Six Years

Happy 6th anniversary to my darling husband. It's our tradition to sum up each year of marriage with one word on our anniversary. Our words so far are: 1. revealing; 2. adventure; 3. growth; 4. abundant; and 5. progression. This year we decided to change the tradition a bit. In the past, our lives and our marriage have easily been summed up together. However, this year we would sum up our past twelve months of life much differently than our past twelve months of marriage. For this reason we chose one word to sum up the past year of life, and one word to sum up the past year of marriage.

I'll be honest with you. The words that came into my head for the past year were "tiring", "surviving", and "exhausting". We finally decided to sum up the year on one of Nate's words: "turbulent". Life has been shaken up a lot ever since moving to Mozambique! However, for our past year of marriage we chose "steady". Although our lives have been pulled and stretched in many directions, the Lord has given us grace upon grace to keep our marriage firm. The Lord has given me a husband who pursues and treasures his wife and invests much in his children.

All of that is only possible through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ultimately, He is our rock and firm foundation. When everything else changes, the Lord is unchanging. His steadfast love endures forever. May Christ, the Beginning and the End, the great I AM, be at the center of our lives, marriage and family, all our days.

Lilah turns two

Happy birthday our sweet angel. You are our feisty gogetter and larger than life. You make us laugh everyday. We pray that you will grow in knowledge and love of the Lord and seek His face always. May he use you to bless many, as you have greatly blessed us!

Swing set progress

Nate went on a trip 5 hours away this weekend with a bunch of local pastors. He worked hard each afternoon over the week to make sure we had a swing to play with while he is away. The next step is a tire swing on the other side. I wish we took a "before" photo of this yard - it was a dusty area full if rubbish! Hard to believe. I love my gifted man!

Swingin'

Daddy's building the girls a swing set!

Reading group

Some colleagues and I started teaching children to read last week. We go out of the city to a bush church and children flock to be apart of the group. In the morning I have one group of beginners age 8-12 & in the afternoons a group who read decently. It's a rewarding day! Especially since we can pair literacy lessons with sharing the Good News!

Pictures of our house from the back

The girls helping Daddy put up his tomato trellis

A papaya/paw paw tree growing in a remarkably strange place

We have a coconut tree too

Man at work

Our neighbour's banana tree bearing fruit in our yard

Our other neighbour's wall - a bakery. That's the chimney

Our guard's shed. Nate planted all of that lovely grass and it is coming along nicely!

The back of our house, joined with our neighbour

Life aqui

Here is where I study the Bible with my amigas. We were briefly interrupted by a rooster fight yesterday :)