Texas Fun!

SO, what do you do if you're supposed to be in the jungle, but your visas didn't come in on time so you are living at your very gracious in-laws home sort of in limbo? You do everything you can to have some good-ole American fun!!

We had been meaning to go to an Astro's game before we moved, but the last game of the season kinda snuck up on us, so we bought tickets to last Sunday's game at 11:00pm on Saturday night! The game was at 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon (pretty much the WORST time to take young children to anything!) but we did it anyway, and had lots of FUN!

This first picture is from Reece's first Astro's game in July 2008.

And this picture is from last Sunday. Still her favorite spot...her Daddy's shoulders.

We spent some time towards the end of the game running down the huge ramps at Minute Maid park.

Joe had lots of cranky "I-need-a-nap-SOOOO-bad" energy to burn off.

Reece taking the lead!

Joe had a fun time, even though he was tired. He enjoyed the baseball for as long as an almost 2 year old boy can sit still, and then he was off climbing over all the chairs and walking up and down the stairs.

ICE CREAM!!

We took one of those bicycle wagon rides from our car to the field. We had never done that before, and it was really fun!

More fun Texan things to come! :-)

Being Flexible

Two Sundays ago, we had our commissioning at Cypress Bible Church. It was a very special morning where we got to see the love and support of all our friends and family come together in one morning. We were prayed for at all three services with a lot of our family present at the middle service and members of our "prayer and care team" at all three services. Our missions pastor shared that "today is a win for the Perez family, Cypress Bible Church and Indonesia!"

We also got to share a tiny bit of our story and how the Lord has been working in our lives for many years to lead us to a life of serving in Indonesia with Mission Aviation Fellowship.
The lyrics to one of the songs we sang that morning really spoke to my heart: "Take my life and let it be all for you and your glory! Take my life and let it be yours! Glory to God!"

SO, after being commissioned TWO weeks ago, why are we still here in the states and not on a plane to Indonesia? I'm glad you asked :) because below is an e-mail that we sent out yesterday to many of our friends and family. If you didn't receive it, here it is again for you to read and get the latest news! :)

Today, October 2, was the day we had originally planned on boarding a plane to Indonesia. Well, we are defiantly not on an airplane right now headed to our new home! We wanted to explain what our delay is all about and what we are up to until we leave.

Our visas are still in Indonesia waiting to be processed by the Indonesian government, so there is really nothing we or anyone else in MAF can do to speed this process along besides pray! Also, some of the leadership in our team in Indonesia is in transition right now, so it is probably better that we are not there right now as the new leaders are getting settled into their new position. By the time we make it there, they will be ready to welcome us into the country and help us get settled. The final reason it seems it's better for us to wait to leave is because the team right now in languages school is so large (8 families, I think) that all the MAF houses are occupied! So, the new leadership is trying to find a house for us to rent our in Salatiga while we are in language school.

We hope now to depart on October 30. This will put us into Indonesia with a couple of weeks to get settled in and then we will begin language school on November 15. The language school there starts in the middle of every month, and MAF wants us to get there about 2 weeks early to get all of our paperwork in order and to get settled into our new home before we start school.

We were disappointed in this delay at first because we are so excited to get to Indonesia, but we can already see a few reasons why the Lord has us waiting. As you can see, there are a few things you can be praying for us:

-visas would come in with plenty of time for us to leave on October 30, if it is the Lord's plan.

-for the new leadership to adjust well to their new role in Indonesia.

-for the perfect house to become available for our family to live in during our 9 months in language school.

In the meantime, we will be in the Houston area and would LOVE to spend time with you. Our weeks are numbered here, so let us know if you want to hang out! We are also finishing up packing our crates and getting all those last minute doctors appointments in. Thank you so much for you r support, love, encouragement and partnership in the journey. We love you all!

Much Love,

Daniel and Becky Perez

A Day at the Park

We had a fun day at Burrows Park with Daniel's parents over Labor Day weekend. The weather was surprisingly nice and the kids had a blast running around. It is a great park-one that I would highly recommend!

Our sweet frind Ally passed down her princess roller skates to Reece and this was her first time to try them out. It was slow going, but she did great and was very brave!




Thanks, Ally!! You are such a wonderful friend!

Mmmm... hot dog picnic!! What could be better??

Reece enjoyed the slides and playing in the sand while Joe loved running in general and throwing sticks and stones into the water.

We had a fun day!!

Some Girls that We LOVE!

ABIGAIL: She is cute and silly and she always makes us laugh. But, she is also very caring, loving and affectionate.

REECE: Of course...she's beautiful, smart, curious, imaginative, loving, giving and honest. And so much more.
ROWAN: AKA Ro-Ro. Joe especially loves his ro-ro. He's always saying, "Need Ro-Ro!" She is smart, spunky, funny, curious, adventurous and sweet to her cousins. And sometimes she forgets that she is shy and she talks to me! :) This is her being a veterinarian at the children's museum.

This is her workin' the shapes at the children's museum. She was very good at this! She also beat Reece at the scooter races.

ADALYN: She's new to the group, so I'm not quite sure how to describe her. So far she is sleepy and hungry. But, we love her just the same! Hmm... Who will Joe marry one day? Maybe Abigail or maybe Adalyn...both are excellent possibilities! But, Daniel says I shouldn't think about this yet. How can I not?? :)

And last but not least, the mommy of two of the girls we love: AMANDA! She just gave birth and is doing great as a new mommy of 2 girls. She loves our kids just like her own and she is very giving, loving and real. She's a great example to me of a godly mom, wife, neighbor and friend.

We love SO many other girls, but those are just a few that I've gotten some cute pictures of in the last few days! :)

Why Not?

Why not enjoy a beautiful not-SO-hot-and-humid Houston morning with your favorite brown-eyed little boy?

Why not push him around on his sister's tricycle even though his feet don't reach the pedals yet?

Why not let two cute and energetic kiddos run in rain (and mud!) puddles from the day before?

Why not let her race ahead of her little brother and beat him in a foot-race while she still can??And why not let a boy be a boy and dunk his best buddy "cowie" in the mud puddle and turn him black?

Silliness and Birthday

Joe is silly...but we all already knew that, didn't we!

My mom, some of the cousins, me and my kids hit the outlet mall to go to my favorite store in the world, Anne Taylor Loft Outlet!! I had to make one more visit before I won't be able to go again for three years!! You can mail me stuff from there if you want! :) Anyway, first stop at the outlet mall=Auntie Ann's pretzels!! In this picture, they're supposed to be saying "pretzel," but I think they're saying, "It's 1,000 degrees out here!"



This might be my favorite picture ever!! White hinies helping with dinner! The stool used to be Reece's, but now the kids fight over it, so Joe uses the chair to the kid table to stand on. Not the safest option, but I need to get out to Bed Bath Beyond to get another collapsible stool!

This is really Joe's first time helping me bake. "JOE DO IT!!!" is what I hear all day! Oooohhhh....toddler independence here we come!

Reece our photographer!

And last but not least! Bouncy Place with our best buddie Abigail!!

Balloon animals for everyone!!

Goodnight! :)

Crates are Built!

Daniel is finished building our crates and they are ready to be filled with all our stuff! It only took him a few days...he is so talented! :)

It seems that God is providing in amazing ways every day!! He is blessing us with all the things we need and MOST of the finances we need. We are currently at 95.5% of our monthly support. That means we only need around $350/month to come in so that we can hop on a plane to Indonesia.

We are so excited that the time for us to go is almost here. We anticipate the next month and a half will be difficult with all the packing/sorting, good-byes and "lasts," but God has been so gentle and patient with us so far. We know He will not give us more that we can handle!

We can't wait to join our language-learning team in Salatiga! I think there are maybe 7 or 8 MAF families there now and 2 other families from a different mission that we know from Moody. At least they will be there to show us the ropes!

OH, and happy birthday on Sunday to the handsome, talented, funny, charming, patient, loving, funny, friendly, generous man that I have the privilege and honor to be married to! Happy 29th birthday, Daniel!