California

Miguel and I were so blessed to travel to California during the past week and he was reunited with his dad after nine years.

And his grandma!

On the way we stayed in Pasadena, California. Tom and Jodi Klotzle lent us a room at their house and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and fun chat with Kali Sauder that Thursday morning. From there we stopped at West Coast Customs (a car shop that runs a show we have enjoyed watching in the past) and saw some fancy cars. (Thursday was our 3rd anniversary!)

We arrived Thursday night in Salinas, CA and after going to see Miguel's family, settled in at the house where Miguel's brother lives. 

Jose and Socorro (Brenda's grandparents) have treated us well, sharing their home and wash machine, and cooking us food. Socorro even taught me to make corn tortillas!

On Friday morning, Miguel helped Pedro wash his truck and we got to meet our little niece, Delilah.

 

In the afternoon, Jose and Socorro took us to the mall and after window shopping, bought us ice-cream.

Saturday morning, bright and early, Miguel's dad picked us up and took us out to see the fields around Salinas.

Because of the ocean breeze that blows up the Salinas valley, it is very cool there year round and an excellent place for growing vegetables. There is a large hispanic population and many work in the fields. We enjoyed hearing all about the process of harvesting the lettuce heads, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries, other berries, cilantro, spinach, onions and more. Both these photos are of the iceberg lettuce.

From the fields, we stopped at Miguel's dad's house and jumped in his cousin's truck to take his aunt to the airport in San Jose. On the way we stopped for some tacos.

In the afternoon, his dad took us to Moss Landing to see the ocean. It was cold, but we enjoyed watching for the sea otters and watching them eat the roots of plants from the water.

There is a sea otter sunbathing in the grass.

In the evening we went shopping and the men grilled up steak, hotdogs, and chicken legs. Quite the feast!

Of course we needed some salsa.

On Sunday, Miguel's dad took us to where he works everyday in landscaping over near Seaside, CA. The company he works for is hired to care for the landscaping throughout the neighborhoods of the soldiers who live there. On the way, we saw this excellent view of the valley.

From Seaside we drove on to Monterey and Cannery Row, a long row of old sardine factories that have been converted into shops and an aquarium.

We stopped to look out over the ocean.

And then continued walking past the end of the buildings where we saw this view and a bunch of small deer near a research facility.

In the evening, we hung out on the porch of the Avina home taking in the sun.

Monday through Wednesday we spent mornings relaxing, going on walks (me), doing online schoolwork (Miguel), and spending time with his dad in the evenings. Above is a picture of the back patio at the Avina house where we picked pears and peaches and watched his uncle work on building a shaded grill area.

 

Thursday his dad took off work after 10 a.m. so we went grocery shopping and in the evening had another "carne asada." This time in José and Socorro's back yard and Pedro, Brenda, the baby, and Miguel's dad all came. 

Pedro, Miguel Sr. and Miguel

Friday morning we left Salinas at 5:30 a.m. Around 9 a.m. we stopped at a beach between Santa Barbara and Oxnard and got to see some surfers (above) and some dolphins.

It was still pretty chilly and cloudy. 

This dog also decided he wanted to hang out with us for a bit. His tag said "Smokey."

I wanted to see more of the ocean and fulfill my dream of cruising down the coast, so we took a detour on highway 1 through Malibu, CA. It may have ended up making our trip quite a bit longer though because as a result we drove right through the heart of Los Angeles on Interstate 10.

It was the middle of the day, but there was still a decent amount of traffic.

Once we got through Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio, we left the traffic behind. We made it to Tucson at 9 p.m. and stayed overnight at Duane and Ann Wulf's.

Saturday was Victoria's birthday! So we got to help celebrate and enjoyed the pancakes that Duane fried up on the outside griddle. The Wulf's invited us to join them at the Santa Cruz County Fair in Sonoita, so we took the scenic route and spent the morning there.

We got to see Cassidy and Axel as well. At noon, we left Sonoita and headed for Nogales. 

It felt so good to cross the border and make it to our home sweet home! We are thankful to be back safe and sound and see our puppy dog again.

Thanks for the love and support! 

We'll see what the next couple weeks bring!

Children on the playground

 First of all, we are thankful that Miguel's temporary visa arrived in Nogales last Thursday and he was able to pick it up yesterday. This visa will allow him to cross into the US and the permanent residency card will then be mailed to us. I've learned that it could take 1-4 months for the card to arrive. 

Miguel and Denver unloading hay

Lord willing, we plan to visit Miguel's dad in California next week!  Our trip is planned for September 8th-17th and at this point, we are planning to drive. We are very excited about all the adventures we hope to have. Miguel will be reunited with his dad after 9 years apart and we will meet our niece, Delilah, who was just born last week.

Monday morning my heart burst with joy to see the playground full of students in uniforms. It feels like new life! It's also been a joy to see the teachers again. 

Last Wednesday and Friday, Kendra, Maestra Ivette, and I presented the after-school program "Hilos" to  the teachers and then the parents. Over the weekend the school schedule was changed (by higher authority than our local school from approximately 9 am -2 pm to 7:30 am-12:30 pm) and so we've been making adjustments to the Hilos Schedule. Inspite of this hiccup, we are excited for several interested families and look forward to welcoming more into the program. 

The name "Hilos," means "Threads" in English and comes from the idea of weaving threads together to create a stronger cord. Some of these "threads" would be Christ, the community, and family. The program is currently for 4th through 9th grade on two afternoons a week for two hours and will include lunch, a social-emotional class, and three courses over the semester - horses, art, and cooking. 

I am also learning to navigate my new role as supervisor in the kitchen. One relatively small challenge recently has been an invasion of beetles! It's been especially bad the last couple weeks of this rainy season. As you can see above, yesterday we decided to curb their enthusiasm by covering the cracks under some of the doors.

Some more difficult challenges have been letting go of responsibilities and taking on others, giving direction and a listening ear, and in general, challenging myself to be a better leader. I'm learning that I can't fix everything. I don't need to micromanage tasks or relationships, but I do need to listen, receive push-back, encourage communication, seek solutions, stand my ground, apologize, set boundaries, and grow. 

I would really appreciate all of your prayers for our trip, the supervisor role, and the after-school program. There are a lot of details in play: relationships, schedules, time-frames, objectives, disagreements, disappointments, and adjustments to be made. I've felt empowered, excited, overwhelmed, afraid, and hopeful. Please pray that I can turn each of these emotions, each responsibility, and each plan over to Jesus. I can't do it on my own!

Thank you for your continued support!

Trip to Juarez

We set off around 7:30 AM from Magdalena on Thursday, August 12th. This view is looking down from a lookout just before the Chihuahua state border.  You can see the fence between Sonora and New Mexico, USA

The white line is the fence.

We arrived there right around noon.

Here is the pass.

And the welcome to Chihuahua sign.

As we neared Juarez, the landscape flattened out. We even drove through an agricultural area between Janos and Ascension and saw a few lakes.

Friday morning at ten, Miguel had his medical exam. It took three hours. They drew blood and gave him a couple shots besides other examination.

This is the building where he did the majority of the exam. The building on the left is where they gave him an eye exam.

We arrived at an airbnb Thursday night, but it wasn't what we were expecting. The kitchen area was shared with other guests, so we talked with our host and moved into another airbnb on Saturday morning. This one was much more spacious and private.

And it was still in the same area of Juarez just about 5 min. from the Consulate. There was also a supermarket, office supply store, pizza place, and pharmacy within walking distance.

Friday night it rained all night, so there was a lot of flooded areas.

This is in the neighborhood of our second Airbnb.

Just outside the neighborhood there was this flooded intersection. Some cars stalled and got stuck in the water it was so deep. You can just see a minivan behind the black truck that is stuck in the water.

Saturday we settled in and relaxed. Sunday we watched church online and then went to the Juarez Central Park.

It was all free and they had a giraffe, an ostrich, lots of ducks and geese, and some turtles in the lake. Kind of random!

They had a botanical garden and we saw this little squirrel animal. Some people were giving it radishes.

There were lots of sidewalks, benches, picnic tables, and playground equipment.

And even an outdoor auditorium. From the auditorium, we could just barely see a horse race track across the road and could hear the gun shot starting the race. While we were at the auditorium, a group of young people showed up and were practicing break dancing (flips, spinning around on their heads/backs, etc.) It was interesting!

Monday we spent the day relaxing as well and I had a number of phone calls with my mentor and my brother, etc.

Tuesday, Miguel had his interview at noon. I was not allowed in and waited for a couple hours until he came out. They had given him this blue paper and asked him to come back at 7 AM Wednesday morning.

We were kind of confused, but messaged our lawyer and he did some research and found out that they started doing the interviews in two sessions since February. We were relieved to find out that it was normal. We had been expecting to get the approval that afternoon, but would have to wait until Wednesday. 

I had a work meeting over video call and then in the evening we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper.  It was supposed to be our celebration dinner, but yeah, it was delicious anyway.

I had honey bbq and mild buffalo.

We started cleaning up our airbnb. We had been debating whether or not to pay for another night since we didn't know how long the 2nd interview session would take, but we figured we would be done in time to drive home. Wednesday morning I dropped Miguel off at the consulate at 6:30 AM, drove back to the airbnb and packed up and cleaned. I turned in our keys and arrived back at the Consulate around 8:15 AM. At 9 AM, Miguel came out with his approval slip. SO EXCITING!

Now we will wait a week or so until his passport gets mailed to Nogales, MX with a packet of information. Then we will cross and give them the packet at the border. Once they receive the packet, they will start the process of making and mailing his permanent residency card. After two years since we mailed the I-130 form (original petition) and one year since we were documentary approved (just waiting for the interview), it is so exciting to know that he is approved! (Take a peak at my featured post to read my update from August last year about Miguel's immigration process.)

We called family and left Juarez around 9:30 AM.

The mountains above Juarez.

We made it back to the lookout in Sonora around 1 PM

The scenery throughout the whole trip was beautiful and we were thankful to eat some tacos for dinner in Imuris and arrive back in Magdalena around 5 PM.

Thank you all for your prayers and we will hope to see some of you the end of this year in ILLINOIS!

Praise the Lord!