Celebrating Light & Life

Meeting Scott in 2002 introduced me to a whole new world of theology and way of life. I took on that theology after doing some soul searching, Bible reading, and questioning. My God I serve today is much bigger than the one I served growing up, and I'm still growing in my faith. Praise God for His sanctification process!

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis to the Wittenburg Church door in Germany to tell the Roman Catholic Church they were misleading the people and doing many practices that God did not require of His people. I've been told that he posted his thesis very purposely on All Saints Day.

Today our western culture celebrates death and darkness on October 31 - Halloween. Over time we have convinced ourselves, the church included, that as long as we don't dress up as demons and such, Halloween is all fun and games. Many churches have decided to provide a "safe" alternative to Halloween by hosting a Fall Festival. I am calling this "fence riding." Let's see how close we can get to a secular celebration of death and darkness (the opposite of what the Gospel preaches) under the masquerade of "safety." I let my kids participate in a Fall Festival last year. I walked away disgusted.

Our family is choosing to celebrate light & darkness on October 31 by remembering the Fathers of our faith. We celebrated Reformation Day with 3 other families on Saturday.

Scott posted the the 95 Thesis to our front door :)
Adeline dressed up as the Christian Princess Adelina. If you go to the link I provided, you can read a short description of her. We enjoyed the book! Matthias is a lion from Noah's Ark.
Scotty presented to the kids why we were celebrating the Reformation. He did an excellent job! He held up a blue beanbag and asked the kids its color. He reasoned out with them that the only reason they believe it's blue is because others in authority over them have told them so. He then related the idea to the Roman Catholic church and how in an illiterate age, they were telling people lies about God and the Bible and the people had no choice but to believe them. Martin Luther, among others, brought these lies to surface and refuted them.
We had a coloring contest of a castle with Martin Luther's hymn written above it - A Mighty Fortress is Our God, which we later sung together.
Fishing for Men
Here is my gang - Luther, Noah & lion, and Princess Adelina
Our game was a bean bag toss. You can break down all the reformers said into 5 Solas (listed on the game) - Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria, Solo Christo, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide - click on the link for a short description of each.

Adeline pinning the 95 Thesis to the Wittenburg door.
Darton fishing
Adeline drawing a church for pictionary (DeNiel gave her clues how to draw it). Man, she is growing up fast!
We ended the night with smores and the kids enjoying hide and seek. It was a wonderful evening of Christian fellowship.

A Few Monkeys

Scott turned 30 this past weekend and wanted to celebrate in Cabarete on the North Coast. He took off of work on Friday and I was so glad to not have to do the 3hr drive alone (it's the hour in the windy mountains that kills me)!

Here's a picture of our monkey Matthias :)
First stop into Cabarete to enjoy the sand and drinks.
a bit of hammock time

Saturday morning Scott took Adeline & Darton to see real monkeys at the Monkey Jungle.


20 weeks pregnant. Scott felt the baby move this weekend too!

Matthias Pushing Adeline

La Raza Dominicana

Many children in schools here this week celebrated "la raza" or the roots of their ancestors. The kids could go dressed up as indians, tainos (the first indians here), campesinos (people from the country), and others. I opted for the kids to go as people from the countryside since I wouldn't have to buy anything. Adeline came home saying there were LOTS of indians and there were two girls in particular who were showing their bellies. She told me she wouldn't like to show lots of her belly, but she did like the indian oufit that showed a little bit. Even my 5 year old likes to ride that fine line....

Can you believe that if you fix this for dinner there aren't any fights about eating and that the rest of the evening is very blissful with brother/sister play time? Sweet Adeline was so excited about dinner that all she wanted was to do it again so that her daddy could be there to eat it too! (note: for those that don't know, Scotty sleeps at the mine site on Monday and Thursday nights)

Matthias Signs "More"

Shoshanna's Kitchen - Episode 59 - Iron Infusion

Adeline's Groove

Adeline squeezed in one more dance before it was time to leave.

Adeline Imitating Dance Moves

Adeline was invited to a birthday party yesterday afternoon for a 7 year old friend. She had a blast getting her hair done, nails painted, and putting on a dress to dance. After they fixed the girls hair and gave them their dresses, they wanted them to put on a robe and a head band to hold their hair back and then lay down on a mat to get a "spa" treatment. Adeline fel

t too pretty to participate and only wanted to dance the afternoon away!

I was told by a dominican lady later that afternoon how Adeline's personality is strong and confident and that she has the dominican attitude of "yo soy (I am)." I learned this afternoon that my daughter won't follow the crowd if she doesn't want to!

Here she was participating in the fashion show and all the moms got a kick out of her pushing out her hip to pose for the camera.

17 weeks

Here I am at a pudgy 17 weeks pregnant. I began to finally feel the baby move towards the end of last week. Matthias was a mover from 14 weeks on, so I was a bit nervous at first why I hadn't felt this little peanut move yet. I am trying out a new doctor here in hopes she will be more in line with how I want to take care of my body (i.e. less intervention the better and no unneeded tests). We plan to head back to TX for delivery. We are due March 9, which means we will head to TX the first to mid part of February.

Puppies Adopted

Almost 5 weeks ago I found these 4 pups, plus one more, in a box on the side of the street (one died 2 weeks after I found him). The vet kept them for 3 weeks in order for them to get back to a healthy state and for the last 2 weeks they have been extra playmates for my kids.


While there is no local SPCA, there is Doggie House here in Santo Domingo. It's a link through Facebook of a group of people here who reach out to maimed dogs and help with adoptions via the internet. We adopted one puppy out via Doggie House and 2 via friends. We will keep one. It's still yet to be decided if we will keep the brown one or a black one. We'll find out this week when Adeline makes her final decision! She has done AN EXCELLENT job taking responsibility and feeding them 3 times a day (which requires measuring the right amount and putting a touch of water with their food).

She started crying tonight during her prayers thinking that she will only have one puppy after this week. Her tender heart amazes me....and challenges me!