Every year around this time, Jessie and I have discussions about what we are going to do about Thanksgiving. It is one of the holidays we want to celebrate but find that when you add all the cost up of buying the turkey and all the fixings to go with it, it is a expensive meal for just the family. We use to have another American missionary couple that we would celebrate together as well as share in the cost, but after they moved to another part of Mexico we have celebrated it on a much lower budget. Last year, we had pecan and apple pie for desert but I can't even remember what we ate. To be honest when you have kids that rarely eat mashed potatoes and gravy, Thanksgiving food is very different food for our kids. Our kids eat bean tacos better than anything else we give them that is "American".

When it comes to Thanksgiving we have to work around our schedules as well. For example today, Levi and Kianna are at school, I have a meeting to go to, we have someone coming and staying at our house for the next two nights and we have our bible study at our house tonight. Then tomorrow we are celebrating Kianna's 6th birthday and having a party for her. So Jessie and I decided that Monday we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving. We can do that when we are all by ourselves. We do miss the time we would be spending with our families during this time but we know this is where God has called us to be. We are blessed to be here. We sacrifice our time with our families for Jesus. We are grateful for all that God has done in our lives and through our ministry. We can see clearly how God is moving in the lives of the people we see on a weekly basis.

We have come to the point of the year where mosquitoes are a constant problem. As I sit at my desk writing this post, I am constantly feeling the slight bump all up and down my legs. It can be a problem especially for the girls as they do school in the kitchen. Our kitchen is very open and bright all day long. You wouldn't think that this would be a problem right? Jessie and the girls are constantly having to put on bug spray on their legs. I guess that underneath the kitchen table is just enough darkness for these pesky varmen.

I wanted to mention that I did post pictures on our picture page. I realized that I haven't posted any for over a year. I had one or two posts ready to go but never posted them. Sorry about that for anyone who checks our photo page. I will try to be more consistent with it now that I am having a bit more time on my hands.

Last week we have our mission director and his wife come for three days. They stayed with us at our home. Our kids didn't know what to think about an American couple staying with us. They were such an encouragement to have come and just talk about ministry and the things that are going on, on a daily basis. One of the biggest things was just to have English speaking people with us. We didn't realize that we go months without speaking English for any long period of time outside of the family. It was refreshing to share with them some of our struggles as well as blessings that are experiencing.  We are praying about some up coming changes with our ministry in the months to come. Be praying for God's wisdom in how He leads us in the next steps.

Every month, I have to go to the bank to take out money. Unlike the states, in general, Mexico is a cash only society. This works well when you make a budget. No surprise charges with our check card that we forgot we spent at the grocery store or the gas station. We have gotten use to it after being here for close to 8 years. It took awhile to disconnect dollars to pesos. We no longer think about dollars here. At times we will have people give us a price of something in dollars and we have to respond with: How much is that in pesos? With this being a cash only society, it also is a poorer society. What I mean by that is that you can't bring a 500 pesos bill to most places. They will not have change for it. They will usually ask you if you have something smaller. I don't recall using $100 bills very often when we lived states side but that is kind of what it is like here. There is a 1000 peso bill that you might see very rarely here. So on a monthly basis, we have to get change for our bills and such. We try to carry 200 peso bills around to make it easier. We get our money from our mission on a monthly basis so once a month we go to the bank to get smaller bills.

I need to change topics a bit to get another aspect of life here. I am standing in line at the bank. I first want to say that I am an average size American guy. I am 6 feet tall. I am actually the shortest of my brothers but I also am the oldest I might add. So standing in line I started to notice the people in front of me where all much shorter than me. I saw maybe 10 people with various heights. I didn't really think about it much until I noticed the reflection in the glass in front of the bankers. (This is what happens when you stand in line for so long) I turned around and saw that there were over 20 people standing in line. I did not see any one person as tall as me. It was one of those moments where you think you are just normal and then you realize that your are not the norm. I realized that I was the tallest person standing line. Now that I think about it, it shouldn't surprise me as the majority have their roots from the indigenous Indians who are generally shorter people. I have met a father of a student who is in Levi's class is at least 6 inches taller than me. I asked him reciently where he buys his clothes from? He said he has to order his clothes from the states. There is no big and tall store here not to mention shoe stores that carry sizes larger than 11's. This works ok if I need shoes because I am right on the edge of 11 or 11 and half. I don't think of my self as a very tall man, but here I am taller than most.