Friday, February 27, 2009

still waiting

well, maybe the boy will turn out to be a march boy after all. still no sign but there´s two days left in feb.
things are going well. beto has a lot of jobs on his plate right now, painting pictures to sell that people have already hired him to do, and painting letters and the logo on our Dr. office new building.
Our new help is a friend from church and a true blessing from God. She works real hard, knows how to clean(like i like), bake and she has gone out to sell thelast two days house to house, which has helped us out.
Beto has bought his VISA PIN so Monday he will call to make the appt. It will probably fall somewhere at the end of March. Please be praying for him as we have to go through the same process as the first time. Hopefully though this time we won´t have any problems becuase we´re married and will have Santiago.
Here´s hoping to see our friends and family in CA by mid-late april!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

any day now

THnks all for the comments. we went to the dr. eysterday. this keyboard sucks.
my blood pressure is good and he said the baby is already in position. we think he´s going to be a feb. man instead of a march one. FINE BY ME! the orig. due date was march 15. yea right! now they think march 5th and we think he´ll come early.

we have a new worker girl who is the best and came at just the right time. she will be leaving around the same time as us for another job so God planned it just right as always. she even already knows how to bake and is really good at it so we will have her sell outside the house for a couple of months.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

He´s a Boy!

And he shall be called...........

we weren´t going to tell until he was born but here goes........

Josue Santiago....(ho-sway sahn-tee-ah-go) or joshua james, but we will call him Santiago.

Josue Santiago Perez Speaks Monterroso

From last week

Today did not start out very good. I had a rough night last night because I was up late baking after the electricity came back on around 10pm. This morning Beto went to preach at the alcohol rehab center at 6 and when he returned our worker who sells for us was here early. She came to tell us she didn’t want to work for us anymore. Thanks for the two weeks notice! Yea right! So since we had no one to sell and the weather is too nasty for me to sell and we didn’t have much product to sell nor ingredients to make more, we went back to bed!
At around9am our good friend and missionary calls us to ask if we can do her a favor. The situation goes a little like this. There’s a family…a single mom with 5 kids all by different fathers. The oldest is 18 and the four youngest are something like 8, 6, 4, and 2. The mother pretty much never works and if she does it’s to some extreme of like 12 hours a day so she isn’t ever home with her kids. She relies on the oldest daughter who also goes to school. The oldest has worked with our friend for many years and the mother is always asking her for money and depending on her for everything, and if she doesn’t give her money she gets unreasonably angry with her. The other day the mom asked for money for food and instead went and bought a pair of unnecessary sneakers for one of her sons, instead of at least buying the pair of shoes he needs for school.
So that brings me to today. The mother has been sending her kids to a school far away. It takes the kids an hour and a half to walk to it one way at 6am and again in the afternoon. What doesn’t make sense is that there’s a school only about a 10 minute walk away but she claims that the teachers aren’t as good and that the kids stay after and get in fights. So for the last two years she’s been sending her kids to the farther school. But because sometimes they wouldn’t show up they both failed this past year. But she still says they are learning more than they would at the closer school.
This year both of her boys didn’t pass their respective grades because they arrive too late or just don’t go to school but tell their mother that the teacher didn’t show up or some other excuse. If that really is the truth how are the teachers any better at the farther school? Anyways, so our friend was fed up with this mother because school starts Monday and she hadn’t gone to enroll them or buy them any supplies or uniforms. So our friend went yesterday to the closer school to enroll the two boys, and she told the mother that she was going to do it.
Well, the mother got very angry and was yelling at her oldest daughter and threatening to do something rash with her anger. So that’s when our friend called us this morning and asked us to go with her as witnesses to talk to this mother. Well, she wasn’t at home. So we hunted her down and found her, of course, at the farther school trying to enroll her kids there. It turns out it’s good she was there because there were two other teachers as witnesses who agreed with us and who didn’t want to let her enroll her kids in the school because they know the situation and that the kids had failed. The mother claims that the closer school is also more expensive (I don’t think so, it’s just another public school) but she claims that she gives them money for food and to ride the bus. So either way she’s spending money, but about riding the bus, that’s not true because they have to walk by our house to get to school and some days they’d be so tired, dirty, and sweaty, walking in the street, almost getting hit by cars. We’d bring them in sometimes and give them food and water.
We had a looooooong discussion with her this morning at the school and it’s just unbelievable why she doesn’t want to accept help from someone. It doesn’t make sense to us to send her kids so far away. So finally she was given two choices: send her kid to the closer school and our friend will pay for everything, or we go to the judge and the kids get taken away to live in the orphanage. She finally decided to put them in the closer school but booooooooooooooooy was she mad! When we left she wouldn’t even look at our friend and had such an angry look on her face. I don’t get it.
Well, after that fun filled episode, we, Beto, our friend and I, did our grocery shopping and then she invited us out to lunch at the nicest restaurant in town. Let me tell you, I thought I was going to explode I ate so much. It was so good.
And this is what I learned today.
God is always faithful. His mercies are new every morning, and yet I sometimes wake up wondering, “What is God doing?” in a doubting sort of way. And He always blesses us, like today. We weren’t happy when we weren’t able to open the business today, but God always goes before us and has his plan. Today we were able to help a friend and spend time with her and have a day of blessings.

Baby Shower






Here are just a few pics from the Baby Shower the ladies threw for us at our house last wednes. the 11th. We were going to have it at church with more people but i got very sick with dizziness in the morning and spent half the day in the clinic. the ladies insisted to still have it to ¨cheer me up¨ but on a smaller scale. that´s why there´s no pics of me..i definately wasn´t looking pretty for the camera. but i was feeling well enough to accept gifts of course.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

A Very , very good Friday

PROLOGUE...THIS IS FROM A COUPLE FRIDAY´S AGO...JAN.22 I THINK...




A Very, Very Good Friday
First let me start with a story that didn’t happen today but goes along with the continuing theme in our lives: God’s faithfulness and provision.
About a month ago we opened a second location thanks to our friends from church who lent (for free) us a space in front of their very prominent business in the center of town. The night before we were to open we were discussing how we were going to haul the big things there that we needed, that wouldn’t fit on the moto. Things like a table and chairs. We thought of a friend who could help us but we didn’t have any phone minutes nor the money to buy them, so we kind of just let it go, hoping for a miracle. About 8pm that night, the same friend we were wanting to call called US and asked if he, his wife and one year old daughter could come over. “SURE!”, we said. They came and brought 2 cans of fruit cocktail! What a treat! They stayed and chatted awhile, we served them a light dinner and then we prayed together. It was an incredible blessing. And of course before we left we asked if Samuel, the husband, could help us haul our stuff to the center the next morning, and of course he showed up on time the next day. Praise God!

Ok, so that brings me to today. Well, we have been struggling financially. All businesses seem to be struggling this month, being after Christmas, and not much traffic passing our house because school isn’t in session yet (starts early February) and many people aren’t working, etc. The business in the center has been a life saver and we realize that God gives us what we need, after talking to some friends who also have their own businesses and learning that some days they make nothing or close to that. We have been praying for a couple weeks that God help us pay a debt and start to save some money. We save our tithe for the month here in the house and give it at the end of the month. We had to begin dipping into the tithe a lot and were going deeper into “the hole”. It’s one thing to owe a person but to owe GOD! That is a bit more stressful. I mean, we owe him our lives, souls, hearts, minds, but I am digressing here. So we didn’t do too bad at the house today. Best day we’ve had here in a few weeks. Around two o’clock(which felt like 6pm), a car drives up with three people and I recognize only one. One gets out and asks what we’re selling and after I tell him he asks if the house is ours and if he can go inside and see it?! I’m thinking, “What?” He speaks perfect Spanish but he could pass for a gringo. Then he explains that he used to live here 12 years ago, so Beto takes him, his sister and friend inside. When they come out we find out they have lived in CA for 10 years, are perfectly bilingual, Hondruan, and their parents were missionaries here. We had a great conversation and we hope to see them when we visit CA soon. As they’re leaving, he quickly puts some money in my hand and says, “Here, this is not from me, it’s from God.” I didn’t look till they left but it was the exact amount we needed to get out of “the hole”! I started to cry I was so overwhelmed.
We also had a good day in the center so that FINALLY we put some money back into the savings and had some left over.
But I’m not finished!
Around 6 I get a call from a family from church. At first they say they want to come over now for dinner. I’m thinking, “uh, Ok, how many?” She tells me and then adds that they will bring the dinner. So then I’m like, “Oh yea! Come on over!” Wow! Just when I thought the day coulnd’t get any better, they came and brought a tooooooooon of food, cooked it and cleaned up afterwards.
But wait, there’s more!
They brought us, oh I don’t know, well, A LOT of groceries. When I saw all the bags I put my hands up to my cheeks like that kid in “Home Alone”, but not so dramatic, and asked her, “How did you know?” She replied, “Jesus told me!” I said, “Well, I’ve been telling Jesus.” There was everything from pasta to toilet paper, even a variety of cleaning supplies (hint hint?), and “luxury” items like paper towels and real Heinz Ketchup! Everything left over from dinner they left with us, practically everything I had on the list for shopping the next day. Beto and I were so overwhelmed we didn’t know whether to scratch our watches or wind our butts (ever seen Steel Magnolias?).

Oh, and I almost forgot! Beto went to take out the rent money today and there was ANOTHER deposit (we think from where he teaches Bible) that 95% covers our rent for February, which I’ve been praying about because we were going to have to rely totally on the business to pay the rent, which was a bit (ok, a lot) daunting.
So that’s just one day. We’re so overwhelmed we don’t know what to say. Thanks to all of you who are praying for us. We certainly feel your prayers! They are more valuable than anything!
How bout you? How have you seen God provide in your life lately?
All glory be to Him!

just pictures










a variety of pics I know. of the three dogs fighting over an old sock that fabio took out of the trash...we were taking care of the pastor´s dog during new year´s holiday when they went out of town.
Fabio and Mateo show they love each other in such strange ways!
Miguel and Beto after eating dinner andbefore going to men´s Bible study.
and then there´s me...Miss DAni, the shirt´s for you!
the bottles are beto´s garden...lettuce, so the dogs don´t eat them.
the men playing football are from the alcohol rehab center where beto has the soccer ministry on saturdays.
oh and finally the one with fabio´s rear in the air...ther´s a big hole wher beto originally was going to put his bottle garden. we threw food down in the hole so we could get this great picture.