After three months, my daughter Joy has returned from Mexico! 
At the end of our July missions trip to the Benito Juarez orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico, we left Joy to serve as an intern at the children's home for three months. While we've had ongoing contact with her via phone calls, text messages, etc, we haven't seen her since July. After three months Mark Russell, the orphanage director, brought her to McAllen, TX where Lori's dad lives and he put her on a non-stop bus to Houston where we picked her up. It was great to see her. On the way home I asked her where she wanted to eat and the answer was easy for her - Johnny Carino's! So we stopped on the way home and had a nice supper.
At the end of our July missions trip to the Benito Juarez orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico, we left Joy to serve as an intern at the children's home for three months. While we've had ongoing contact with her via phone calls, text messages, etc, we haven't seen her since July. After three months Mark Russell, the orphanage director, brought her to McAllen, TX where Lori's dad lives and he put her on a non-stop bus to Houston where we picked her up. It was great to see her. On the way home I asked her where she wanted to eat and the answer was easy for her - Johnny Carino's! So we stopped on the way home and had a nice supper. I'm really proud of Joy. She graduated from high school in May and has plans to go to beauty school soon. But in the meantime she wanted to spend some time as an intern at the orphanage. She feels a real connection to Mexico since she was born there in 1990 when Lori and I were missionaries. She has dual-citizenship - two birth certificates, one from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz and one from the US Embassy in Mexico city. She has a US passport and next week we'll go to the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans to get her Mexican passport reissued since her old one expired. She has all the rights of a citizen in two countries - that's pretty cool! (I could preach a sermon about how our citizenship is in heaven while we live on earth, but I'll save the sermons for Sunday mornings! [G])
By the way, on our way home from Houston I stopped for gas in Baytown, TX because I saw gas prices so low I couldn't believe my eyes. I just had to take a picture - look there on the left - yes, that $2.97 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas! We paid $3.59 earlier the same morning when we filled up before going to Houston. Hard to believe a price difference of 62 cents in one day! Of course, what's even more amazing is that I'm excited about paying $2.97 for a gallon of gas - a year or two ago I would have thought that was high-way robbery! Maybe that's the game they play - shoot it up real high, get us mad but used to it, then bring it back down a little bit and we'll be happy to pay 50% more than we were paying not that long ago. Argh!!!OK, back to my pleasant thoughts about Joy being home! I want to invite our friends and family to a little "welcome home" celebration this Thursday, October 9, at 6:00PM at Christian Challenge. We'll have some light refreshments and just a time of visiting. This isn't a formal setting, just "come and go" - so drop by to say hi to Joy on your way home from work. She'll be glad to see you! (And for our Christian Challenge family, don't forget our Christmas parade planning meeting at 7:00PM Thursday!) I look forward to seeing you guys! And, boy howdy, am I glad to have Joy in my house again!!! [GRIN]
Blessings,
Nathan
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