meow!

Last Friday, there was a Harvest Festival at Fuller, and we were really excited about Suzy going. However, since we have our small group on Friday evenings and didn't want to cancel that, Suzy got to go to the festival with Kelly and Brian! Free candy, games, and a night to bask in the attention of the McPhails? That's a dream come true for Suz!

She told me the night before that she wanted to be a cat for Halloween, so we whipped up this costume the day of:

Our neighbor Risa made Suzy's ears for her

sugarrrrrrr!

She had a blast! Thanks Kelly and Brian! 

Speaking of our small group, here is a picture of about half of them. The fun thing is that 2 of these guys were part of our church in El Salvador! Elvis was in a small group with them there and here we all are now in LA, in a small group together again. Small world! Turns out that Elvis went to college with another guy in our group. We are loving our Friday nights of dinner and Bible study with these friends!

Halloween Baby Shower

Today I had the privilege of hosting a halloween themed baby shower for my good friend and neighbor Jess (aka Gabi's mom) and it was a blast! I had such a good time planning and decorating to celebrate her lil' pumpkin on the way. The best part was that Jess wanted everyone to dress up, and everyone really got into it! We also decorated pumpkins as babies. 

Awesome cake made my one of our neighbors

the spread

the woman of the hour...dressed as Mary

another pregnant friend who won the costume contest!

Dentist trip and the best compliment ever

On Friday, we all had our first US trip to the dentist! (I mean, I have gone to the dentist in the US before, but not in about 8 years.) First up was Suzy, who was an absolute CHAMP. She climbed right up into the chair, opened her mouth, and let the doctor look and brush and polish her teeth, all the while she was shooting us thumbs up and giggling. And then she asked to do it again when they were done!

I highly recommend reading the Maisy book about Charlie going to the dentist at least a month in advance of your child's first dentist trip!

Then it was my turn, which also turned out to be a good experience, compared to the time I went to the dentist after having Suzy, and they found 10 cavities, which were the first of my entire life. The dentist was impressed with my $5 fillings from El Salvador! 

Then it was Elvis's turn, and he has to basically get all of the fillings he got when he was 14 years old replaced. Even with insurance, we decided it will be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to El Salvador and have it all done there. Seriously. 

We loved our new dentist- they played Dora in the waiting room for Suzy, and they all spoke Spanish as a first language which was great, especially for Elvis. I love that our dentist could refer us to the best pupuseria in town!! (Suzy asked for pupusas for her special treat for doing great at the dentist)

So I was talking to the dentist in Spanish about my teeth, and the dental hygienist (who is a native Spanish speaker) turned to Elvis had a little conversation that went like this:

Dental hygienist: "I thought your wife was white!"

Elvis: "She is white!" 

Dental hygienist: "Really?? That's what I thought but when I heard her speak Spanish i didn't think so anymore."

Score! Best compliment ever. 

Suzy's 1st pumpkin patch visit!

In El Salvador, the only equivalent to going to a pumpkin patch was going to the PriceMart (like Sam's club) and hoping they had a couple of imported and overpriced pumpkins on the produce aisle. We decided to get out of the city and go to a real pumpkin patch this year! Nevermind if there were palm trees actually in the pumpkin patch as well. 

For those of you that aren't familiar with the process, actually the last step for getting her US citizenship was to have her picture made while surrounded by a lot of pumpkins. 

;-)

a friend kindly pointed out that this actually looks like a portrait of our family. interesting.   

ps- notice a theme other than the pumpkins? That's right, ever since Suzy got those sunglasses at the 99cent store, they haven't come off her face. Even at bedtime.

creating space

One of my classes this quarter is entitle "Spiritual Traditions and Practices" and I think exactly the course I need right now in the midst of a really busy schedule. The purpose of the class is to break away from the purely academic study of the Bible and ministry and focus on our relationship with Christ and developing rhythms of spiritual practices. Sometimes it feels weird and unproductive to sit in silence with the Lord for 45 minutes instead of doing indepth Bible study, but our professor's book Subversive Spirituality argues that being we have to go against our culture's tendency to have "hurry sickness" if we want to hear from God.

Last week we took an all day silent retreat to a nearby retreat center called Mater Dolorosa. It was the first retreat I had ever been to where there was no main speaker, no small groups, no ice breakers, and no full schedule of activity. Rather, the purpose was the be in silence before the Lord and hear His still, small voice.

Mater Dolorosa retreat center

Henri Nouwen describes spiritual disciplines as simply creating space for God to show us his grace and "to listen to the voice of the One who calls us the beloved".

Even Mother Theresa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her works of charity, said that her calling, her vocation was to simply belong to Jesus.

The retreat center was awesome-full of vineyards, orchards, pine trees, animals (bears, mountain lions, deer), flowers, and the stations of the cross.

There was a huge tree in the middle that I sat by for a couple of hours. I realized that in order for that tree to grow so huge, it had to have time and it had to have space. In the same way, if I desire growth in my relationship with God, I have to give it time and create space, just as Nouwen reminds us. Although I have typically filled my "quiet times" with reading and studying and doing, it has been so refreshing to learn how to just "be" before the Lord and allow His grace to fill that space.

the tree

7 years ago today...

...Elvis popped the question! Although it wasn't so much "popping a question" but rather officially deciding together on something that we both we sure of since the first week we met. We don't have pictures of that day because even Elvis didn't know that it was going to be "the day", so I've included some pictures from around the same time so you can chuckle about how much we've changed (especially the hair line of a certain someone...let's just say that now we get to see more of his purty face!) I actually really love the spontaneity of the whole thing...how it just bubbled up out of his heart in the moment.  

He wasn't planning on doing it that day because it didn't make much sense....We didn't have a ring; we didn't hardly have a dime in the bank; we didn't own anything except for a telephone, some clothes, and a hammock; we didn't have a plan, but we had a whole lot of love and at least a mustard seed's worth of faith. 

God was able to involve our whole community to surprise us with the ring and all the other details needed for our new life together.

Less than 5 months later, we were saying "Si, prometo" (I do) at a perfect (for us) beach wedding.   

Monday 2:24 pm