T-minus 8 weeks and counting!

I can hardly believe that 8 weeks from today our family will be driving to Mexico.


I have been dreaming of this for years, planning for months and now with the holidays over it seems to suddenly be upon us.


I'll admit. Right at this moment, I feel very unprepared. Of the $3,000 or so we need to raise we have only about $500. Supplies...I haven't even started getting supplies together. But I have the beginning of my lists, so that is a good start.


Some days I can't even believe we are finally going to get to take our children on a mission trip, other days the reality of doing GAPS in Mexico with 5 (FIVE!!) young children makes me feel a bit crazy.
At least Jesus was crazy too...in the good way.


So, even thought this will be a very photo-less post, I thought you would like to follow along and see what the Lord is doing. (and there are some trip prep photos in the last post, so that makes up for it, right?)


Here is where we are at so far:


By God's amazing provision we have been blessed by so many already...and as usual, the Lord has blessed us with money (sometimes by people we barely even know!) randomly and at just the right moment.


To me, this mission trip isn't just about how our "American family will zip on down to Mexico, fix up some things  so they are "right" and be off on our jolly way back home with an educational detour or two". No, not at all...just like life, for me this whole experience will be about what the Lord is doing and us joining Him in His work. We get to see Him work right now in how He provides.


Our kids get to watch day after day as their daddy comes home and God has used ANOTHER person to bless us on this trip. That right there has been an amazing experience.


I love watching them pray and see God answer. God is in the business of answering prayers. Last year we were all in awe as we studied the life of George Muller in our homeschooling (Quick note: if you haven't read a book on him, click here and order this one. This book will bring you to tears over the goodness and faithfulness of our Lord in providing for our daily needs! The kids were literally begging for me to read this book to them.). To see him pray for EVERYTHING he needed...and to watch God bless the socks off of him (and tens of thousands of orphans!!) was humbling. I need to pray more. I need to have faith more.


We are praying like George Muller.


Right now we have been blessed with:


$594 (and some change!) we also have some pop cans that we have been given and need to turn in, so that figure will be a bit more soon.


Here is where we are at in expenses:


-$200 first payment to our church to pay for the room and board and supplies (you can check out the ministry we are going through here:www.gomissionstomexico.com
-$456 for 2 birth certificates and seven passports!
-$18 for 2 books of stamps to mail out support letters
_______Total
$674




We have another payment coming up this weekend, and we are excited to see the Lord provide!
Our church is also doing a "Taco Feed" Fundraiser lunch that our family gets to help put on to help purchase supplies for this community in Mexico-it should be a fun weekend!


My list of supplies for our family includes really random things like:
Pro-biotics
Clay
Activated Charcoal
Aloe Vera


And we will be bringing snacks for the drive so far I have:
Fruit leather
Lacto-fermented Sauerkraut
Homemade beef jerky
24 hour yogurt??


The list I am having a hard time with is our "what to do while traveling" list...we have actually traveled many hours as a family, but not so much all at once. And 5 years ago we bought a portable DVD player for a trip and it was really nice, but it has sadly seen it's last day. So...do we get a new one? Do we rent one? We don't have smart phones or iPads or anything like that, so I would love to hear your ideas. Cheap ideas! =) We will be making some stops, but we are going to have some major time to kill! =)


Well, that gets you all up to date on how things are coming along! I'll try to remember to take pictures at our taco feed!


Serving Him,
tarena

Passport process!

Downtown for a few birth certificates...

  It was just a quick wait...and $40 later.

Then to a downtown post office for passports...$416 later!

We got a little bored waiting and had fun taking pictures.

Although, as it took so long (there was SEVEN passport applications they had to go through!) that they kids had to go to the bathroom, so they escorted us through the huge back area to the restrooms...SUPER COOL!!!

Yea! So glad to have this completed! Now just to pray that they arrive in a quick manner.

Serving Him,
tarena

Photos for passports...

Today I went online to find out more info about passports. There was an awesome tool that allowed you to take a picture and then it would crop it for you to be the right size for the passport photo! How handy is that, so I lined us all up and took pictures...the results from the photoshoot and online cropping tool are above. I was thinking we needed "straight faces" so that is why we all look so awful...very somber! lol! 

A few of these were the "outtakes", but they were just too cute not to include on here.

When I started looking online at the places to get our passports processed, I decided we would just go to a post office that processes passports. Simple enough. I looked at the prices and couldn't find any pricing for the pictures...does this mean they are included?? I figured they must be included, so I didn't print out any of the photos we took at home.

Bad move. 

They do charge to take pictures...they just don't mention it ANYWHERE on the website! Big bummer...this simple mistake (I should have called in and asked!) cost us $15 per person. PER PERSON!!

That's right, they charge $15 to hold a simple camera up to you and print out a picture. 

Word to the wise...go online, use the passport photo cropping tool, sent the picture to Walgreens.com to have it printed out for a whopping .10 and save yourself $14.90! 

Oh well...at least we found out we could smile and all of our pictures turned out so much better than the somber ones we took at home! =) lol!

And it's nice that passports don't expire for many years to come! 

Pictures of our adventure getting passports to come soon!

Serving Him,

tarena

Meeting at church

Today we had a meeting with nearly everyone who has committed to going on the trip.

It was a wonderful chance to see who will be going and also to get caught up and reminded of all that needs to get done these next couple of months. It is hard to believe how soon we will be leaving...less than 10 weeks from today.

At the meeting we went over some of the info we covered at the last meeting just as a reminder or to inform those who weren't at the last meeting. I loved getting to hear the "inside info" on helpful things to bring, etc...it will really help with my planning and packing. We talked about dress codes, payment schedule, and a few other things. It was only about an hour long meeting, but it was a good chance to get up to date on where we are.

The reality of getting our passports done asap really hit me. They take awhile to process too, so hopefully we can do that within this next week.

I'm getting so excited to go...and a bit overwhelmed at what needs to get done. I know the Lord will provide and work out all the details as He always does.

Night!
Serving Him,
tarena

New note from Brandon:

Found this on Facebook today:

"Hello Everybody. So, we made it through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and the Rose Bowl. What's next? Planning for the Spring Break Mexico Missions Trip of course. We will be hitting the road to Mexico 11 weeks from this coming Thursday (hard to believe, huh?). I have 2 very important dates I need to share with you.

1) Sunday, January 15 - Mandatory Planning Meeting. We will meet at CCC in the fellowship hall after 2nd service. Please plan on the meeting lasting 1 - 1.5 hours. All adults, high school and older, should be in attendance. Attendance by children is optional.

2) Saturday & Sunday, January 28 & 29 - Taco Feed Fund Raiser. This is our only mandatory fund raiser. Please set aside both days. The funds earned are used to pay for our food while in Mexico. If you choose not to participate, $50 will be added to the cost of your trip.

Please pass this message along to anybody that might need the info, but isn't getting it through Facebook. Also, pass it along to anybody that might be interested in joining the group.

Finally, if you have not yet applied for your passport, you need to do it ASAP. Please contact me if you need help with the process."

Oh, me oh my! Can the trip really be that soon???

Passports-oh yeah. I better get on that!

Serving Him,
tarena