Our first Christmas...the four of us

Christmas 2007

Just a glimpse of our first Christmas together as the four of us. Salomé was with us last year but this was our first year with Cristina. It was so much fun to watch them open their gifts. They were so excited even when it was just underwear. Of course they got more than underwear including Barbies which were a huge hit. We made some great memories.

It is hard to be away from family this time of year. I think I feel it more now having the girls. We hope and pray that next year we will be home for Christmas if all the paperwork comes through. Doug's parents are coming on January 9th so we are really looking forward to that. They are coming with two huge bags of gifts so we tried not to buy too much for them. Otherwise it is a bit much. But grandparents are allowed to spoil especially since they were waiting so long for us to have kids. These aren't their first grandkids but they are just as exited as if they were. They are our miracles and none of us takes that for granted.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Blessings for the new year.

It happened one December...part three

On December 19, 1965 Douglas Walter Janzen was born to Walter and Erna Janzen. He was their firstborn. That baby today is 42. I am thankful to call him my husband.

He is:

a man of integrity

a spiritual leader

a wonderful father

kind

gracious

patient

my best friend.

Happy Birthday mi amor. Te amo.

On a side note this little baby wasn't alone for long. One year and two days later, his mom had twins!!! She did not know she was having twins. Crazy! She is an amazing lady to have survived three kids in one year. Cloth diapers, no dryer, yikes!!

It happened one December...Part two

The engagement

In my last post I ended off at when we started dating. That was August of 1997. Things were going very well and I think we both knew that we weren't in this just to ¨date¨and that pretty much we were preparing to get married. We weren't spring chickens either. In November we flew to Niagara Falls to visit my brother and his family. My brother and I are very close and it was important to me that he meet Doug before we got engaged. We had a great time and Niagara Falls is such a beautiful place to be when you are in love. Especially in the fall. I was pretty sure that things were moving along and that engagement was imminent. Not necessarily on this trip but soon.

Two years before I met Doug my mom passed away. (that is a story for another day) She had left her wedding band to me and I had decided that that was the ring I wanted to wear when I got married. So when Doug and I started dating and I knew he was the one I gave the ring to my dad. I told him that when Doug asked for my hand he could give him the ring. The only thing was...how did I tell Doug that I had a ring and he didn`t need to buy one since we hadn`t really discussed engagement. Well, some time during our trip to Niagara we went for a walk and I somehow got it out without being too forward.

Fast forward to December. Christmas was nearing and I was getting suspicious that something might happen. On Christmas eve we had dinner with Doug's family and then went to church. But before dinner and church I went to visit my dad. Yes folks, I went to check and see if the ring was still there. I didn't say anything to my dad. I knew where he kept the ring so when he was distracted I took a peek. Terrible I know!! Well...the ring was still there. So I was pretty sure that nothing was going to happen that night. After dinner and church we went to the place I was house sitting to open our presents to each other. Doug gave me a bunch of great gifts and then he went out to the car and brought a dozen roses and a big box. It was big like a TV box. Inside there were a number of smaller boxes wrapped inside each other. When I finally opened the last box I found a card Doug had made. As I opened the inside (Which said in big letters ¨Will you marry me?" he pulled out the ring...and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! After our initial glee I confessed to peeking to see if the ring was there. Thankfully Doug had worked late and only gone later to pick up the ring. How great that I didn't ruin the surprise.

We were married five months later on May 15, 1998.

Almost ten years ago!!! Wow, time flies when you are having fun. Thanks for reminiscing with me.

It happened one December...Part One

I hope you all are still with me. I finally have time to sit and write. As I said before many important things seem to have happened to me in December so I thought I would share them with you. It will be a good way for you to get to know me a little better.

Part One...How I met my husband

One December many moons ago...1996 to be exact, my good friend Ida and her husband Ricardo decided to set me up on a blind date. The majority of single people I know don't love the idea of a blind date (I being one of them) but my friends were so enthusiastic so I went along with it. It was pretty safe, they invited me and my date Ron for dinner at their house so it was quite casual. It was a nice evening and we all had fun. After our initial blind date I went along with Ron and his college and career group to serve at a soup kitchen in Vancouver. Ida and Ricardo happened to be the leaders of the college and career group and I had been hearing great things about the group so I was happy to join in. I wasn't sure what I was thinking about Ron, I guess we were getting to know each other. That evening at the soup kitchen I saw a new face across the table. (as I type this I am thinking how it seems like just yesterday this all happened, crazy!) The new face was Ron's brother Doug who had just moved back to Canada after doing missions in Greece for 4 years. This next statement may seem lame or a bit fairytalish but here it goes. When I saw Doug from across the room even before being introduced to him, I felt God impress on my heart that he was going to be my husband. That was all fine and good but I happened to be there with his BROTHER!! Hmmm. Now you have to know there was nothing to validate the impression I got when I met Doug. He was not my type at all. Hockey hair, really bad eighties clothes, and really quite quiet. I know the clothes and hair thing sounds shallow but sadly, it is true. And there was also the fact that I was getting to know his brother!!! I tried to not think too much about it and continued to hang out with the youth group. Christmas Eve our college and career group had a special dinner at (if you can believe it) Ron and Doug's parent's house. Ron came to pick me up as it was snowing like crazy that night, and I think many of his family thought I was the new girlfriend. That night I watched Doug and was so touched by his servant heart. I knew then that I did not want to start a relationship with Ron. Ron was on the same wavelength and that night when he drove me home we had a chat and let each other know that we were just going to be friends. (Who knew we would actually become family) That all said and done I let my friend Ida know what had happened and that I might want to get to know Doug better. I also said not to say anything because it was a bit weird because of the Ron thing. We left it at that and then the day before New Year's Eve Ida asked me if I would come to a new years dinner where a bunch of singles were getting together for dinner. The only catch is that we would be set up with a partner for dinner. I was a bit hesitant but accepted knowing I had plans later in the evening so I could use that as my out. I arrived a bit late and everyone was there already so you can imagine my suprise when Ricardo introduced me to my date...DOUG!! You can imagine my embarrassment. Not only that but Ron was there and set up with another girl. I think Doug was as suprised as me. He was very gracious and dinner went well. We made small talk but we were both very tense. Thankfully I had plans so I couldn't stay too long. Needless to say Ida got it from me the next time I saw her at work.

(A little intermission. This might get a bit long so it you want to go for a coffee or have a pee break feel free.)

As the months went on I got more involved with Ida and Ricardo's college and career group. I still felt that there was something special about Doug but he was pretty distant. I watched him from a far and started to really fall for him. I was pretty sure he was not interested and I sure didn't make my feelings known. In the spring the college and career started to plan a missions trip to Argentina. It was set for August. We were put into teams of four. Can you guess who my team leader was? Yep...Doug!! Ricardo once again was trying to play matchmaker. Well, time went on and as we prepared for our trip we were getting to know each other a little better. I still didn't think he was interested so I wasn't getting my hopes up. Well August came and we were off to Argentina. We were having a great trip and our team was getting along great. I was sensing that Doug had changed a bit towards me but wasn't trying to read into it. By the last few days there was definitely some chemistry and I was psyched. On the plane home we had seats beside each other and I was on cloud nine. About half an hour into the flight we finally had ¨the talk¨. I couldn't believe it had actually happened. I knew right then that we were going to get married. That is for another post...

Doing drime in Argentina

Sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoyed it. One of my favorite movies is ¨While you were Sleeping¨ as the story is somewhat similar to mine with the whole brother thing. If you haven't seen it rent it. It is a great Christmas movie.

Happy Sunday friends.

Bear with me

Unfortunately I did not have time again to write the post I was hoping to about when I met my husband. It is the end of the school year here and the girls have a bunch of things with finishing up preschool. Then there were swimming lessons...a husband who once again held the computer ransom...and a number of creepy workers who were chipping away at cement walls trying to install our natural gas. It was a bit of a crazy day to say the least.

I won't promise a post tommorrow but I will try my best. I am realizing that a number of times I have to erase things that I have written because I am writing in spanish. It is quite a crazy thing thinking and typing in two different languages. They get intertwined quite easily. I guess that is a good problem that spanish comes so easily for me now. All that to say bear with me if once in a while my sentences don't come out quite right. Especially when it is getting late.

Chau amigos.

Waiting my turn...

So I was all ready to have a new post waiting when all of you in the western part of the world woke up but alas, my hubby spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon downloading and fiddling with the computer. So here it is late afternoon my time and I finally get my turn.

I have so many things I want to share it is hard to know where to start. I know I don't have to get everything out at once so I just need to be patient and go with the flow. I am pressed for time as we are meeting friends in a bit so I will wait for tomorrow to start my Decembers past series. I have been thinking about how many significant milestones in my life have happened to me during the month of December. So I thought over the next few days I would share some of those with you. Tomorrow I will start with when I met my husband.

Thank you again for all your encouragement as I start this journey. I can't wait to see where it leads.

I finally did it!!

Well here it is. My new blog. I don't know what to expect. I have so enjoyed reading other blogs of people I know and of many people I don't know. Being so far from home it is so great to get a peak into the goings on back in my part of the world. Abbotsford, B.C., Canada to be exact.

This month marks seven years since we moved to Argentina. Most of our married life we have lived in another country. It has been quite the journey and i hope to show you a glimpse of it through this blog. I am not the most eloquent writer so I hope you will bear with me. What I can promise is that it will be real and I hope to be able to blessing as many have blessed me through their blogs. This blogworld is a strange and wonderful thing. So here I go jumping in with both feet...