Musings on life, parenting, Jesus, and more...

It has always been a desire of mine to have my children become bilingual when they are still young, when their brains are still developing and can acquire new knowledge so much easier. When I was 12 I spent just one month in Mexico with my family, fully immersed in the culture.  I have always felt that even that small amount of exposure helped me 5 years later when I studied Spanish in junior college. I always dreamed of going to a Spanish speaking country and immersing myself for long enough to become fluent... but life got away from me and that desire just sank lower and lower on my "list". Fast forward almost a quarter of a century later, and here I am with 3 beautiful babies of my own. Last November, we had the incredible opportunity to spend 6 months in Mazatlan, Mexico. I didn't know how much we would or could actually learn in just half a year of immersion, but here we are on the other side of the adventure and I'm ready to report how we did... Fi...

Dear Dad, The girls are on their way up to your cabin to see if you will take them on the rope swing. On the way out the door, I overheard Tenley: "I bet he'll say yes, because he is the best Grandpa EVER!" I'm so glad the kids get to spend the summer here. It's so fun to see their eyes light up as they explore the exact property I grew up on. When you and mom split up some 25 + years ago, and the home we lived in had to be sold, I never thought my kids would have this experience. We loved visiting the original cabin, and the years we came for summers and Christmas are memories that our family will treasure forever. But there is something special about having this 10 acres back, and once again having the property that Rhianna and I grew up on "whole" again. (Plus, our family of 5 and Rhi's family of 4 have kind of outgrown the 1 bedroom cabin you built when we were babies.) The kids are going to reme...

We are counting the days until we leave this sabbatical of sorts that we have been on here in Mexico for the past 6 months. Things haven't turned out like I hoped they would, and I would be lying if I said that my faith hasn't been shaken, but I still believe that my God will work all things together for good. And our time here has been good in many ways. As a family, we have truly been blessed to be able to come here and enjoy the weather, the extremely low cost of living, and be able to introduce our kids to another culture and language. But I can't wait to go home. Those of you who have followed our journey might be asking where exactly home is for us these days. As you might recall, last May we sold our 5 bedroom house in suburbia and downsized to a small 2nd story apartment for the summer before taking the leap to move to Mazatlan for the winter. (You can read more on that here if you missed it.) We have a small storage room at one of our rental hous...