Overflowing with Thanksgiving

I stopped by our blog the other day and realized it has been over three months since I've posted an update.  Life has been a little busy, needless to say.  I thought Thanksgiving was the perfect time to give a quick overview of this fall with the Toler Family. 

We stayed on the go this fall, but all our trips were very productive and fun!  At the end of August, we went to our linguistic center in Oaxaca to attend a workshop with one of our friends from the village.  Elyse celebrated her birthday with a Frozen themed party.

Elyse and her best friend have birthdays a little over a week apart.

Making decisions about the writing system of a language is hard work but still fun!

The beginning of our Pame library

We left Oaxaca and picked up my parents from the airport for their three-week visit.  We divided our time with my parents between the village and the city.  We needed to be in the city to submit our paperwork for visa renewals.  As usual, it took several trips to the immigration office, but we finally received everything we needed.

Vacation Bible School came to us this year.  Agency D3 - Discover, Decide, Defend

Enjoying the historical downtown of San Luis Potosi

Da finally got to enjoy a real Mexican burrito. 

We are so thankful that they were able to visit us, meet our friends, and experience village life.

Visiting a nearby village with a historical church in the background. 

My dad really enjoyed learning about the agriculture techniques in the village.

Kieran and his granddad had a lot of good man-to-man conversations.

We ended our village trip with a visit to some nearby waterfalls

After a wonderful three weeks with my parents, we dropped them off at the airport on our way back down to Oaxaca.  We had another workshop to attend and our kids attended their biannual homeschool program.  This is always a highlight for our kids (this was Elyse's first year to participate).  As much as our kids enjoy their friends in the village, there is something about hanging out with other third culture kids who understand this crazy life their parents have given them. 

The kids studied about oceans this fall.

We are so thankful for the wonderful volunteers who come to invest in our kids.

They love our kids like their own.

This trip it was Kieran's turn to celebrate his birthday.  We arrived in Oaxaca a few days after his birthday, so we just had a small celebration with a couple of friends.  Kieran has really enjoyed reading Charlie Brown (Peanuts) comic strip books this year and wanted to carry that theme into his birthday.  I baked the cake, but he took over the decorating.  I thought he did a great job on the Charlie Brown face!

Opening presents

At the end of our stay in Oaxaca, Kris started having chest pains and shortness of breath.  Once we returned to the city, he visited a cardiologist, had various test done, and then met with a cardiac surgeon.  In the midst of doctor appointments, we still squeezed in some time to go trick-or-treating with our friends.

Baseball daddy stayed home and rested...

but Spiderman and Anna were ready to collect some candy!

Now, we are in the process of packing up for a stay in Dallas while Kris meets with a team of doctors to see what needs to be done to help his heart (I'll write more about medical stuff in another post).  We are so thankful for the generosity of others and the overwhelming amount of prayers being lifted up for our family.  We are thankful for life, love and laughter. 

Tonight as I was putting Kieran to bed he said, "I love my life.  I'm so glad God gave me this life."  I agree.  We are truly blessed.  Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.