Tis the season

Tis the season to celebrate in Casa Juan! Nov/Dec/early Jan hold Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, 3 Kings Day and 6 birthdays!  Pablo, who left our house in April, turned 18 just last week.  We are super thankful that he has been to visit us twice in the last several months including the week before his birthday.  Admittedly, it can be bittersweet to see him.  Mostly sweet as he still calls us mom & dad, as he remembered my birthday, as he reminisces about time in our house, knows he is always welcome and will still eat an outrageous amount of food at every visit.  It's bitter to know he's not in school, to know his living situation isn't the best, to know he's outside the covering of our house.  But he's never outside the reach of the Lord and we continue to pray for him.  We are thankful for the time we had to invest in him and hopeful for the seeds that were planted while he was here.

Celebrating my birthday was pretty fun this year as well.   A dear friend made a card for me complete with photos of each of the boys and messages written by them.  While most of them are typically not very expressive, it was super sweet to read their messages to me.  One of the boys actually planned, paid for and surprised me with a gift!  It was a box of chocolates and a card with a note.  May seem like a small thing but to me it was HUGE!  To see this sweet boy spend his own money(and he is very careful with it), go out to buy it, write me a note in my card etc and hand it to me with a hug the morning of my birthday... I LOVED it!  It was so sweet and meaningful.

Me with the boys on my birthday...getting ready for cake and the traditional "mordida" or bite.  I've said before that it can be a full contact sport in our house.  For my birthday we had ice cream cake and I let the boys smash my face into it. Thankfully they were a lot kinder to me than they are to each other.  One kept saying "Be nice, it's mom".

Our ministry here with these boys is relational and long term.  Sometimes the fruit seems small and even non existent but we relish the tell tale moments of God at work when they appear and we continue to trust that He is always at work, pursuing these young men and weaving their stories into His whether we see it or not. This month has had some sweet moments and we intend to savor them for as long as we can.
Zech 4:10 "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin."

Happy Birthday Mandy!!!

Today is Mandy's 40th birthday.  She is more beautiful, wiser, lovely and loving than she was more than 20 years ago when we met.  I feel blessed and grateful to have shared more than half our lifetime together.  I know many of you would agree and have been impacted by her life.  I would like to take the time to share one thing about Mandy that has impacted my life.


2 Corinthians 12:9  My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Galatians 6:9  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Mandy has a huge heart for God and for others.  This ministry that God has called us to is challenging in many ways and often pushes Mandy to the breaking point.  The thing is, she never breaks.  She has given her heart, time, and energy to loving not only her husband and 2 little kids but also the 8 boys God has placed in our home.  It's difficult to commit yourself to and to love people that don't have the capacity to love you back the way you want.  I know there are times when she feels like she's got nothing left to give and wants to run away but therein lies her strength.  Mandy's faith in God to love her, carry her and use her is why she has had such an impact on our boys and those around her.  God's grace is sufficient for Mandy and she continues to persevere even when things are difficult.

I thank the Lord for her.  She is a wonderful woman, wife, mom, and friend.  It is a blessing to walk with her as long as the Lord permits.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Health Update

I've been back in Monterrey for a month now and it's fantastic to be at home.  It's mildly frustrating that I can't do everything I want to do because of my energy levels but just being here to enjoy my wife, Sofia & Nico, and the boys is good for my soul.  God continues to work on me and strip away the things I cling to for significance.

A couple of weeks ago I was having some more pain and numbness in my jaw.  It persisted for several days to the point I called my doc in Cincinnati to ask him about it.  He said he would need to see a CT scan in order to tell me what's going on.  My periodontist friend, Carolina, connected me with an oncologist here who ordered the CT scan at a local hospital.  I then sent the results to my doc in Cincinnati.  He said everything looks good.  There is an inflamed lymph node that he can take care of when I come back in January.  Things have also healed up to the point that he has already scheduled the surgery I need for when I come back in January.  That is very good news and answered prayer.

Please continue to pray for healing, specifically for the infection I still have in my jaw, the suture line from my surgery that hasn't closed all the way, and the muscles in my neck and jaw that were effected by the surgery.  More than that though, pray that God would continue to use this process to transform my heart and my life so that I look and act more like Jesus.  Praise the Lord that my taste buds are recovering and I can now taste things that I couldn't during my radiation.  I had forgotten how good vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup is.  I feel all that weight coming back.