It's amazing we've had Deklin in our lives for 1 year already! He's such a little sunshine in our lives and more fun than we could have imagined! 

His birthday was the end of May, so we had a little party for him. 

                                   

We had so much fun making his cake.

I guess I can share a little bit..

The sugar high

He went absolutely wild after all that cake. (oh and, he didn't actually eat that huge of a piece, at least half of it fell on the ground.) But he did eat a lot. He scrambled all over the house screaming at the top of his lungs for quite a while that evening. :) 

Deklin took his first steps this month, but he's not walking yet. He gets way too excited and tries to take off running. 

His favorite happy spot is out in the warehouse with the tools. He plays out there for hours at a time. 

A hard working guy's gotta have water. 

Mi Guapo  <3 

Mike's spanish is coming along nicely and he enjoys working in the bookstore and going on the book runs. Once he knows where all the different bookstores are, Deklin and I will get to go along. =)

I'm amazed at how fast Mike has learned to communicate in Spanish, and he does a wonderful job taking care of the bookstore and all the responsibilities that come with that. He's also found time to build shelves and picture frames for our house to make it feel more like home. It's the most wonderful thing having him right close by all day. :)

One of Deklin's really good buddies. Luis helps in the bookstore and around the mission. 

It's been very hot this month, but it has rained some so that really helps cool things off. We're enjoying life here...there's still a lot of adjustments, but we're grateful for our next door friends Alan & Delores Summy, and the teachers Renita and Marta. Mike's cousin Julie is here for the month of June and it's been fun catching up with her again.

Last month we had a rat in our house. Yes, a rat. I still can hardly believe it, I'd never even seen a rat in my whole life. It had taken one of our chocolate bars John Weaver had just brought from the states. It drug it down under the fridge where it sat, for days, rotting. We could not figure out what HORRIBLE smell had taken over our house. When we finally found it and saw that it had been chewed on by something, we thought of a rat...but surely not..in our house?? We went to bed, then at about 3:30 am we heard a cup tip over on the kitchen counter. We hurried out to the kitchen, and heard something scuttle behind the fridge. Mike sent me out to the warehouse for a board to smack it with, and in the meantime it ran under our BED. 

We closed all the doors in our house, turned on the lights, then chased it, all over the place. In all the chaos Mike was able to hit it once or twice. Finally it went into the stove, and that was it, we tried everything to get it to come out. We went to bed, and the next morning took the whole stove apart looking for it. Finally we gave up, then that day when I was cleaning and disinfecting everything, I saw rat footprints on the window, and a hole in the screen. So, at least we know it's not still in the house. But it did get away with most of our precious chocolate!! :( We think there must be a whole colony living in the warehouse. 

This Sunday we have a Spanish teacher coming! We're so excited. Michael and I are planning to study with her 3 hours each day. Between that and homework we'll be pretty busy I think. 

Last Saturday we went to help Dennis & Yolanda with the little kids again....=)

These little darlings just LOVE Dennis & Yolanda. 

They have the biggest hearts for these children

Pedro. 

What a precious little man. He's very patient with my slow, very hard to understand Spanish. 

Josesito. <3 

He is TOO cute and his personality is just precious. So full of life. 

Making tortillas!

Deklin was so exhausted by the time we left...he fell asleep almost instantly. 

So there hasn't been a whole lot going on...besides studying Spanish and adjusting. I have to admit I've been lonely and even bored at times...but yesterday Dennis & Yoley came to visit and she asked if I'd like to come help with the kids every Saturday! I am THRILLED. I've been trying to find my nitch here, and I think this is it. :) My job will be to play with the smallest kids, color with them and just spend time with them..I think I'm also supposed to teach them bible stories...... not quite sure how I'll manage that! (I could use prayer that I'd be able to learn spanish quickly!) 

We appreciate you all, and your prayers.

-Mike, Kyla & Deklin