One of my biggest requests when people asked how they could pray for me when I was coming to Mexico was: "Please pray that I would be able to have friends. My Spanish isn't good enough to have heart-to-heart talks." God has answered abundantly.
Cynthia (also above), Darla and Ashley (volunteers from Tennessee) and I went to "Real" one day.
We had a fun girls-day-out.
My friend Darla makes everything fun.
Ashley got to have her first coconut.
Clearly, Anthony has made friends, too. "Convivencia" is a word that we need in our language and a concept we need in our culture. People know how to hang-out, or live together here. Instituto Adonai had a fun Convivencia, including dads pouring juice with their mouths.
Sam's teachers Letty (in yellow) and Maricela (in the hat) are some more of my friends.
I realize that this photo doesn't mean much to you, but you can see some of our great friends (Maricela and Oscar, Ricardo and Naomi, Mauricio and Claudia.) Do you think Anthony is laughing at Oscar's joke or is that the laughter of not-understanding-what-is-being-said?
No, we do not actually ride this way. We do seem to buckle-up a whole lot more often than our Colima friends and people think car seats for Samuel and Paul are bizarre.
Our friend Manuel put on an impressive 10K and 3K race.
Manuel's son (Manuel) and Micah are getting warmed up with a little dancing (or do you call it aerobics?)
Thanks to me being on Facebook now (gasp) my Colima friends have sweetly shared photos.
Thankfully, my friend Gaby captured this photo, since I was waaaaaay behind Micah (with Sam.) Micah ran hard and finished fast; he was pleased with beating his friends.
My friend Paloma shared this cute photo.
The news station proved that Samuel wanted to stop after about 2.5 kilometers,
but he kept putting one foot (barely) in front of the other
even though he was exhausted.
Just to set the record straight, though, he completed all 3 kilometers and wanted to do it again the next day!
The show afterward included women dancing in flying rings
and people in costumes.
Thanks to my friend Rocío, we have a family photo!
My friend Edith (who also happens to be Micah's teacher) shared this photo of the Reading Festival
and this picture of him making cookies.
The school posted photos of Samuel's class visiting the awesome new tree house at school.
This guy was also featured in a magazine article about Instituto Adonai, but I'm afraid I haven't been able to find a copy. I am still not the scavenger hunt expert.
Sam understandably loves the new tree house.
Paul is now the goalie for his team. You might think that Paul just dove for a ball, but no. He was rolling around, entertaining himself.
He has made some amazing saves, though!
Sam is ridiculously proud of his new Atlas jersey.
While saying "goodbye" to some friends returning to the US, we made new friends from Colombia and Mexico.
Fernando and the teenage guys who live in his Hogar Amor house are great!
You cannot leave Colima without one last popsicle
or one last hug from Gloria.
While returning from taking Darla and Ashley to the Guadalajara airport, I got this photo of something that has become normal #42: colorful houses.
My friend Paloma threw a beautiful pool party for her son and daughter.
Sam is well-loved by many of his brothers' friends who don't have little siblings, like Daniel.
I had a wonderful birthday with my friends Noemi, Claudia, Mauricio, and their kids. Delicious candies on the beach!
Micah has some great friends, including Richi and Alan.
Birthday fun with my friends -- building sandcastles
while the kids dug holes, Emiliano dumped water on Alan's head,
and Anthony played soccer...
lots of soccer.
Even more time was spent boogie-boarding.
How do you make a sunset more beautiful? Add a friend (Noemi) and a happy, sandy Sam.
I think we have passed our all-time record of number of family photos in one year!
What is it about this sight that made me feel as though I will blink and our boys will be teenagers, hanging out with their friends?
For now, I'll keep them close beside me for my birthday
and show them my running trail (which the horses share with us)
and pretend that Anthony still has three babies.
If you have had a birthday recently (ahem, Emily) my friends in the fruteria and I hope you can taste the fruit virtually. The woman in white is one of my shop-keeper friends in our neighborhood. Her son, in black, and her husband (helping Paul choose oranges) are also super friendly.
They let Paul help and they even hung up the sign he made for their shop.
I have heard that there were more than 3,000 people who walked 2.5 miles with us in La Marcha por Cristo.
We had a good time walking, singing, clapping and talking with friends.
Our friend Fernando was one of the many musicians on the back of trucks.
I have never had the courage to take a photo of the tambourine players/dancers in church, so you will just have to check out these colorful ladies.
Paul and his teacher Raquel were full of smiles after singing for hours.
After enough people had left that we thought we were able to "dance like no one is looking," the church photographer posted this picture of us on Facebook.
