Kidz Ministry Picnic

We had our annual Kidz Ministry Volunteer Appreciation Piknik on Saturday, it was a fun event filled with laughter, joy and kids running around wet from the water slide. We had a bounce house, a water slide- which was enjoyed by everyone including a few adults, cotton candy and snow cone machines, and hamburgers.

More pictures on facebook.

Dad's 30th Aniversary in the Ministry

I surely missed home alot this month probably more than any other month because of everything that I've missed because I'm here. Missing my dad's 30th anniversary as a pastor really made me sad but at least I got to enjoy a few pictures.

April dinners

April has been a super busy and exciting month.
We finally got a dining room table last month so it was time to invite some friends over for dinner.

We had our good friends Berny and Natalie over for some good Arabic food- We had to invite them over before baby Emma comes. We had a great night of relaxation of 24 of course : )

We also enjoyed some amazing Arabic food along with a few games of Apples to Apples with our dear friends JP, Susana and Jenny- JP is the kidz ministry pastor and the pastor who married me and Pedro in July. Nate and Chrissy came over that night too- Nate is the new worship leader at church, he and his wife moved here from California about the same time we did.

Easter

Easter was awesome, not like Jerusalem but it was still great. We had two services at our West Campus but me and Pedro never got to sit in at either service because we were busy with the Kidz program. Pedro did a skit and I did a special presentation with pictures about Easter in Jerusalem, the kids really enjoyed it and so did I.

I LOVE My Hubby!

I have the world's greatest husband. We spent the whole day shopping FOR ME!! Then he took me out for dinner <3 I definitely needed the pampering!

Awesomeness!!

February and March flew by so fast!
Middle Eastern Festival, launch of CCK West, massages, facials, baby shower, Middle Eastern Mother's Day, and last but not least, another visit to the hospital.
This year has been a great year so far, so many awesome events- Praise the Lord! I love living in Miami!!

Dead Computer

So I've been slacking alot lately when it comes to blogging but I have a legit excuse! My laptops motherboard crashed and it was only a year and a half old, so I've been using either my husbands or one that I borrowed which sucks because I love and miss my HP beauty lol

Feeling Helpless

Last week I experienced something super hard. My husband left me to go to Peru for a few days but it totally felt like weeks. He left to the airport on Friday afternoon and came back Tuesday morning.. But I don't think a minute went by without me thinking about him and missing him. It was our first time being away from each other since we've been married and not only that, we only spoke on the phone once. BUT I did have a great weekend with my girls. On Friday night we watched a movie at my house, ate pizza and slept at 5 am. Woke up early Saturday morning and started our day, went to church in the evening then ate dinner and crashed early, woke up super early Sunday morning and had to be at church all day. Went out for the best sushi ever then had a great girls night. Got my hair cut and blowdried and spent the night at my friends house and woke up early the next morning and went home and just relaxed all day. Oh and did I mention that I was sick all weekend long. I got sick as soon as Pedro left on Friday and woke up all better on Tuesday just in time for him to come home.
I was kind of- I don't want to say scared but I guess that's a good word to describe my feeling on Monday night. I spent the night alone in the house and I felt really helpless. I never sleep with the lights on but I did on Monday night. I didn't even want to fall asleep because I knew that Pedro would be home at 7 but at around 2 I crashed and woke up to Pedro opening the door.. Let me tell you, my heart jumped with joy when I saw him.

Pastors' Conference

This past January my husband and I got to go to my first Calvary Chapel Pastors' Conference. It was a bit different for me to be surrounded by Calvary Chapelites but I liked it. I grew up Independent Baptist but I like the way CCk- my new church does things. I'm blessed to have such a great pastor, who is not only a great teacher but also knows God's word. I wouldn't have married Pedro if I didn't agree with Calvary Chapels beliefs or with the way they worshiped.

The conference was great, had a good time, worshiped the Lord, and heard some great teachings. We drove up and down with a friend and had an overall great trip. Me and Pedro stayed in separate rooms, I stayed with my girls and he stayed with a few guys. I felt single again hahahaha

Oh and I forgot to mention that it was freezing cold and we all ended up sick.

My Lord is AMAZING!

There's just so many things to be thankful for. I serve a great and mighty God and I'm blessed to be called His daughter.

Me and my wonderful husband have been married for a little over 6 months now and since we've been married we can see the Lord working in both our lives. I see many blessings day in and day out. Here's just a few things out of the top of my head:
We got here from Bethlehem safe and sound. We live in a beautiful house in a very safe neighborhood- answer to prayers. Great family and friends.
Just so many things but probably the most recent was my visa situation. I was trying to put it off because I had faith that the Lord was going to work something out and He sure did. Pedro was getting really frustrated and worried but I just put everything in the Lords' hands. We were blessed to find a great lawyer and she helped us out with everything.

Another great miracle was my husband's citizenship. Pedro moved to the States from the Dominican Republic with his parents at the age of 3- basically lived here all his life. He was in the US Army reserves for about 8 years and basically was a very good citizen but not officially. He applied for American citizenship a couple years ago in hopes that he would get it in a few months. It took way longer than expected. We were both praying very hard that he would get his citizenship before we got married but he didn't. I knew all I had to do as a good wife was to lay it down on the Lords' feet and just pray. Within a few weeks of my fervent prayer, Pedro got approved. We got the letter in the mail the night before his swearing in. Next morning he went, got sworn in and is now an American citizen.

Praise the Lord for His unending mercies and blessings!!

New Years Eve

We said goodbye to 2008 in Miami this year. Last year we were in Bethlehem with my family. 2008 was a very spectacular year for the both of us. I got a wedding proposal of a lifetime, the most magnificently spectacular- fairytale like wedding of the century, moved to Miami and started a whole new life with my husband- all in 2008. Can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!

So, we were planning on staying home for new years eve but we got a call the day before from Pedro's dad telling us that he was having a little party at his condo in downtown Miami. We went and had a really good time with Pedro's dad, sister and girlfriend and a couple South American families. We had good food and enjoyed fireworks from Bayside at midnight. My father-in-law lives downtown right where they do the fireworks every year, so we basically had front row seats from the balcony. It was very romantic starting the new year with my husband, watching fireworks in Miami.

Me and Pedro's Birthday

It was my 24th and Pedro's 29th. We celebrated mine on December 19th and his on December 25th.

Last year for my birthday, Pedro was in the States and I was in Bethlehem. I spent the day with my friends and family and at the end of the day Pedro surprised me by flying in especially for my birthday- unbeknownst to me. It was one of the greatest surprises of my entire life!!

So this year, me and Pedro both made of list of things that we wanted for our birthday's and Christmas. We both got what we really wanted : ) Our birthdays were both very special! Pedro got me 3 month membership to a spa- that was amazing! And on his birthday, we spent 2 nights, 3 days at a resort- a friend of ours from church blessed us with it. We also had an amazing dinner on my birthday and on his. Those were the highlights, we got many other things on the side as well!

CHRISTmas

CHRISTmas was a bit different for me this year for many reasons: It was my first Christmas as a married woman, my first Christmas in Miami and it was also my first Christmas in 10 years outside of Bethlehem. Let me tell you, Christmas in Bethlehem is like no other. Imagine spending the greatest holiday in one of the greatest cities in the world. Christmas is a very special holiday for me, for many reasons. My birthday is 6 days before, my dad's birthday is the day after and my husband's birthday is on Christmas day.. how special is that?

This year, I decorated my own house! We put a small- yet cute Christmas tree up and a few decorations. We spent Christmas Eve at church and had dinner with mother-in-law and her friends. Later that night, we had a candle night service at church.. That was really special. I love my church in Miami and I loved spending Christmas Eve with all my church family. Usually I spend it with my friends at Manger's Square/ Nativity Square singing Christmas carols to thousands of people. Before I moved to Miami, I sang with my college choir and every Christmas season we would have numerous concerts all over the city and sometimes even going to far away places singing to people who cannot celebrate this joyous holiday, like most people do, because of persecution and occupation. It gives me joy and excitement to see the smiles on people's faces as we sing to them.

I missed Christmas in Bethlehem this year and I missed my family and friends so very much but I as I look back, I did get to spend my first Christmas with my husband and in Miami!

Thanksgiving Week

So me and Pedro decided to do it.. Drive 12 hours to see my uncle and his family in North Carolina for Thanksgiving break. We tried waking up early Tuesday morning so we can get an early start before early morning traffic. We left the house at about 8 am and started our LONG trip. Our 12 hour trip ended up taking us about 15 hours, we caught alot of traffic and we tried not to make too many stops. So anyways we got to my uncles house at about 11 pm and went straight to sleep, we were exhausted.

The next day we woke up, ate breakfast and then went to pick up my cousins from school with my aunt and uncle. The kids were so excited to see us, I personally haven't seen the family in a little over 4 years. I was surprised to see the kids, they've grown so much since I last saw them. I feel so old LOL. So that day we just decided to spend the day with the family. After a great Arabic lunch we went to Old Salem and visited the Children's Toy Museum, it was a blast! We played dress up with the kids and went home and played games all night.

The next day we decided to meet up with Wesley, a friend of ours who lived in Bethlehem and shared a house with Pedro while he lived there. We spent the afternoon with him and his family and took lots of pictures : ) Later that day we had an extra-ordinary Arabic Thanksgiving feast at my uncle's Arabic church in North Carolina. Met up with some awesome people from the town I used to live in, sang Arabic songs and most importantly fellowshiped with Christians from all over the Middle East.

On Friday we had more delicious Arabic food and spent most of the day with the kids at Bethabara and the mall. Later that night we had dinner with Wes.

On Saturday, we left North Carolina and drove to South Carolina to visit one of my best friends from way back in the day, Sara. It had been almost 6 years since we've seen each other. It was so good to finally see her, I was so happy that Pedro got to meet one of my close friends from school. We had lunch with her, caught up on life and then we had to leave again. But hopefully we'll be seeing her and another good friend of mine this summer. It was already late when we left Sara's house so we decided to drive for a few hours and spend the night in Georgia.

We left the hotel early Sunday morning and were on our way home, it took us about 18 hours to get there. Traffic, rain and car accidents were the highlights of our day but overall we had a wonderful trip.