!) He talks about stories from daycare, he tells stories about fishin, Papa, Grandma Rena, Noah, Aslice (Grandma Alice!), Ash Ash, HeyHey (Auntie Hailey!) and Ryan and Kari. We just had a big trip to Tennessee for Aunt Kari's wedding.  We were able to spend lots of time with the Batson/Swetland and Collart families. Photos to come below!

Birthday Boy Turns TWO years old!

MY BOY IS TWO!  I can't believe it, but we have been busy celebrating it, that is for sure!  Trying to stay updated on his blog is hard! Someone wants to "help" EVERY time I'm on the computer. Using nap time today to get caught up!  Birthday post, wedding post and then some fun times post!

 Grandmas Alice and Grandma Rena with the birthday boy!

Blowing out the Candles

 Cousins sharing!

 Cousins sliding together!

 Momma and the cousins.

 Grandma Rena and Eph

 Playing outside!

Happy Easter! HE IS RISEN!

My guy LOVES being outside..."side...side...side"

Finally, a pic of momma and babe :)

He climbs, crawls and gives his momma a heart attack by
just being a boy!

I'm amazed at the cute ones I got from this guy! HE NEVER
STOPS MOVING!  He is such a compassionate mover :)

Thinking...and being SUPER cute!

Yelling is normal outside....its quite fun to be around this guy

Playing ball with the neighbor's dog!

Daddy-o and E man. Being cute :)

He is SO sweet. I still get lots of kisses and hugs and SMILES!

Bunny tattoo--Easter style!

Cutie pie COUSINS!  I love this one!

Being silly on the chair during momma's photo shoot

Easter stuff at Rooftop church. Stamping fun.

Found some eggs at church! Woot woot!

Another cheese for momma! Gettin ready to color eggs

Dad is an expert!

Excited about the money in the eggs!

Cute face for the basket!

This is us!  Our family of THREE!
We are SO blessed

Poopster

Yes, the title of the blog is Poopster....so, you can only imagine. My little guy has really blessed his mommy and daddy in the midst of a pretty busy time. He decided he would ONLY learn how to climb out of his bed at daycare.

He ALSO decided to ONLY do this at daycare: take off his diaper, climb out of the crib during nap time, POOP on the FLOOR and go back to sleep naked.

SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! This happened twice before the sitter could figure out WHO did WHAT! My little man is apparently a Pooping Houdini!

EVERY single day I laugh with this cute, adorable, smart and compassionate kiddo of mine. Jerret and I are amazed at the things he says (ALREADY!) and we usually do the whisper "hey, check out _______" multiple times per day.

Words and phrases we hear often: "EEmote" (remote), TV, Sadie NO NO, "Its eraining" (Its raining), "sow?" (snow?), LOVE YOU MOMMA (uh...yes, tears to the eyes!), LOVE YOU DADDA, he closes our nightly and dinner prayers with a hearty "AAAAMEN!", (when a loud knock or bell rings) "COME IN!", Pants (and then he takes them off), Poop, stinky!, and he loves to "Go bye bye" or "church". He also makes cute noises for airplanes, "rucks" (trucks) and "carsh" (cars)!

This month, our guy had ear infections all month :( I think he is finally feeling a little better. Lots of doc and ENT visits, but we could be on the mend!

As always, we are thankful to God for our little blessing and ALL our other blessings! (Especially the E-man being a poopster ONLY at daycare!)

A great resource!

I have a friend who started a website called Jesus Companion. It is a great resource for verses, finding a church and listening to Joy FM! Please check it out and tell your friends! I have added the link to my blog so you can always find it through my site, too!

http://www.JesusCompanion.com

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Our January.

God has really been teaching us a lot this month. We are so grateful for our home, jobs, cars, furnishings and food that He so graciously provides us with. We started this month on our highest of highs and a very low low.

The high was returning from Reynosa, Mexico. We spent a week building homes for a family who JUST had a baby girl. The trip was hard work, but God met us where we were and provided strength, when I wasn't sure I could go on. (Uh-hum, we were required to be at devotions at 6:30a.m. and lights out were suppose to be at 11pm. With the organizing, socializing and sharing, often I didn't get to bed until 1am. This lady NEEDS her sleep to function. It was an enduring week!) As mentioned, we would start the day with devotions, a little message and some breakfast. Then, off to the site by 8am. (It was only a 10 minute drive). At the site, we got organized and then held a small group devotion with our team of 10 or so. From that point, it was all kinds of work, play, and connecting with the families, the locals and especially the children. While I hear from "old timers" that this year was different, I still saw and played with many kiddos. We usually left the job site by 5pm, had dinner and worship around 8pm and free time from 9-11pm. Our free time was busy with buying stuff for three houses and anticipating the needs of the families.

We were lucky enough to be blessed by a family in the colonial. We had two AMAZING lunches prepared by one of the first families our church provided a home for. Their love, devotion and humbleness was hard to comprehend. These people were at Rooftop's three job sites EVERY day. They helped paint, move wood, build the roof, clean, organize and so on! AND they cooked lunch for 35 people! What a huge blessing Margarita and Armando were that week. (And every year, from what I remember!)

Jerret and I learned about a few families' situations and wanted to weep. Instead, we committed to praying for them and unfortunate circumstances. I guess what hit home the most is this: These people are FULL of God's love and JOY!
They didn't complain that they had no propane to work their stove, they didn't ask for more food, blankets or furnishings, and they never complained. They were humble and happy. Grateful we were there to help with a new home-type-structure. (A small structure with four walls and four windows.) It is still hard to understand how they could feel such joy without needing/wanting/asking for more.

By the time we were really able to understand the needs of the families, we left. We were a little heartbroken over a few things and hope to initiate something to help out financially with the community. I mean, we have SOOOOOO much compared to these families, yet I complain EVERY day. I'm not a super complainer, don't get me wrong. But, I do find fault in something Every day. My wifi won't connect on my phone, we are out of trash bags, I forgot to get printer paper at the store, my favorite TV show isn't on tonight, and so on. Silly things. Unimportant things. Yet, I am not satisfied or Joyful.

I learned a lot from these amazing Mexican families. Jerret and I have agreed that we enjoyed the experience so much that we are very interested in doing it again in the future.

The end of the trip also brings me to the lowest of lows for our little family. Its not anything health related or severe, it just helped put a lot MORE into perspective for us.

The little man, the love of our lives, the one we have THOUSANDS of photos of....the Big E-man....was Extremely mad/confused/upset/frustrated/annoyed/angry/disappointed in his momma and dad for leaving him for a week.

At 19 months, he wasn't sure what was going on when Gma Al took him away in the car. I know they had a good week together and he loved seeing Gma Ash, Gpa Gordo and Gpa Mike. No doubt he enjoyed being spoiled rotten, playing with lots of doggies and visiting with his aunties.

Its just that when he returned home, he had it out for us! After jet-lag and pure exhaustion, we thought we would sleep well the first night in our beds. NOPE! Little man was up around midnight and stayed up crying, fussing, and throwing fits until 4:30a.m. It was horrible!
As if that wasn't bad enough, he ended up hitting momma Every time I told him "No-no." It has taken weeks to break his rage of hitting, smacking and bopping me. He also suffered from some anxiety issues with mom and dad leaving either with him or for work. It has been a long month of re-training our toddler to love us! I think J and I really took for granted the fact that he wouldn't remember us leaving....and HE DID. Then, when we returned we (or at least I) pictured this homecoming of love, kisses, hugs and affection. I was greeted with a smack across the face!

We realized exactly how much we LOVE to spend time with our guy and how much he really means to our family happiness. God blessed us with some extra time with little man through snow days, MLK day and my Friday's off. We have reconnected with Eph, shared stories, videos and photos of our trip and hope one day he will understand that we left him to serve others.

Pics and videos to come of our time together this month.

Mexico....the final day

I have more Mexico posts for those visitors to our blog, but I wanted to share the reveal of the home we built for the family. The prayer is amazing and brought me to tears. I hope you enjoy seeing this small snip it of our time in Mexico. I hope to have a montage/video and lots of picture posts to share very soon!