Belated "Merry Christmas"

Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope that you, friends and family enjoyed your Advent and the celebration of 'God with us'! We can celebrate Christmas every day because He continues to be 'with us'. This was our first Christmas without friends or family around. Elaine Hayden and her daughter, April came to visit for about a week and a half and we enjoyed their company. It was a Christmas delivery for the children as they hauled more donations of toys for them. We had two separate fiestas for the big kids and the smaller ones. It can become somewhat dangerous when you have large kids diving over the little ones to collect the candy and toys. We had a scavenger hunt in which they had to find the baby Jesus (who was hiding in the chapel....)One child was a little ticked that he was not in the winning group and pouted the whole entire time afterwards. Pretty stubborn. Elaine, April, Diego and Veronica and her kids helped us decorate and trim the tree. April and I made sugar cookies which we all got to decorate and had hot chocolate to boot. I enjoyed playing 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' on the boom box.....over and over and over again. I really enjoy that CD. We had the employees from the San Lucas Mission Hospital over for a fiesta and now we know that we can fit 38 or more into our sunroom which is where the kids have their classroom! Lots of outdoor cooking....we had tortillas and meat and chicken BBQ, fruit punch and ofcourse, those Christmas cookies, some things you cannot be compromised. Diego wrote out the Christmas story and used our puppets to tell the story once again, of Jesus' birth.We plan on using this form of storytelling in the future. Maybe even teach them how to present lessons for one another. The kids seem to enjoy it. (Thank you again, Glen, for your labor of love!)By now, some of you know Will had a little accident on the scooter and fractured his fibula. So now he is on crutches and healing. There are some pretty good size holes in the roads due to the wash-outs from those past storms. He had a brief encounter with one of them. He's doing well but ofcourse, it's difficult doing those things he normally does.

The other picture is of our new guardian family. Juan, Felipa, Jose and little Miriam. Juan was one of our masons who worked on the chapel. He brings alot of skills to Opal House as well as good character. We thank God for leading him here.

We hope that this blog finds all of you well. It's hard to believe how quickly this year flew by. But I need Will to remind me of those blessings that God has given us as this year was somewhat difficult for me. I am reminded that He will never leave me or us or forsake us. God tabernacles with us each and every day. I am grateful for the quiet moments where I can just reflect on who He is and what He has done. May you all know contentment and peace this year.......

Winter

It's not winter here but it feels like winter inside my soul, a need to bundle myself up. No pictures this time, just reflection. Autumn and winter are necessary for nature and for us, I suppose. I know suffering is part of the clothing we wear here. I read this today and thought I would share it. I know many who are suffering from different trials and tests, I am one of them. I'm trying to be still because I am in a place where I can do nothing but wait and pray. This year has been a year like that....waiting....praying.

(From the devotional "Streams in the Desert"
"Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering.
I heard of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but to go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: "Do you know what you have got on your back?" The little hunchb ack was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is the box in which your wings are; and some day God is going to cut it open, and then you will fly away and be an angel."