feliz navidad

Happy Christmas!

We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas. First and foremost, for our Savior, without whom we wouldn't have hope or a future. Jesus' birth was the dawning of a new hope for all peoples. We are thankful to be a part of God's plan to reach the nations for His glory.

We are also thankful for our baby who soon will be joining us. Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks she will be here and is the best Christmas present we could ever dream of.

We are thankful for our families; we are currently in Washington spending Christmas with Tracie's family. Ricky's family isn't too far away in Orange County, CA spending Christmas in the U.S. for the first time!

We are thankful for God's provision in our lives, especially for blessing us with pregnancy insurance (since we don't have health insurance in the U.S.), which covers all costs related to the pregnancy and birth at no cost to us!

and we thank you for your prayers and friendship!

May God bless you this Christmas
Ricky, Tracie and baby

Christmas tree day

We got a pretty nice tree. Here they are taking it to the truck. It happened to be a really beautiful (although cold) day.









Here's my brother Nathan with my step-nephew Brandon.


Madison was fascinated by the passing flock of ducks










Trinity looking up at Ricky. I think he's getting ready to be a daddy, what do you think?


And look who decided to show up...

Santa!!!
(notice that i had to hide behind the tree to get this shot)

9 months pregnant

So here I am 9 months pregnant... and I had to confess to my doctor this morning,
"uhh.. I did something last night, I don't know if it's a no-no".
"what did you do?" doc asked.
"I went bowling" ... then, "but I only used an 8 pound ball"

The doctor immediately started laughing and asked, "did you have any contractions while playing?"
"Well, yes I actually did... and had a few throughout the night as well", I said with a guilty smile on my face.
He said, "you are healthy and although the baby would most likely be fine if born at 36 weeks, I prefer that the little one stays in until sometime after week 37."

My conclusion was this: If the baby decides to come late, bowling may be a way to bring on labor.

Pacific Northwest

It's been a while since our last posting! I finally pulled our pictures off the camera so we can post some here. We safely arrived to Washington the week before Thanksgiving. God has been so good to us in providing for all our travel and medical needs. I have been seeing the doctor who will be there for the delivery since our arrival. It's nice to finally have all that set up. I am now being seen weekly. We only have 4 more weeks until the due date! I am healthy and baby is doing wonderfully so far. She is growing well and becoming more and more uncomfortable inside, which is a good sign that she will decide to come out soon! We can't wait to meet her.

We are enjoying our time in Washington. We are with my parents in Vancouver. What a great blessing is was to see them again after 2 years! We also had the privelege of meeting our niece, Trinity, who is already 9 months old. Maddy, our other niece, just is about to celebrate her 2nd birthday. She is the funniest little girl (and knows it!). It's so fun to be with them and my brother Nathan and sister in law Cynthia.

Here we are at the christmas tree farm, choosing our tree. There's Ricky with my mom and dad.

My younger brothers are practically all grown up, it was a wonderful and tearful reunion seeing them again. I can't believe how much they change in just a few years. Gabe is a sophmore in high school and Jon is a Senior. They both are already thinking about and making plans for college and future careers. I'm so proud of them both. Here they are making funny faces... I don't know what they are doing exactly, just being themselves I guess! lol.

Here's pretty Trinners and sassy Maddy. Such cuties!