New friends and great fellowship

 We have gone to this church twice and the girls have not gone to Sunday school with the other children yet. Well, actually, they have never gone to Sunday school by themselves since we moved here.  Today after the service we all had lunch together to celebrate September birthdays. The pastor's son, Max, must have asked the girls to play fifteen times and neither one of them would even answer him. Have I mentioned how painfully shy Lottie is? Emma just copies Lottie's reaction:) So I took out some coloring books and some crayons and asked the children to color with us instead. Not even fifteen minutes later, both girls were running around with the other children....giggling and playing. I was so proud of them, but especially Lottie, because I know how hard situations like this are for her. So this is a picture of Lottie, Emma, Maya, Santiago, Max and....and....oh dear, I forgot this sweet young man's name.

This is Max helping Lottie learn to ride his scooter. She has a scooter but this one is really narrow and turns really quickly. When we left Lottie said, "I have a new friend, Max". She is really working hard on the goal she made for herself to make new friends. This goal is not hard to meet in a church such as this one. The pastor told me that the children are taught in Sunday school to never leave anyone out. Everyone is their brother and sister.

This week is a long celebration of Independence here in Mexico.  Everything is decorated! We saw a taxi today with a huge sombrero on top of it and a very large Mexican flag across the back windshield. So on Thursday, in this same church, they are having their own Independence day celebration. After the service they were asking for volunteers to make or bring food.

Pozole is a popular Mexican dish used in celebrations. I love pozole! You can make it with pork or chicken and it has different spices and hominy. You garnish it with radishes, lettuce, limes, sour cream and tostadas. Yummy! They have Pozole Blanco (white) and Pozole Rojo (red and spicy). I prefer Blanco, I'm not a spicy girl but Greg prefers it ALL spicy! So they were asking who would make the pozole and only one woman raised her hand, so up my hand went! (gasp!) I still can't believe I volunteered to make a Mexican dish for them my third time to visit the church! I have made it one time before for some friends in Puebla and they said it was really authentic (ha ha) but then again the people here are very polite:)  So, the other woman is making the Pozole Rojo and I am making the Pozole Blanco for about 70 people. Oh dear...I need much prayer!

We were also told we needed to dress very festive so we could only wear red, green or white and the girls hair needed to be styled in a Mexican fashion. Whatever that is, I will have to do a little research. Emma is the little "joiner" so she immediately wanted a tradition Mexican skirt and top so we will go and look for it this week. The party is on Thursday night! Hopefully, we will have lots of fun pictures and satisfied tummies.