Living Up to Our Name

In keeping with our "wandering" theme, the Means family will be moving to Encarnation de Diez during the month of July.  Sam will be pastoring for a missionary who will be on forlough.  The plan is for us to be there for 11 to 12 months.  Please pray, Sam will need to be able to preach in Spanish by the mid/end of July.  Language learning is a process, a very frustrating one at times.  Right now I feel very unprepared and overwhelmed and am generally fighty the feeling to run and hide.  However, I must be making progress, as I sit outside typing this blog, my neighbors are chatting in Spanish and I find I can ease drop pretty easily if I so desire.  :P
We share a beautiful and very large "Jardin" and a few weeks back there was a very large wedding.  No one was asked permission, and no one was given any warning.  On Friday night crews came and began setting up chairs and stages!  When they came by the house hours before the ceremony on Sat. night, Sam was very clear they had to shut off the music no later than midnight, to which they agreed.  Hundreds of guest poured into our now, not quite as big looking communial backyard.  After the 6:00 pm ceremony, festivities continued until well after 3:00 am!!  Including a band, loud speakers, a catering tent, lots of drunk people wandering around just outside the back door.  Anyway, tomorrow the owners are having a meeting to discuss the situation and several have gathered next door to discuss tomorrows meeting.
Normally only 3 - 6 of the 20 homes are occupied at a time, but this weekend it's a little busier.  Still, I am sitting outside in the pleasant weather and the kids are enjoying the pool.
I missed the whole wedding excitement, because I was having my own exhausting excitement in El Paso, TX.  Yes, Sam drove down from Rogers, AR to Cuernavaca, MX all by himself with five children.  Five very great children, but still five children.  We have been able to hire a caretaker for the children during the day, so they have been able to do their spanish lessons at home and she makes dinner also.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned it on the blog before, but I am a CPM (certified professional midwife).  However,  I don't have as much experience as I would like to have and ever since we have been in mexico I have not been able to attend births.  The trip to El Paso came at a perfect time, well actually, I wish I had not gone quite so long between births.  However, it did help get my "midwifery legs" back under me and get some more much needed experience.  I spent 4 weeks at Casa de Nacimeinto, a birth center I had spent some time at several years ago.  It was nice to see the midwifes there again, to be around birth and remember, I really do love it.  We feel my midwifery skills will be a good outreach tool in the coming years.