it's been a long time

we have made it 5 months!! yoo hooo!!!

and of course there are exciting things going on in our lives!

Sarah: as for me i am now teaching at a bilingual
Christian school called The Lincoln School. For the rest of this year i will be teaching 9th and 12th grade literature...which has to be my favorite subject ever! yeah not so much but i am learning a TON. next year i will be teaching 4th grade which i am really excited about even though i am kinda enjoying being with high schoolers. we will see how it goes. I am also getting my masters!!! how exciting! it is in international education, and is through a college in the Boston. it is a total of 9 classes and i will complete it in august of 2010

Omar: is taking classes online to get his degree in education! one day we can both be teachers and have summers off! how wonderful would that be! he is working with our friend Karina who does lawyer stuff and they go make people pay their debts. doesnt sound so fun to me but it works for now.

On saturdays we go to a place called Mesa Colorada where we volunteer with our church and do a kids club with the kids from that neighborhood. I am working with the 4 and 5 year old kids which is hard when they are not speaking in your mother language but it has been a great challenge. Omar is working with the moms! which was interesting since we didnt actually have anything originally planned for them but so many show up every week that its not just a kids club it turns out being a kids and moms club! we are sharing basic knowledge about JESUS and how He came to save us from our sins. It has been an incredible adventure so far and we are really excited to continue for the rest of this year as our commitment :o)

OTHER EXCITING NEWS...

• Omars sister is having a baby girl!!!! her name is going to be Violeta and they dont know what her middle name will be yet. I just found out she is going to have to have a c-section so we will be praying hard for Miriam and the new addition to the family! im going to have a NIECE!!!!
• Omars brother is getting married!!! yooo hooooo!!! another gringa is being added to the family!
• Valerie and Katie are BOTH getting married this year!
• its my year for christmas this year! cant wait christmas in MD, YOO HOO!!!
  
• My nephew tyler is turning one!!!! and we get to be there for his party yoo hooo!!!!
  
• I WILL BE CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY WITH MY FAMILY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!! HOW EXCITING! I am also the lucky one that is having my birthday on Easter fo the second time in my life. cool.

well, thats the update. i know there is more but just wanted to give everyone the DL down in the MX.

love,
sarah and omar.

The Honeymoon's Over...

We're back!!!! Well we made it through the wedding and the honeymoon let me tell you about it...

Our wedding was BEAUTIFUL. The weather was perfect and the ceremony was wonderful, of course I cried...a lot but what’s new?! There is only one thing well one family that would have made it absolutely perfect, but they were in my heart all day long.

That morning I was ready with my hair done around 11am and then didn't know what else to do, which I thought was weird. Then once the photographer got there time just flew by. We took tons of pics, which I still haven't seen yet, that I'm sure will be absolutely beautiful.

My favorite part was my dress. I absolutely loved it. The message our pastor gave was wonderful! At first I didn't know where he was going with the whole thing because he started out talking about Adam and Eve. The whole point was the God made Eve exactly for Adam. He made her with all of the attributes that He knew Adam would want in a woman. Then he related that to me and Omar, saying that God made me with all of the attributes that He knew Omar would want in a woman and He made Omar with all of the attributes that He knew that I would want in a man.

One tradition in Mexico that basically takes the place of the unity candle is what they call a lasso. You normally pick 2 people to be sort of the lasso bearers and we picked Omar's best friend since Kindergarten and his girlfriend. Normally you just by the lasso at a store and its like this crystally jewely thing but they made our lasso out of seashells and wooden beads. They said that as they tied each knot of the lasso they said a prayer or hope for our marriage.

The reception went by way too fast and by the time we ate the Mariachi was already there waiting to play…which was supposed to be the closing act. So we quickly danced our first dance, danced with the parents, had a toast, and cut the cake so they could start playing. It was a bit of a whirlwind.

Overall we were completely amazed by the whole day. I was so glad that my Daddy, Mama, Aunt Pearl, Aunt Joyce, Becca, Val, Drew, Granny, and Sam came the distance to be there on a day that Omar and I will both remember for the rest of our lives.

Pretty much everyday after the wedding was pretty sweet too except that everytime I thought about the wedding I would cry because I was so sad that it was all over SO FAST! I mean I LOVED my dress I could wear it a week straight and STILL love it.

After the wedding we went to this little town called Santa Maria del Oro…it was incredible. Its only about 2 ½ hours from Guadalajara and it’s a volcano that hasn’t erupted in I don’t know how many years that is now a lake. The water was so clear. We went mountain biking around the entire lake, which was actually my first real experience mountain biking because these were definitely not paved roads. Then for 2 days we stayed at this new Hotel Boutique they called it which was totally like all exclusive.

One of the things they offered us was a romantic dinner on the lake so we totally took them up on that. the Hotel manager/owner ended up cooking us a special “Ratoutille” dinner himself. We were out on this lake in a little Yacht like boat for about two hours listening to a love song disc he must have bought off of an infomercial, it was amazing. We were the only boat on the whole lake and we could only see about 5 light around the entire lake. We have decided that this was our favorite moment from our entire honeymoon.

Then the Saturday after the wedding we went to Cancun. It was great but totally a different pace than Santa Maria del Oro. The beach was beautiful and my favorite highlight from Cancun was when we went walking on the beach from our hotel to another hotel of the same chain and we saw baby sea turtles hatch and run to the ocean. It was incredible, and I had never seen that before.

We were there for a week and then Omar’s brother, Checo came and picked us up and we had a night out on the town in Playa del Carmen with him and his girlfriend, Ashley. We went to La Bodeguita del Medio where they play Cuban music and there are always some amazing dancers to watch.

Sunday afternoon November 9^th we finally got on our plane and headed back to Guadalajara. We came back to a really crazy house but we are finally getting things settled as we try to get settled and find some sort of routine.

That’s pretty much the rundown and update on what Omar and I are up to here in Guadalajara, Mexico as of today.

Much Love from Mexico.

P.S. I don't have that many pics yet...only from Omar's Dad's cam. so hopefully soon I will have some more pics...of EVERYONE :)