Christmas in Bolivia

Time sure does fly!  I can't believe we've just celebrated our second Christmas in Bolivia.  This year brought lots of new and exciting firsts for our family.  We realized that none of our kids (except Madison) had ever experienced Christmas quite like this.  It was so much fun teaching the children the true meaning of Christmas, watching the magic of Christmas on their faces and seeing them just be kids. 

Christmas morning reading the story of the Savior's birth.

We have been talking for weeks about what Christmas is.  We reiterated it with reading the Christmas story first thing Christmas morning.  Pray for the seeds that have been planted over the past few weeks.

After reading about the birth, we opened gifts.  What a sight!  It didn't take long for everyone to catch on.  The excitement in the room was incredible.  Check out some of the photos:

Kat working on gift #1

That look is priceless!

JK excited about his new cars

Ali wasn't sure what to think...

And a very excited Candi with her Barbi

And of course, princess Madison had a blast opening her gifts as well:

A few other shots:

We also enjoyed a great feast for lunch that we got to share with several other missionary friends here in Cochabamba.

A few other holiday highlights:

We participated in a luncheon honoring all of the hard working Tias of Casa de Amor 



Christmas celebration for all CDA kids provided by a local Bolivian family.

Madison welcomed her new cat, Bella, to the family.

And I must give proper credit for the team of semi-professionals who were responsible for decorating the tree. 

Our Christmas was truely a life-changing one.  Thank you for your support of our ministry.