Clarification

The picture of Daniel sleeping in the chair is not really him working!! I think I took this after I made him haul around a bunch of boxes and suitcases. I love having a strong husband! But, he really is a hard worker. He does all the things that I don't want to do and he does them well. Sometimes my "control-freak" side wants to take over and but into all his business, but then I realize that I have to let him be in control and PRAY for him all the time and let God work through him. When I can keep my role as a wife straight, Daniel can really be used by God and things in the Perez household run MUCH better.

I love you, Daniel!! You are the BEST husband and father!! You are patient and kind and generous. And you love our kids and I know they look up to you. I hope Reece marries someone just like you and I hope Joe grows up to be just like you!! :)

We Have Arrived...

...No, not in Indonesia. Still in Houston, but in a new location. We are moved in (sort of) to our townhouse that is in basically the same area as our old house was in. We have been here about a week and a half, but only had our internet turned on just two days ago. That's why I have been so quiet in the blog world.

We are getting settled into the swing of things in our new jobs. What is our new job, you ask? Well, we are building up our financial and prayer team who will help get us to Indonesia so we can help meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Indonesia.

How do you build up your team, you ask? Well, we call and email people to see if they want to meet so that we can share more about Mission Aviation Fellowship and see if they would consider being a part of our team. When we are not meeting with people, we are praying, keeping up with people who are already a part of our team, meeting new people, keeping up with all our MAF paperwork that we have to turn in weekly. It may not seem like much, but we are required to log 50 hours a week, and we have even been going over this for the past few weeks. It also requires us to be on the go quite a bit. We are driving from on event to the next with our two kids in tow. We also hope to meet with churches in the area, small groups and any other group that would want to meet us and hear about MAF!

We have been at it one month now, and we have really been enjoying ourselves. Most missionaries say that this is their least favorite part of the process of going overseas because it's really all about money, which can be uncomfortable and awkward to talk about at times. But it has been fun so far. This past month, we have really been blown away by the Lord's generosity to us. It is so exciting to see the group of people that He has picked to be a part of our team. We are really not in control of this process. We can only share our passion and ministry, but the Lord is the one who moves hearts to give. We have been surprised and humbled by the individuals who have stepped up so far. And, we really have only had one week of meeting with people. Our first two weeks were spent with Daniel's relatives and traveling back to Houston. Our third week was spent getting settled in and re-connecting with family and close friends. This is the end of our first week of making appointments and meeting with people. It's been so fun so far.

How are the kids, you ask? They are doing great! They think our new townhouse is really fun, especially Reece because of the stairs! We are all enjoying our own rooms and more space to spread out!! We are trying to daily get boxes out of our storage unit and sort things out. We have four categories: get rid of, take to Indonesia but store until we go, take to Indo but use in our townhouse until we leave, and things we want to keep but not take to Indo which means have to permanently store here while we’re gone. Whew! Imagine making those kinds of decisions for every single item you have!! How many flash lights do we bring?? How many and what kind of toys?? What about all our pictures?? What about the dart board from the garage????? AHHHHH!!!!

Okay, so I'm not really freaking out. At least not at this moment. :) But, I do have my moments! :) Daniel has been working from home, and it's been so fun having him around. We are all bonding as a family! I love it!

Here are some pics to enjoy!

Here's Daniel "working" from home :)

Joe got a buzz cut!! Daniel really wanted to give him a moehawk, but it is really hard to give this squirmy boy a hair cut, so it ended up being a buzz.

Awww... cute! Right before the buzz cut.

We stopped in Seattle on our way home and went to the aquarium. Reece got to ride a shark.

Reece the Octapus












This is from our campfire on one of our last days with Daniel's grandparents. Reece throughly enjoyed the s'mores! And so did Daddy.





















10 month old picture!!





















Joe riding on the tractor with Grandpa Dale. Reece was too scared to ride, so her baby brother did it instead :) I think the next day she did ride with her Grandma, but I didn't get to see that.

I know many people are confused and still have questions about our ministry. We are slowly but surely making it through our list to talk with people one on one or in groups. I’m also working on a “Frequently Asked Questions” page for this blog and I’m trying to organize the blog to be more focused on what in the world is going on with us right now.

Thanks for hanging in there with us! Let us know if you have questions, want to meet with us, or just want more info on our ministry. We would LOVE to do any of these things. Email us! BeckyPez@gmail.com or DPerez@maf.org.

What Now???

We are finally finished with our training time at Mission Aviation Fellowship. It was a long five weeks, but God was so faithful to us during that time. He took such great care of our children while we were in class, He helped us work well together as a team, He provided for us financially and He kept us safe and healthy throughout all our travels.

Soooo.... what's next for us?

The last Friday of class, we quickly packed and cleaned our apartment and then headed to Sandpoint, Idaho where some amazing friends of ours had a wonderful lake house ready for us to relax in. We spent two nights there, and then two nights in Spokane, Washington with the Chareltons. Thanks SOOO much to Ross, Piper, Sophia, and baby Simon for taking such great care of us.

Now we are in Bellingham, Washington where we will spend the week with Daniel's grandparents and other relatives. We will also be speaking at a church here at their Sunday evening service. We are very excited about our first official opportunity to speak about MAF to a church!!

From here, the kids and I will fly home thanks to some super cheap tickets. Daniel will drive home making a few stops along the way to visit friends. We will be sad to miss out on these visits, but are glad that we don't have to spend hours in the car anymore! :)

When we get back to Houston, we'll be setting up our home where we'll be working on building up our ministry partnership team. More on that later! :)

For pictures of the Lake house, go here.

For pictures our time in Washington so far, go here.

The infamous MAF Kodiak!!

Lakehouse mini-vacation

Sophia and Reece looking for fishies on the dock and making their Mommies very nervous!! Don't worry, we were holding on to them!

Daddy and Joe bouncing on the dock.

This is the view from the dock of the back of the lake house. It was an amazing log cabin and a great place to rest after our intense 5 weeks of training!

Hanging out on the porch. And, YES, we all have jackets on. It was cold to us Texans!

We got to celebrate Daniel's 28th birthday at the lake house. Here Reece and him are blowing out his fake candles on his requested fun-fetti cake with cream cheese icing.

The Daddies took the girls on a canoe ride.

Reece and her buddy Sophia reading together.

The neighbors were so nice and offered to take us on a boat ride on the Lake. Here we are: Joe, Me, Simon and Piper.

Reece fell right asleep as soon as the boat got moving. Sophia was sitting on the other side of Daniel, and she fell asleep right after Reece. It was funny to see their little heads bobbing the whole time.

Joe love the wind in his face! He did great, until he decided he wanted to get down and crawl and I wouldn't let him. He protested by crying and screaming, but at that point, the ride was almost over, so it wasn't too bad.

The friendly neighbor with the boat also has a little Piper Cub float plane. Ross and Daniel were really hoping to get a ride in it, too, but I guess the friendly neighbor wasn't THAT friendly :)

Reece and Sophia played SO well together! Reece happily let Sophia put lots of pretty bows in her hair. She barely lets ME fix her hair!!

Reece was in Heaven when we went back to the Charelton's house because Sophia has princess dress up clothes!!

Daniel got to speak at Moody Aviation, and then he hung out there most of the day. Ross let us practice our Segway skills in the hanger.

They are so fun!

Our friends, the Chareltons, really blessed us with their kindness and encouragement. They went to a lot of trouble to cook for us and make us comfortable. They are awesome and we love them!!

Washington Fun

Daniel's Grandparents have a beautiful home with amazing landscaping including vegetable gardens, flower gardens, a fish pond and more. It's every little girl's dream!

Here we are picking blueberries

Reece is goin' on a berry hunt!

Reece and Grandma picked green beans for dinner. Reece is snapping them here.


Joe is just thrilled to be here!

This little girl LOVES the dirt!! She can't stay out of it!! Daniel's cousin Jacob who is five years old (in the background) came over and spend the night with us. Reece had a blast playing in the yard with him. We even went across the street to the neighbor's house to see their baby goats!

This week is fair week which is a pretty swingin' time around here. This is Grandpa and Jacob and Reece walking to the fair.

The carousal ride was Reece's favorite.

Joe and Mommy at the fair. Joe was such a good sport to ride in the stroller all day while Reece got to play. Daniel had to help Grandma Lin most of the day with cleaning the fair bathrooms, but he came to hang out with us after his shift was over.

Some baby pigs and their Mama at the fair. Wow, I'm glad I'm not a nursing Mommy pig. Those babies are aggressive!!

Reece got her first tattoo at the fair. I think it says "Jesus is the light."

Reece rode a ton of rides and only had to be escorted off one. It was a fun-house with a mirror maze which she did fine with b/c her cousin helped her through, but then to get out of the house, you had to slide down a huge slide, and she was too scared, so they walked her back through the maze and everything ended up okay.

She surprised me by going on lots of rides I didn't think she would like. Like the spinning dragons ride. She said it was "too wiggly" but I think it helped that her dragon was the pink one! And, her sweet cousin Jacob was there to help her.

This is for Rowan

Backwards and Upside Down

Reece knows her letters backwards and upside down!
Here's a video of her reading some letters off of our couch.

"This is 'Y' that I know. This is 'O' that I know. This is 'B' that I know..." :)