Day after Thanksgiving Sales!

And even though I have done like three posts in the past half hour I have to mention this one. Although I understand my size, would have been a hindrance anyway this yr. ; My mom and I have always gone shopping this Friday! So today I find myself missing my mom a little extra:) In the states Christmas season officially starts after Thanksgiving! Mom and I would go out somewhere between 4 and 5 am to get started. We would plan things, but somehow we still never ended up purchasing very much. It was always great just to be able to spend that time together and get in the Christmas spirit! Some people are rude and hurried others still take a minute to help those around them or be curteous. (last yr we had a nice young man volunteer to carry the tree to the car for us - not an employee:) either way usually our adventure would end by 10am or so as the Spanish Conference takes place that same weekend, we often ended our journeys at Chickfila for breakfast. Whatever you do to enjoy this day and the holiday season, be sure not to take it for granted. Now as things have changed I not only look back fondly on those memories, but look forward to new traditions and experiences, not only with MY mom, but soon also as a mom. Hope you all have a blessed and safe holiday season. (Special blessings to all the moms out there!) Leave a comment and let me know of your day after Thanksgiving traditions, even if you always stay in bed all day to recuperate:)

Thanksgiving Review

We had our Thanksgiving dinner with family. Churi, Manolo, Belen, Carolina, Cristina, Paula, and Pilar. (Sorry, we did miss you Tobi:) I had never cooked a thanksgiving meal by myself so I have to say it went pretty well - Alberto was the BEST help! We had.......turkey (yes it was dry, why?), Stuffing, Mashed potatoes and gravy, Sweet potatoe casserole, and green bean casserole.
(My favorite was the sweet potatoes) Alberto's family definitely got to try a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.

The Feast

Churi cutting the turkey - whew!

The honored guest:)

Ok- stop staring at the belly! Churi was helping us to save the gravy, we almost destroyed!

Xanadu and The Real Madrid Game

Real Madrid!!!!!!!


View from the stadium!

Santiago Bernabeu

Supposedly Javi and Lucia although you cant really see them.

The Indoor Ski slope at the mall - too awesome!

There are some of the pics I have been meaning to post, we have been enjoying ourselves!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well it is Thanksgiving Day, so of course we should be sure to be thankful! I could probably write a post forever long of the things for which Alberto and I are thankful for. . . but the turkey is cooking:) Of course I am super thankful for Alberto-we were talking the other day about how quickly time goes by, we have been married over a yr. already! WOW. God has blessed me with such a good godly man who is also my best friend. We are thankful for our son...who will hopefully be here soon, but the Lord has worked everything out perfectly even with our moves for medical care, and so far basically I have had a very enjoyable pregnancy. We are anticipating the day Sergio will arrive! God has been working so much in our lives in the months that we have been here in Spain, we have learned so much and hopefully will continue learning; of course learning is not always easy sometimes you learn from others, God's Word, your mistakes...many ways! Also personally I am super thankful for Alberto's family here, not that I do not miss my own I do (praise the Lord for Vonage which enables us to talk to them OFTEN!), but they have all been so kind generous and loving that I dont think we have ever felt lonely, they have all been such a blessing especially to me, Alberto's always been part of the family, but getting to know them all well and spend time with them has allowed us to enjoy many wonderful moments we will remember forever. We thank the Lord for the time He allowed us to spend in Granada, and see God work there, and continue to pray God blesses the ministry, and the Stark family who were so hospitable to let us stay in there home for months. Also we are thankful for where God has brought us now, as we are working in the church here in Alcala, the sweet people who we have already come to love, and yet again for a place to stay with Alberto's Aunt and Uncle and family for now; and later some space for the three of us. I would lie to say that everything has been easy, but everything has been blessed experiences and God's peace and molding of our lives has been the best of all. Every need we have seen the Lord supply in one form or another. So today, and hopefully everyday we give thanks to Him for these things and so many more.

Update on our busy lives

I have not posted in a long time so lets see how briefly I can share what has been going on in our lives. We are settled in and staying super busy here in Madrid. In the past week or so we have seen God doing great things. With a day or two of running here and there and a great help from Alberto´s aunt and uncle we had my medical paperwork basically taken care of. So Dr.´s visits are being scheduled and Sergio is well taken care of:) My residency card will be sent here in a couple of weeks. And Alberto has had job interviews, one with the temp agency and a second interview with the actual company, for an administrative job using his English, we are praying for God´s will and waiting to hear back. We are having a great time being involved in La Iglesia Bautista El Faro here in Alcala. Alberto has preached several times plays the piano and next Sunday I will have the privilege of teaching the children`s Sunday School. (please pray for me I havent taught children in Spanish in a while:).We are enjoying being involved and praying to be a blessing to the church. Wow all that so far sounds like a big run-on sentence with periods stuck in here and there! We have spent time with Alberto´s family which is awesome. I am counting down days for My momma, brother, in-laws etc.....any one else want to sign up????? we are sooo excited to see friends and family from the states over these holidays!!! What else oh yeah I got to go to Xanadu...a mall with an indoor ski slope...COOL , and also to my first Real Madrid game which I will plan to post pictures of both things in a later post. And to top it all off among other things keeping us busy I am sleepy. My darling little man Sergio was taking aerobics or swimming lessons (his dad says practicing futbol...soccer ) or something last night and I didnt get much sleep, so a nap sounds irresistible. Thank you for prayers, please keep us in them.

HOLA, from Madrid!

So hello! Here we are in Madrid. We have been here for three days and God has been blessing. Alberto went to a 24hr. prayer conference at the church here in Alcala, he had a great time and God spoke to his heart. Church services were a blessing, Alberto preached both the morning and evening services and he and I also sang. We are going to be staying here in Madrid for awhile. We spent much time in prayer while in Granada for the Lord to provide a job for Alberto. Now this may not seem like a such a big deal, but since the Lord called us here to live by faith, and trust God to provide a job to support our family; the fact that after four months he still hadnt heard from any decent job was a cause of concern for us. We prayed for the Lord´s will in our lives. That week Alberto recieved a phone call from a pastor here in Madrid needing someone to help in the church while they go temporarily to the States. We spent several days in prayer for this specific situation and also got counsel. God gave us peace that this is His perfect will for our lives right now. So we will be here in Madrid at least until they return in June. The sad news is of course that we are no longer participating in the exciting work there in Granada. We will miss the Stark family so much...they were a blessing to us and God used them to help us learn many things. (love you guys). The good news is Alberto has an interview tomorrow, please pray for a good job for him. We are praising the Lord for how He works in our lives, even when our plans are not His plans. Also we are planning to do thanksgiving for some of Alberto´s family this week..please leave me a comment of the most traditional american thanksgiving food that you think no thanksgiving celebration should be without.... (recipes are not a horrible idea either...as I have never actually cooked for Thanksgiving by myself)

We will be out of touch

Well I went today for the ultrasound and everything was fine. They said he was looking good and healthy! And at the last ultrasound they made a big deal because he was in breech position, but now he is upside down (which sounds horribly uncomfortable), and ready to go!:) So this afternoon has been busy trying to get everything packed and ready to go to Madrid tomorrow. Sadly we will have VERY limited internet access, but of course we will get used to it. And of course we had church which was a blessing, Olga came to the serivce again, she is a very sweet young lady. Praise God for His many blessings!

An open walk with the Lord

In the past weeks God has been using the same verses several times, bringing them to my memory and planting them right in front of me:). It was probably a month ago when I first read them in my daily devotions. I wrote down my thoughts about it and later also shared it with Alberto. Anyway the verses are...
Psalm 139:1&2
"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. "
The rest of the chapter is awesome and very encouraging too, but of course instead of posting the whole chapter I am hoping anyone interested will go read it. The last two verses are actually probably my favorite from this chapter.
Psalm 139:23&24
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
God has shown me so much in the past couple of months, the great blessing of an open walk and heart with Him. Everything in His hands works out according to His will and perfectly:) Even when I dont understand what it is God is doing, I can rest in peace if my heart is right with Him and I am allowing Him to lead me in His way!
Praise the Lord!

Sierra Nevada

SNOW!!!! The clouds finally went away today and we could get some decent pictures of all the snow up on the mountain. It is beautiful, the pictures do not really do it justice, but oh well at least you get an idea. It is so amazing to see God's awesome creation. I would love to go up there, but I do not think that playing in the snow or skiing is possibe for me here within the near future :)

A name for our little guy.

OOPS! we did a survey months ago on name ideas, and never officially said what we are planning to name our son. I say oops, but it wasnt necessarily accidental. Now, I have been a relaxed, chilled, non-moody pregnant woman (REALLY!), but one thing I did have some indecisiveness over was the name...probably cause for the longest time I had myself convinced it was a girl.:) Anyway after much thought and prayer we have decided to name him Sergio!!!! This was after the comparison and elimination of many different names on the his and hers list of names I like. But for at least a month now we have been calling him Sergio and I have to say it really does seem to fit, he is an energetic little guy:) Anyway so everyone who voted for Sergio on our survey (which was the name that won:) your opinion has been valued and respected:)!
(Hopefully when we see his little face I dont have a mood swing and chage my mind...J/K)
I have been thinking about that alot lately...what will he look like??? I cant wait to find out. Will he have light colored hair like me? - hopefully Not! my hair was so white-blonde and thin when I was little that in all the pictures I looked bald until age 2:) Hahaha! Will he at least get my green eyes? What about his nose??? will it be more pointy like his daddy's or more squished?like mine? I dont know...I am sure he will grow up to be a handsome prince like his dad...but the waiting gives time to entertain a lot of thoughts. and more importantly prayers... Lord give us wisdom to raise this child!!! We are coounting down the weeks to meet our little Sergio.

Our week

We have had a busy week so far. It has been full of passing out the invitations for our big "inauguration" service the 7th of Dec. We have been trying to go out every morning and evening so we can hand out all 5,000 invitations. It has been a blessing to meet some interested people, and a burden to see how many people do not care.The Lord will have to work for hearts to be softened. The baby and I are doing well...walking alot:) I go for my last ultrsound next Thurs. so hopefully everything is wonderful!

Sunday

We had a wonderful second Sunday in the building! Lucio has been coming several weeks in a row and it was such a blessing to see him back. We are praying to be able to reach his family here soon. Also a young German lady who has been going to the college here in Granada joined us. She was very sweet, and although she has also been attending a different church she seemed to really enjoy the service. Neither Yany or Mayte who Alberto and I visited joined us, we are praying to see them also coming soon. This week will be busy as we are handing out invitations daily, please continue to pray for God's blessing and protection as we visit door-to-door.

What a Mighty God we serve!!!!!

It has been such an awesome couple of days!!! We have really seen God bless. The Andrews family came down from Madrid on Thursday night to help us get started passing out invitations to the first official service of the church which will be Dec. 7th. We began on Thurs. evening and it went pretty well, met some nice people....etc. Then Friday morning, everyone went out again and continued passing out invitations door-to-door. Although there some people werent home most people who were home seemed nice, even if they didnt want the invitation at all, no one was super rude. On Friday afternoon Alberto recieved a text message from someone who was looking for a church and asked him to get in contact with them. He called and it is a lady, who we are going to go have coffee with this afternoon. She seemed very nice and is planning to come to church tomorrow. we wanted to be able to meet her so she may feel a little more comfortable coming if she already "knows" someone. Pray for this time today that God will bless, and if she is not saved we will soon be able to share of her salvation. Awesome huh? but ...there is more. we went back out passing invitations on Friday night, even though it was cold and rainy. Praise God we did not allow the weather to stop us. The Lord had set up an appointment for us. In one of the buildings a very nice lady asked us in, and made us coffee. she then sat down with us and said ok, now tell me about your church. She is a traditional Catholic but is clearly not content and is searching for the truth. Alberto was able to share a clear presentation of the gospel with her several times during our almost two hour visit...(she had alot of questions) She did not recieve Christ at the moment, but the seed has been planted and she seemed very receptive, if she does not come to the church in the next week or two we will plan to visit her again. We are praying for her salvation, she was at the point where she was "almost persuaded". We are praising the Lord for His goodness and praying he will continue to work here in Granada...softening people's hearts and opening doors. Aside from all that is was a blessing that the Andrews were so willing to help out....praise the Lord for His servants.