Lots of pics!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words (right?), I thought I would save myself from writing several thousand words (and save you from reading several thousand words!). So, here are several of my pictures from the Refuge Ranch staff campout. Since Mark and Lucy's arrival in Mexico, Lucy has quickly become the official photographer. Ashleigh and I are taking a lot fewer pictures because Lucy ALWAYS has her camera onhand and takes great pictures! (So, Lucy, if you don't have any urgent messages for Wednesday's blog - we would love to see the really GOOD pictures from the campout!)

Victor and I swimming with Daniel, Jocelin, Ruth, Caleb and Ana!

Ana ready to explore!

Josiah, me and Joanna on the rope crossing! Who's gonna fall in first?

Ana ready to swim!

Erika, Josiah, Caleb and Jocelin swimming in a pool created by the natural springs.

Ruth and Angie having fun together.

Lolis and Ana swimming together. Cool goggles, Ana!

Caleb ready to hunt for fish in the natural springs and streams.

Angie crossing the pool on the rope.

The Zaragoza family leaves on our yearly family vacation tomorrow for a week! It has become a family tradition to take our family vacation in January for several reasons: 1) January is our least busiest month as we have finished the previous year's agenda and activities and we usually don't schedule any crusades until February. So, January gives us a good chance to reconnect as a family before this year's activities begin. 2) An increase in year-end donations provides the funds needed to afford a family vacation for a family of 14! 3) January is a low vacation time in Mexico. We wait until everybody else is back in school and at work because prices at vacation hot-spots go down and we don't have to worry about crowds! Vacation is much more relaxing when we have the pool or beach to ourselves and I can actually play with the kids or read more than a sentence in my book without counting to 12 to make sure we haven't lost anybody (literally!).

So, we are heading to a natural beach on the Pacific Coast near Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo in the state of Guerrero! As always, we appreciate your prayers for safe travel and that this would be a blessed week as a family - that each of the children would feel Victor and my personal attention towards them, that they can enjoy each other's company and that we could work as a team so that we have lots of time to play and relax! This is an especially important vacation for our family as we have three more children than our vacation a year ago. This is Jocelin's first family vacation without her Mom. Of course, this is Daniel's first family vacation with us, too! One of our older girls commented the other day: "Every time we go to the beach we have a little kid with us!" Actually, the younger children are a huge blessing for the older kids (although the older ones may not always recognize it) because the smaller kids get so excited about small and simple things. They help bring the innocence back into the older kids' lives and, in a way, give the older kids "permission" to fully enjoy the little things too! I'm not sure I am accurately expressing this concept. Our older children have gone through so much junk in their short lives that the magic of living, the innocence of childhood, has been robbed from them. They tend not to find joy or wonder in the little things of life. However, the Lord has provided a great set of teachers in their younger siblings! When the older kids see the younger ones get excited about something it teaches them how to get excited. What is even funnier to watch is when the older kids then follow suit and get excited they act like they are doing it "for" their younger siblings, as if to encourage the younger ones or validate them. You know they just really want to get excited themselves, but don't have the self-confidence to just let themselves go, so they "blame" their excitement on wanting to encourage the younger kids. So, we pray that on this vacation each child can be a child and fully enjoy sand between their toes, building a sand castle and watching it wash into the sea, a bonfire on the beach, family movie time, the wonder of a sunset over the ocean, the way a crab scurries over the sand and all the other wonders at hand!

Of course, this is Lolis' first vacation with us! Poor thing - her list of "firsts" in this past month is quite long! She enjoyed her first movie a couple of weeks ago and this will be the first time that she sees the ocean. When we went on vacation several years ago and it was Fidel's first time to see the ocean, he stood on the beach and stared at the blue expanse of water below and the blue expanse of sky above and declared: "Two skies!" So, we'll see what Lolis will do - probably the same thing she does most of the time around here - giggle!

OK, I wasn't going to write several thousand words - that was the reason for uploading so many pictures - oops! Well, enjoy the pictures....and the words!

May the Lord bless you with His presence, purposes and power!

Julie