prayer matters (leaving for Honduras in 4 days)

I have been feeling the need to be praying more lately and it is probably because I feel there is more to pray about. Honduras, our safety, my kids, family stuff, job stuff, possibly moving and on and on.

We are praying for our safety in Honduras and for God to be with us while we are there. We are praying for the missionaries, the Hondurans, to see God work through His people and for flexibility.

We leave in 4 days. There will be 5 of us going: Bryan, Jaden, Clay, Kim (Bryan's sister) and myself. We are taking 9 large bags/suitcases of medical supplies with lots of needed equipment. We are packing minimally and are very excited to be going.

We are praying and ask that you will pray for us too.

I have setup a really cool prayer calendar. We really value and appreciate your prayers while we are in Honduras and as we prepare to go there. We would love to know that someone is praying for us every day we are in Honduras so we are asking you to sign-up for a day to pray.

I know that many of you will try to remember us daily or weekly or as often as you think of us but we would also appreciate you to focus on one day to remember us and the country of Honduras in prayer.

The prayer calendar website has instructions on the top of it for what you need to do and there is a list of things to pray for on the bottom of the website. You can read all about our lives and what we will be experiencing on the blog.

Here is the website:
http://www.my.calendars.net/honduraspray

Thanks for your prayers! We know that God hears us when we pray!

my grandma is 90!

My grandma Alma is a special lady, especially to me. Some say that we are a lot alike in our personalities. I would like to believe I have a few softer edges but appreciate the comparison. She is a strong woman who has served Jesus well throughout her life. We celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday. She will be 90 on February 17th. God has blessed her with a long life and a large family that loves her. Yesterday was a great day with lots of family. The best part of the day was hearing my grandma laugh, especially from the card my brothers and uncle picked out for me to give to my grandma. I just told them to grab me a card, any card at Walmart. They enjoyed my lack of clarity and chose the card in the picture. Definitely worth the laugh!

meal group retreat

We have an awesome Meal Group through our church, Upper Room Community. It is our small group of couples that meets weekly on Wednesday nights. Right now we have 3 other great couples that we love hanging out with and doing as much of life together as possible.

We spent the weekend together in one house. We shared meals together. Shared stories. Shared playtime in the snow. Shared in communion, confession and prayer. We shared Christ's love with each other. This is what the true Church of Jesus followers should look like. I love those people and they love my family!

so, I should be in bed...

but Bryan is working late (till midnight) and I am enjoying the fact that I don't work tomorrow. I haven't blogged in almost a week and wish that I had something to say. There are probably too many things to say because I haven't taken time to write about them but here is what is on my mind now.

Bryan and I are enjoying a time of marital bliss, well, almost. We are just really enjoying each other. I am a highly critical person so this is very difficult and unusual for me. We did go to a marriage conference (Song of Solomon) last weekend which helped. And we did have a retreat (Afton House Inn) without the kids last week and I'm sure that helped too. But more than both of those things, I think we are settling into our marriage and enjoying it more than ever.

I heard on Saturday at the conference that couples settle in to really like each other between years 9 and 14. I feel like we hit that point. We are married 11 1/2 years and we are there. I finally feel like I am over trying to change Bryan and make him into what I wish. I really like him, respect him, admire him and love him. Whenever older couples would tell me that the key in marriage is to stop trying to change your spouse and truly accept them. I would think to myself that I am not trying to change him. I just want him to be better and he has to change himself. I now realize that there is a difference in wishing for a better version of someone and just liking who they already are. I like Bryan. That is not to say that he is without flaw; no one is. He is Bryan and he is mine. I love him and can't wait to feel more comfortable with him over the additional years to come.

We started implementing a new rule in our house. No more computers after we put the boys to bed. We only do things together. Talk about our day, read together or work on whatever we want...together. It has been great and we both look forward to it every night.

Honduras, here we come!

We leave for Honduras in 3 weeks! I can't wait. It has been a year and half since we were last there. The boys have little to no memory of it. But Bryan and I are sure excited to be going back. Bryan's sister, Kim, is going to come with us, as she was planning to last summer. She will be a big help in taking care of the boys and her and I will trade off helping out around the hospital and surrounding area.

The political unrest is now at rest. There is a new president in office and the removed president is in the country and living somewhat quietly. Things are pretty much back to their normal.

I am excited for some warmer weather that is above zero. I look forward to eating yummy fruit, fresh tortillas, pastalitos, refried beans, rice and experimenting with new foods. I am also very much looking forward to the simple Honduran country life. It will be great catching up with the missionaries there and meeting some new people too. I am sure we will be amazed again at how grateful the Hondurans are for any medical care that they receive. We can't wait to return!

best book I've read in a long time

My favorite book of 2009 is Boys Adrift by Leaonard Sax, MD PhD. He writes about the five factors affecting boys and young men causing them to be lazy, unmotivated and underachieving. It is a great read for parents of boys and teachers. He writes about the five factors causing this epidemic which are: changes in school, video games, ADHD medications, endocrine disrupters (BPA, phalates, etc. and their influence on males) and the lack of multiple male role models that pass on what it means to be a man to boys as they are growing up. The last chapter is about the solutions to those five factors. The biggest solution in the author's opinion is to have boys at schools tailored to them, such as all boys schools or at least an all boys classroom. I am definitely considering finding that for my boys. I also think that all girls schools make a lot of sense. I think girls would also grow up with more confidence and possibly less boy obsession and distraction in the formative years. Separate boys and girls schools may seem counter-feminist and like going back-in-time but when you look at what you want to instill within your children, confidence in who God created them to be is very important and very difficult to encourage in our culture.

Boys Adrift has helped me examine what I want for my boys as they grow up. The book doesn't talk about bigger subjects of personal character, morals or God but it did bring lots of questions to my mind as I help raise my boys. What do I want to see them achieve and become in life? What kind of person do I want them to be? What qualities do I want to instill in them? And how do I bring them up to know and love the God of the universe and the father of Jesus?

it just hit me

I know that the big earthquake in Haiti happened 8 days ago but tonight, watching CNN, it just hit me. Wow! So many are homeless, injured, orphaned, widowed, missing loved ones and hungry. The amount of help that is needed is overwhelming.

I have talked about the earthquake with friends and coworkers, with Bryan and even with our boys. My boys get it. They really get it. They want to help. They even want their dad to go and help. People at work have asked me if Bryan is going down there. We did throw the idea out but we are leaving for Honduras in a couple of weeks. We will help the needy there but surely they are not the neediest. We will keep doing what we can.

For now, my heart is broken. So many people have lost so much and they just keep going. There are not overwhelming pictures of people screaming and crying about their loss. There are not people dwelling on what they lost. There are just people trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving on. They are just trying to keep their own body living and breathing and maybe, just maybe they can get a little food or water. Wow! God help them. God's people help them. This is the time for people to be God's hands and feet and go and do whatever you can. Pray. Give. Go.

back home

I am in my house again. I sure missed Bryan and my boys. I worked lots and enjoyed my time away. I got to finish the latest book by Margaret Feinberg, Scouting the Divine. I will read anything she writes. I have read her last three books and they are inspiring and thought-provoking. Love them!

I will also read anything that Susanna Aughtmon or Mark Batterson write. They are both great authors and bloggers.

I was also inspired this week by listening to my favorite musician, Sara Groves.

Happy to be home, more insipired.

on travel

Technically I am on travel for work this week, Monday through Friday, but I am viewing it more as a mini-vacation. I don't have to cook or clean or do laundry. I don't have to deal with kids fighting, teaching them or entertaining them. I get to eat lots of restaurant meals paid for by my company. I get to stay in a hotel with cable TV. I get to read a lot. I get to surf the web uninterrupted. I get to do a lot of star-gazing with other nerdy engineers. I might even get to watch a movie or two. And I get to enjoy the warmer weather of southern California.

I know that my easy week is making Bryan's week harder so I will be sending up some prayers on his behalf. I do have a big presentation on Wednesday but that is still easier than taking care of my two boys. Kids are a lot of work (and joy) and my engineering job is definitely easier.

I'm 31 and proud of it!

It's my birthday and I have had an awesome day. I got up this morning to go to work and before I left I got a card from my sister-in-law, Kim, and an ugly, yet funny card from Bryan. Inside the card from Bryan was my best birthday present ever. He got me a laptop. My very own laptop! Inside the card was a paper with all the details and the laptop was planned to arrive at our house today.

I have been whining about my 8 1/2 year old laptop for a long time and it is pretty much beyond the helping stage. My wonderful, generous and kind husband found me a great laptop. It was delivered to our house today and I am now typing my first blog using my new laptop.

Other parts of my day that were great:
-bringing donuts to work to celebrate my birthday and getting gas station chai (love that cheap stuff)
-working really hard and getting a lot accomplished for two presentations
-getting a warm reception from my kids at school
-Clay said he is going to make me a present tomorrow at school
-Jaden made me a treasure out of paper in the shape of a pot of gold with glitter on it too (so cute!) (I never thought I would love homemade treasures so much but they bring me such joy when made by my boys.)
-coming home to my Bryan who hung-up a sign for my birthday, got my laptop and got some of my favorite foods to share with our meal group friends at our house tonight
-eating yummy Panera Greek salad, soups and bread, with dulce de leche cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory for dessert (I got so much joy from others enjoying my favs too. That cheesecake is the bomb!)
-going to bed with my sweetie!

Happy birthday to me!

Christmas letter 2009

Here is our latest news... (double click on the picture to view it larger)

my lil sis Kim

My sister-in-law, Kim (aka lil sis, Bryan's sister) graduated from college today. We are all proud of her big accomplishment. Here are a few pics from the day. We had a great day with family at the graduation, and together for an awesome dinner and limo ride looking at Christmas lights.

change at work

I started working on a new project at work. On the down-side, it is a lethal project instead of my last non-lethal project. On the up-side, it is in the air instead of on the ground.

I am now working on a rocket launcher to be affixed to Navy helicopters. I am done working on the Spider Non-Lethal Launcher attachments. Work-life it always full at ATK and seems to be ever-changing.

I have a lot to learn about rockets and launchers. To bad they aren't getting used to explore space.

pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/raquel.jarabek
This is the new website for our family pictures. We maxed-out the last website and had to start a new one.