Fiesta! Party!

This past weekend gave our family plenty of reasons to celebrate and we had a good time doing it! Martita turned 15 last week. Here in Mexico a girls' 15th birthday celebration, "Quinceanos", is very important and is a type of "coming out" as she transitions from being a little girl to a young woman. Culturally, we would host a huge party, very similar to a wedding in the U.S., minus the groom, of course! However, we have given our daughters the option of choosing a big Quinceanos celebration or a trip with Mom (me!) to Cancun! Angie and I took our trip last summer and had a great time, just the two of us! Diana and I are scheduled to fly to Cancun the last week of April. Martita has also chosen the trip with me (Who's complaining?), which will probably take place sometime this fall. However, we can't just pass up a 15th birthday with no celebration, so this past Saturday several close family friends came out to the house for a small party. (Aaron commented that we really didn't even need to invite anybody because we have enough people just in our own family to constitute a party!)

We put up a small canopy that we use for crusades, decorated with balloons and hung up pictures celebrating the last two years of Martita's life. (She owns only one other picture of herself from the time she was born until she came to live with us at age 13!) Martita had always wanted a white dress for her 15th birthday party and had recently purchased one for the occasion.

What a beautiful, precious princess!

Angie, Diana and Erika did the hair and makeup honors! It was a surprisingly relaxing day!

The girls hard at work and Martita enjoying all of the pampering! What a joy to seem them live as sisters! Family truly goes deeper than blood lines.

Birthdays and holidays in our home are unique in that we are never quite sure how the kids are going to react as those are the days that they are usually reminded of their lack of a biological family and all that has happened to bring them to the place where they are now. Martita was a true wonder on Saturday and I praise the Lord for all He is doing in her life! She fully embraced Victor and I as Dad and Mom throughout the day, joyfully taking pictures with us, hugging us, and thanking us for her gift and for the small party. One of the pictures I had printed up was of her and Lolis with their grandfather and uncle taken on the day we picked up Lolis this past December. I gave Martita the option of hanging up that picture or not. I was unsure whether she wanted to be reminded of her past on such a special day, or maybe she would resent our not including her past on such a special day. You just never know, so.... I asked! She looked at the picture, her eyes teared up and she said: "Yeah, put it up." I was so proud of her for being able to so healthfully accept her past while embracing her present and looking forward to her future!

Very proud parents!

Martita fully engaged the guests and was very relaxed. The other kids fully participated and shared in her joy. Being able to share in another person's joy, without jealousy, is quite mature and something that the other children sometimes struggle with, but they did a great job on Saturday, other than Lolis. We are sure she has never had a birthday celebration, EVER, and didn't quite know how to handle all the attention placed on Martita, her biological sister. Martita even handled that situation maturely. She hugged Lolis, assured her of her love and that she will get the same treatment on her 15th birthday, and then left Lolis to work through her own attitudes. A little while later Lolis relaxed and began to enjoy the celebration, too.

Martita excited about her gift - a digital camera. The girls love taking pictures for their own albums and Facebook.

Then, Sunday, was Valentine's Day! We normally never do anything special, but I felt the Lord nudging me to make this a special day for the kids. We have lots of lost time to make up for and need to take advantage of every opportunity available to show the kids how precious they are in the Lord's sight and, therefore, in ours too! (For example, when I hug any of the kids I usually hang on for a extra few seconds or will let go and then give a second hug. The first hug or first few seconds are to fill up their hug tanks for today and the extra hug or extra few seconds are to make up for all the years that I couldn't hug them and nobody else bothered to do so!) So, Saturday night I baked heart cookies and decorated them with each of the kids' names. Then, Sunday morning I decorated the kitchen tables with confetti and all pink place settings. Victor helped fry heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and made strawberry shakes while I arranged fruit plates in the shapes of smiley faces.

OK, so some of the kids couldn't "see" the smiley face on the plate. Hint: the strawberries are the eyes and nose, the banana slices is the smile and the whipped cream is the hair.

The kids' initial reactions as we woke them up and told them to come downstairs for a surprise were very typical of each of them. Josiah, Caleb and Ruth were smiling, excited and very grateful. Fidel was quiet and observant and couldn't figure out why the table looked like it did! Lolis didn't know what to think as everything she is experiencing are "firsts". Ana thought I had gone nuts!

Daniel just wanted to get down to business and eat, like usual. Joce was quietly excited. Angie and Diana, after nearly six years with us, were not at all surprised at Mom's latest attempt at showing love and willingly went along for the sweet ride! Erika, Magda's daughter, had spent the night and was thrilled at another opportunity to be included with the Zaragoza kids. Martita greeted the whole kitchen scene with her normal sour face that she puts on when confronted face to face with true love. Martha obediently took her place at the table, a sign of wanting to truly participate, but she could never really admit that because that would ruin her rebel reputation!

What is truly a praise to our Heavenly Father and proof of His restorative and redemptive power is not how the kids initially reacted, but how joyful the breakfast was and how they reacted AFTERWARDS! I have tears in my eyes now, even as I write this! I share this so that you may praise the wonderful and powerful name of our Heavenly Father for what He has done, and continues to do, in our children's lives. I share this so that you may know that your prayers and giving are not in vain - far from it!

Even as I type this blog on the computer, my wrists are resting on three heart shaped Post-It notes given to me after the breakfast from Angie, Diana and.......Martha! They are notes expressing their love and gratitude for the special Valentine's Day breakfast! Martha can read and write, but it is still rather difficult for her, so she had Angie help her with her thank you note. Here in my office, when I glance to my right, there is a bouquet of flowers from....Martita! After the breakfast, she went outside and pulled my favorite flowers from the bouquet we had given her for her birthday the day before. She came, gave me the flowers, along with a long hug and even verbally expressed her love and appreciation! Wow! I even got several more hugs from her throughout the morning and more words of appreciation and love. Lolis followed me around the rest of the morning and even helped clean up the kitchen! She did a good job without complaining and stuck to the task until we were done! Josiah and Fidel were the last ones to get up from the table and as I walked by the table Josiah turned to me and said: "We are enjoying this so much we are eating slowly and don't want to get up!"

Well, the sky behind Popo, "our" volcano, is going from deep orange to yellow, so time to try and get a walk in before I hear the patter of little feet or music from one of the teenager's CD players!

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Love you all!
Julie