A Perfect Christmas

We have been incredibly blessed.

I could let that statement stand as it is, without any qualifiers, but I want to praise God specifically for the joy that we have shared through this Christmas season.

This was our first Christmas in the US since 2010.  We have celebrated each year in Bolivia, of course, with many of our old traditions and a few new ones, but there is something special about being "back home."

The weather is definitely part of that.  After four HOT holiday seasons, we have enjoyed being back in cold country!  God blessed us with plenty of snow for a nice white Christmas

Enjoying the Bozeman Christmas Stroll at 31°F

The girls were afraid that they would hate the cold and not enjoy sledding because of it, but they have adapted just fine.  They are far from timid on the hill, too!

Naturally, the best thing about Christmas in Montana is being surrounded by family and friends.  We have been blessed by several celebrations over the past couple weeks.  We went to church and had Christmas Eve dinner with my (Nathan's) parents, then did our own thing on Christmas morning.

Throughout December, we noticed that the girls were much more focused on what they wanted to give rather than what they might get.  We wanted to encourage that as much as possible, so we changed our tradition a little bit.  Instead of everyone starting with a stack of gifts to open, we piled up what we had to give.  Then we took turns presenting one of our gifts to the intended recipient.  It made the whole experience much more focused on the giver.

Don't forget you can click it for a bigger version of these cuties!

The gift Kaylee and I appreciated the most of all was this nativity that the girls made for us.  They had been working in secret for weeks, locked up together in their classroom, with a continual hunt for more TP tubes as the only hint at what was going on.  Not only did it reflect hearts that are focused on the Truth, but it demonstrated their willingness to work together to create something for us.

The girls' nativity

After opening our gifts and having our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, we hopped in the Land Cruiser and drove two hours away to visit Kaylee's mom and her husband for a few days. The weather wasn't great, so the drive was exciting -- I was thankful for the Toyota's 4x4. (Click here for the time lapse video)

The girls with Grandma

Our celebrations ended with a day and a half with my whole family.  It was a whirlwind of food, games, sledding, gifts, and more food.

Construction game with both my brothers and two nephews

Now that we're done partying, it is time to change gears and begin our preparations for moving back to Bolivia.  We are 3/4 of the way through our time here, with an exit date in early March.  We have sorting, packing, and cleaning to do, some last-minute meetings, and I am working on preparing my Etnos classes for the new semester.  Please pray for us as we "unsettle" once again!  This time we get to start it with our hearts full. :)

Wanderings

The furlough craziness continues!  At each turn we anticipate slowing down and finding rest, but it just doesn't seem to come.  We have talked about why we feel that way, because we aren't actually that busy and we've come to the conclusion that it has more to do with lack of routine.

We recently returned from a 3-week, 3410-mile journey through 7 states.  It was part business trip, part homeschool education trip, and all adventure.  God blessed us with good weather and no car trouble!

Our first big commitment was a debriefing that our home church sent us to in Colorado.  We drove to Denver a couple days early, where we spent a day with Kaylee's brothers, then visited Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

The debriefing was 5 days at a mountain retreat center and run by an organization called Mission Training International.  It was a great location, very peaceful.  Just the sort of place that a bunch of frazzled missionaries need! ;)

We spent our time with missionaries from all different organizations, different countries, different ministries, different denominations.  The one thing that tied us all together was the fellowship of being cross-cultural ministers. 

The program is a carefully designed combination of structured sessions and free time.  Subjects that we covered included: transition, stress, sacrifice, and the need for rest, rest, rest.  We shared our experiences and hurts and joys and struggles.  The kids were in their own classes, talking about the same issues, in an age-appropriate way.  

Kaylee and I instigated a couple of bonfire nights that were a great opportunity
to tell stories and get to know each other better

We came away from the week with a new desire to not only survive our ministry, but be a blessing to others so that they will survive theirs.

Following the debriefing, we took a couple days to travel across Kansas to Missouri, stopping at two of Laura Ingalls Wilder's houses along the way.  Kaylee and the girls have been using her books as literature/history/home-ec class as they homeschool and it was a fun way to bring her story to life.

Cabin reproduction on the Little House on the Prairie homestead
in Independence, Kansas

The house where Laura and Almanzo lived out their years
in Mansfield, Missouri

Our main purpose in going to Missouri was to return to the training center where we spent 2.5 years preparing to be cross-cultural missionaries and talk to the new students about the work in Bolivia.  

It was fun to show the girls around the area that was such a big part of our lives and where Anne and Addi were born.  Of course, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and the lake, too.

As we headed home, we took a slight detour to see Mt Rushmore!

Since returning, we have spent time with lots of people and I have had 2 more opportunities to talk about our ministry in Bolivia: at our Bible college and our home church.  We have also made the most of fall in Montana, our favorite season!

Old West Adventures

One of our major goals during our time in Montana is to help Anne, Addison, and Lydia "catch up" in their understanding of what life here is all about.  Part of that understanding is a familiarity with the history that makes this area special.

It helps that Kaylee and I share an interest in 19th century Americana, so it is natural and fun for us, too.  Of course, it also meshes perfectly with Kaylee's "Little House" homeschool plan, so they count as field trips!  Here's a quick look at some of the activities we have done as a family during the last few weeks:

We went to a county fair in Powell, WY, where their cousins were showing their 4-H pigs:

We spent a day wandering through Yellowstone National Park:

They enjoyed riding horseback at Grandma's house:

We explored Bannack, a ghost town that was the site of Montana's first gold rush and first territorial capital:

We toured Alder Gulch, home of the country's richest gold strike, which today has been preserved and recreated as an excellent outdoor living history museum:

 

Back in the States!

We are excited to be writing from Bozeman, Montana!

We arrived about 2 weeks ago and plan to be here for 8 months.  We hope that it will be a time of rest, adventure, and renewing relationships.

Rest
Although we still have ministry responsibilities while we are here, for Kaylee and I it is restful just to be back in our home language and culture.  We need spiritual refreshment that we don't (yet) get in Spanish.

Adventure
The girls were born in the US, but they have lived very little of their lives here.  Anne is really the only one that has solid memories of Montana.  For them, everything is new and crazy.  During our 8 months, we hope to explore and enjoy some of the activities that we can't do in Bolivia (particularly in the winter!).

Renewed Relationships
Of course, the hardest part of living overseas is being so far away from family and friends.  We are excited to see many of you in person, rather than just on the phone or computer.  We have already been overwhelmingly blessed by friends here in Bozeman and look forward to spending much more time with them and many others.

We're off to a good start!  Our first big event was Independence Day, complete with a parade, picnic, and fireworks!  The girls have spent LOTS of time with their cousins in my family.  We've been fishing several times.  Kaylee spent the last 4 days at a retreat for missionary women in Colorado with my sister and sister-in-law.  I have been busy getting us settled in.

Friends met us at the airport!

Learning about Independence Day of their birth country

Fishing adventure in the mountains, while mommy was gone

Addi's first fish of the year (in the rain!)

After 4 days, we were all VERY excited to see Kaylee again!

Our wheels, a '94 Toyota Land Cruiser

Four Weeks, Four Places

During our four weeks back in the US, we've spent time in Denver, Billings, Bozeman, and Cody.  Now we're heading over to Dillon to see Kaylee's mom.  We're having fun, but it's CRAZY! :)

As promised in my last post, I have uploaded some photos of our time.  Click here or on the slideshow to see them:

Two weeks down. . .

As of tonight, we've been in the US for two weeks!  At times it seems so long and at others so short, but 1/6 of our time has passed and it has been a whirlwind.  We've spent time with lots of family in 3 different cities and seen lots of friends at church. This week, we're in Bozeman doing VBS at our home church.

Please continue to pray for our girls as the strain of continuous activity and (especially) meeting new people is taking its toll.  Addi, the most introverted of the 3, stayed home from VBS this morning with Kaylee, which was good for both of them.  Lydia went again today and says she enjoys it, but is unusually clingy and gets pretty nervous if I'm not right next to her.  Anne is handling it the best and is genuinely enjoying VBS, but the strain is coming out in other areas, especially in her pride and unwillingness to take correction (she gets that from me).

Kaylee and I are soaking it up.  Although it is difficult for us at times too, it is SO wonderful to be spending time in a place we know so well, with good friends, speaking English!  Kaylee had a very productive day yesterday buying homeschool material, getting a routine medical checkup, making phone calls, and shopping.  I've been enjoying the food and had a great time shooting through a case of clay pigeons (click for video)with my dad, brother-in-law, and nephews while camping on Friday.

I'll try to get some photos up here soon, but for now you can see a couple on Kaylee's personal Missionary Wife blog.