Adventuras Mexicanas

The ongoing saga of Canadians who pretend to be Mexican


 When my husband and I walked down the aisle 22 years ago we had big plans and whole lot to learn. To say life hasn't always gone quite as planned would be an understatement, which is why we have now handed the planning over to God. Looking back he has been weaving together His plan for our lives the whole time, often in spite of us.

In 1994, right out of high school, my husband and his buddy flew to East Africa and spent 6 months working, volunteering and touring Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. His desire to be involved somehow in oversees missions work was part of what caught my interest and drew me to him. I had the same dream. After we were married we both had hopes of returning to work in Africa as a couple. We had a lot to learn, a lot of growing up to do, and God knew we needed to attend the academy of hard knocks before He could send us out anywhere.

  After a few disappointments and closed doors we basically gave up. In 1999 we were living in Washington state and attending a large church there. One Sunday I heard that they were taking applications to work at an orphanage in Vicente Guerrero, Baja, Mexico for a week. I applied and after much anticipation, I went along with the group and had an incredible experience.

  It seemed like that little taste of my dream was likely all I would get as I returned home to life as usual.


 I continued to hope that someday we could do something like that as a couple but our life was drifting further and further away from our God-given passions. In the ten years following our marriage we had filed away our dream as a "maybe someday when we're old and grey" possibility.  Life just seemed too complicated to bother hoping the impossible and the shallower my faith grew, the less it seemed to matter. It wasn't until the spring of 2005  that God impressed very strongly on my heart that it was time to go and rediscover our purpose.  I once again began praying, seeking, and searching out what that meant for our family.  After a lot of discussion with my husband we applied to the orphanage that I had visited so briefly 6 years earlier.  We were fairly sure we would either be turned away or that the financial obstacles would be too great, either way we had very little faith in what God could do.  How does a family of four, with bills, debt and no savings account just pick up and leave for 6 months?  Several months later, to our amazement, God had moved the mountains and we were driving to Mexico with our 18 ft camping trailer and 2 young children (ages 2 and 4).  We spent 6 months as volunteer staff at an orphanage and then returned to our farming life in  Canada. At that point our hearts would be forever split between Canada and Mexico.



  A few years later in the spring of '09 my husband and I led a group of 17 people from our church down to the same orphanage/ mission base. We had a passion to help others step out of their comfort zone in service to others and to see for themselves what a faithful God we serve. It was a very stretching experience as I learned about leadership, and had my organizational skills tested beyond their natural limit (which really doesn't take much)


We longed to return to Mexico as a family, this time as a family of 5. So we prayed, waited, watched God move the mountains, and then packed up our trailer once again. We spent another six months over the winter of 2009/2010 at our second home in Baja.  We had grown to love the kids at the orphanage.  We considered them not only our friends but family.  Once again, we lived in a camping trailer.  That experience alone was worth a few blog posts!

I began this blog originally thinking that it would be a great way to keep family and friends up to date on our time in Mexico. Beyond that, this blog has been a fun way to journal, write my stories and share glimpses of our everyday life...and it's cheaper than therapy.  Thank you to all of you who take the time to join us here.  I hope that you see something that inspires you to deeper faith, a bolder love or just some reassurance that you're not the only one who battles toddler tantrums and scrapes burnt toast.  If God can use us, a family of ridiculously average parents and howler monkey children, he can use you too.


We have no idea what God has for us in our future, or how our past experiences will continue to be used.  What we do know is that God has called our family to serve in  His kingdom by  loving the children who are so easily overlooked and cast aside.  That has taken us across two borders to serve impoverished and abandoned children in another country and it has also led us into the world of fostering and adoption here in Canada. Whether God keeps us here on the Canadian Prairie where our roots run deep, or pulls us up by the roots and moves us somewhere else, we desire to live missional lives that reflect Jesus' love and that point to God's glory. We are realizing more and more that the His strength is sufficient in our weakness.



December 2011.  Once again, we made our plans and nurtured our dreams to return to something familiar, while unexpectedly God invited to join him in what he's doing somewhere else.  We had dreamed, longed, and planned on returning full time to the children we have known and loved for years the orphanage in Baja Mexico but the structural problems, methods and ethical issues at the ministry became impossible to ignore. Our dreams were crushed very suddenly. We were discouraged under the weight of the injustice BUT the story didn't end there.  Our good God writes great stories! What was meant for evil He will use for good.  We also now marvel at God's providence and protection over our children. I  know that His purposes are greater than our own.

After much prayer and plenty of tears, we decided we would return to Baja for the month of December as we had been planning all year. This time we were out on a limb. Everything familiar and comfortable to us there was taken away. A couple weeks before we left, we had no place to stay and had no idea what we would do.  Fortunately, God doesn't call us to "do" he wants us to "be".   Being out on a limb really gives you the best view of God's faithfulness! By the time we arrived in Baja we were provided with a fully furnished home that we could rent, we were welcomed by dear friends, and we have seen new dreams birthed out of the ashes of where the old ones died. We had an amazing 6 weeks living, working, serving and loving in a little town on the Baja Peninsula.  We had so much freedom to open our home and to build relationships.  We left  Mexico inspired, stretched, and excited to see how God is going to continue to lead our family for His glory.



We spent the month of November 2012 back at the same little rental house in Baja. This most recent trip was probably one of our best experiences as a family. The year before, we were still reeling and struggling to find our footing.  This year was so much more relaxed, as we settled into what our visits look like without going as either "staff" or "short termers" to any specific ministry.  We were able to spend a lot of time with some missionary friends of ours . We just did life there.  We opened up our home to children in need of love and attention, we spent time with many good friends we have made over the last several years, and we branched out getting to know other ministries and faithful servants laboring for the sake of Jesus and his gospel in some very hurting communities. We even managed to find a few projects to help out with.  We worked hard when there was work to do and we played hard when there wasn't.  We had a great time exploring some different parts of the Baja. The last couple times we have gone down we don't know if it will be our last, our closure, or if it will open up new doors for the future trips. 



All we know is that we love being there, we love these kids, and we love the people of Baja. 

February and March 2014- This time instead of renting a house in Baja we packed up our camping trailer and headed south.  I would say that this trip was our best one yet...despite the occasional frustration of a very cramped living arrangement.  Of course we spent some time with our Baja kids.  I wrote about "our last day together" in this post. We also spent a lot of play time and work time with these friends.   For the first time we drove down to South Baja for a little family adventure. we slept in a yurt, and Elijah went fishing for the first time.  

We finally, after years of seeking and some really bad experiences, we found a ministry we could plug into during our time in Baja. I wrote about this new (to us) ministry "Welcome Home Outreachhere

I loved that we were all able to be involved and there were jobs for each one of us to do.  



Aili has grown up so much since the first time we brought her to Baja.  


Most of the migrant field workers here are indigenous people groups from the southern states of Mexico.


First catch


Amigas


The daycare of Welcome Home Outreach/ Casa Hogar Bienvenidos. 
The young children of struggling families and single Moms who work long days in the fields, are provided with a caring, safe environment.  This ministry helps families to stay together and helps prevent child abandonment. 






We love our little family adventures in Baja, Mexico!

February 2018

After four years away from our second home in Baja we finally made our way back. This time as a family of NINE! So much has changed since our first family trip to Baja.

On this trip we spent 10 days at Welcome Home Outreach. This time we left our camping trailer at home and stayed in the dorms there. We jumped into being an official "mission trip" group which worked well for our large family. We had an incredible trip and I hope the experiences and memories will have a lasting impact on our children. This trip was also Aili's final trip down with our family because she will be off on her own adventures next year. The years have flown by so fast since we first brought that little blond four year old to Mexico.

You can read about our most recent Baja adventure here