family news continued

In June we took all six kids to Cebu for the day and visited Cebu Safari Park.  It was a great day and the kids all had a lot of fun seeing all the animals.

 

All six kids

 Daddy with all six kids

 three newest Cajigas kids

 Two oldest

 Sister love

 Mommy with all six kids

Family picture as of Sept 2019

Family news

I will have to post the pictures later they did not copy from word  Sorry for now ignore the little picture titles

 

I have to start this post with an apology for not updating more often.  I do have somewhat of a legitimate excuse this time though.  Our internet has not been working well for a month or so now. 

We do have some big news coming from our family though and would like to use this post to tell you about it. 

I will start with a little bit of a back story so that you can all be familiar with the people I will talk about.  As many of you know four years ago this coming January we took in a sibling group of four kids.  Mickaila, Andrew and the twins Mark and Marah.  Mark has been with us since the start.  Mickaila, Andrew and Marah where in our orphanage being cared for by house parents.  The beginning of this year they were still living at the orphanage but to save some money they took all their meals with us.  By the middle of the year we decided that we would try and start the adoption process over again and this time we would process the adoption for both the twins.  At this point we did talk about the older two but felt at that time it would be too difficult to try and decided not to at that time. 

 All

Our family as of January 2019

Well God knows his plans and stalled the adoption so that he could work in our hearts and make his will known and  to allow us time to be comfortable with that chose.  A few weeks ago Jonah had a meeting with the new adoption worker from Cebu and they continued to stress  how much easier it would be to process the adoption of the four of them and it would be more likely to be approved.  All four have been under our primary care and God had been working on my heart at least to be okay with adopting all four of them.  When it comes to something like that I talk to Jonah about it and then let God do the rest.  If it is his will then he will make it clear to Jonah as well and he will come to me and we talk about it further.  This was one of those times.  After the meeting with the adoption worker he came home and told me he thought we should adopt all four of them.  So our family went from four when we arrived five years ago.  We tried to grow it by one within a year of our arrival and know almost five years later we are going to double from our original size. 

We went to Cebu safari park in June, this was before we knew we would adopt all of them but it was a great family outing.

                Daddy with all his kids.

 

The three newest Cajigas kids

The two oldest sisters.

 

Sister love

                Mom with all her kids.

 

Newest family photo.  Sept. 2, 2019

The first step should be about a month or so.  The adoption worker will but out a news report on different news outlets looking for the birth mom.  She has one month to reply.  If she does she could be arrested for warrants on theft charges.  If she does not reply the children will be considered legally abandoned and available for adoption.  If everything goes as it should a year and a half from know the kids will be legally Cajigas.

This does mean that my life is busy and revolves around cooking and caring for kids.  I enjoy it most of the time but there are definitely times that I cannot wait for grocery day or nap time.  Most days I do not get nap time though because I only have one that takes naps everyday still.  I have two that do not nap most days.  They do have quite time most of the time.

 

Summer break and back to school

 

 

It has been a couple of months since my last post.  Sorry for the silence.  When we last left you we saw the kids start their summer break.  Well Summer is over and the school year routine is in full swing at my house.  The summer was uneventful at our house.  The kids played around and had fun not having school to do.  I am wishing now in some ways that I would have enjoyed the summer more and not wished for the school year to start.  Life is busy when you have six kids to get up and send off to school.  You read that right all six kids are in school.  Precious, Mickiala, and Andrew started class on June 3.  Faith started the year a week later with the intention to homeschool and the twins started class on the 17th.  Faith started the year well with her Tagalog classes that We had a friend helping her with.  Her English classes where harder to get started because it was hard for me to set the time to help her.  Some of the work she could have done herself but was to distracted.  Two weeks in I told her if she could not get her work done I would transfer her to school.  She decided soon after that to transfer to the public school and has completed two and half weeks there and is loving it.  She is doing great also learning much and getting good grades.  Precious is in grade 6, Mickiala is grade 3, Faith is grade 2, Andrew is in Kindergarten and the twins are in day care (preschool).  My day revolve around kids and school.  I am up at 5:30 to get breakfast ready and the kids are all up by 6.  By 7 the four oldest are out the door to school and the twins and I are leaving by 7:45.  I spend 2.5 hours at daycare with the twins for the first couple of months helping them with their writing and just getting them settled in.  I am home about 10:30-11 and Get lunch ready for the rest of the kids that are home by noon.  The three oldest girls are the only ones that have class in the afternoon.  The three youngest get naps around 1 for a couple of hours.  That is my semi quite/personal time.  Semi because Mark does not always get a nap.  He is learning to sit quietly at my feet or snuggle in my lap. Depending on what I am doing.  The oldest girls are home between 4 and 5 and then it is outdoor play time and sports practice for Precious.  She is playing badminton this year.  Jonah is coaching her and the other girls so for an hour or two the playground here is a busy chaos of kids.  Dinner gets started about 5:30-6.  Supper at 6:30, then family time and bed by 8:30.  

 

 

First day of school

L to R Marah, Mark, Andrew, Faith, Mickiala, and Precious

June 12 was independence day here so the kids had no school.  Since we did not really do any summer getaways we decided to surprise the kids and take a long day trip to Cebu.  They have this new Safari park that opened recently and thought the kids would love to see all the animals.  It was a lot of fun to watch the kids with the animals and they all loved it and had a great time.

 

 The kids at the front sign.

 most of our kids with the lion

Another picture of the kids.

 

It was nice to have a day away and see the kids enjoying themselves. 

 

 

If you all would be willing to pray for our kids this school year.  Pray that they will all do their best and learn all they need to learn.  Pray especially for Faith that she will continue to enjoy school and that she will learn new things and not get bored with school.  She is in grade two which is where she should be for her age and I think she will learn new things but for now a lot of it is review for her  and she keeps asking if she can go to grade 3. 

 

Pray for strength, patience and good health for all of us this year.

 

Pray for the adoption of the twins.  There is supposed to be a meeting this month to get things started again.  Pray that meeting will take place and the powers that be will not keep canceling.

 

Thank you again for always journeying with us in this adventure we call missions.


A HUGE THANKS TO A COUPLE OF OUR COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO COME EVERY SCHOOL MORNING FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS TO HELP CLEAN UP AFTER BREAKFAST AND GET US ALL OUT THE DOOR ON TIME.

annual thanksgiving and school closing

April is over but it is always a busy time of year for us here.  The end of March into the first week of April is the school closing season and preparations for summer break.  Precious and Mickaila ended the year well and both received at least one ribbon.  It is also this same time of year that we go into full preparation mode for the annual Church Thanksgiving.  A couple of highlights before the real story.  In January a couple of the young people from our church got married.  Precious was a brides maid, Faith was a flower girl and Jonah and I where sponsors.  It was a beautiful wedding celebrating the wonderful couple.  In February our young people also put together and wonderful event for all the local young people from five different villages.  It was called a hearts party and a wonderful time to share the real love of God in a month when we are all so focused on the human side of love.  ( sorry no pictures from this event).  The end of school year here is a time of wait and see.  Kids some days come home and say no class the next day they are getting home later than "normal".  It is a rough time for someone like me who likes to know what is going on and what to expect but I am learning to live with it and just roll with it.  Our school closing was scheduled for April 4 in the morning.  It was supposed to be a half day program this year but as expected it became an all day affair with an hour lunch break in the middle.  They start with the grade six graduates and recognition of the kindergarten students that had an outstanding year.  The afternoon they go in order from grade one to grade five.  Every grade has at least one song and one dance presentation.  They then recognize the students from each grade that had an outstanding year and hand out honors medals and ribbons for various things.  Precious Finished the year with High Honors ( ended the year with a 95 or above) She was second in her class.  She also received 5 ribbons.  Most inquisitive, most kind, most loving, most considerate and best in reading.



 

 Our family after the wedding

 Precious with all her medal, ribbons and certificate

 Precious with a friend Jeagan

 My cute Marah

 

 

Thanksgiving is the time we celebrate all the things that the church accomplished in the last year and look forward to the year ahead.  There is a service with a guest speaker and a big potluck lunch after for the whole community.  The men of the church also divide into four teams and play a basketball tournament.  The day of the Thanksgiving they invite men from the community to join them for the afternoon and they play a few games with a prize for the winning team.  

 Jonah's team this year

 JoJo one of our favorite young people

 Mickaila and her ribbon

 

 

Mickaila  got a ribbon for cheerful soul award.  She is enjoying her summer break and is also working with a tutor in math to help her be more ready for next year.  The parents are encouraged to put the ribbons on there kids.  I like that the kids are recognized for their hard work and I think it encourages the kids to try hard and do well.  

 Precious receiving her awards

 Mickaila with her ribbon

 Our family picture plus one

 

I am proud of my girls and their desire to be involved in the church and its activities.  Faith signs backup with the worship team and likes to dance.  Precious enjoys dance and quite often dances with the young people for special programs.  

Faith Precious and Mickaila in a dance for the thanksgiving

Missionary life

Four years ago we left the US as a family of four and we enter this new year with the promise and hope of being a family of six.  Many if not all of you know that we have been trying to adopt one of the boys that came to us as an orphan 3 years ago.  Well we have finally made some progress in that but also is a regression of sorts.  We found out the end of last year that our paperwork was sent to Cebu but was never actually processed.  Our local social worker did not process the paper work he just sent it.  It has been sitting in Cebu for months with nothing happening.  We have been in touch with a social worker in Cebu and she is now working on the adoption with our local social worker, so progress.  We found out though that since so much time has lapsed we have to start all over from the beginning with the whole process.  Mark as many of you know has a twin sister, Marah.  While talking to the social worker in Cebu she suggested that to make things look better for the Filipino government that we should adopt both of the twins.  This is something that Jonah and I have talked about and prayed for but have never really heard an answer.  When the social worker in Cebu told Jonah that it seemed to be our answer.  So we start the process all over and will be adopting both the twins.  The first step is to try and find the birth mother.  This will be done with news releases that the local social welfare agency is looking for her and she will have one month to reply if she fails to reply within the one month the Agency will declare the kids to be abandoned  and will be cleared for adoption.  We are praying that the process will go smooth from here on out. 


Since the twins are living with us now that leaves only two kids at the orphanage.  We are looking to make some changes in the ministry in this next year to reduce our budget.  The house parents currently do not have a home so for the next year they will stay at the orphanage and still provide care for the two that are living there but the two kids will eat their meals with us.  During this time Jonah and I are looking into what it would take to become licensed foster parents instead of spending all the money to hire a full time social worker and license the orphanage.  During this transition over the next couple of years we are also looking into working with our local church and the denomination as a whole to focus more on outreach and starting bible studies that may lead to more church plants.  Outreach was a big focus of the church years ago but they got busy with other things and it was kind of put aside.  We love doing youth camps and other possible camps that focus on different populations of people. 

This is all that we fill God calling us to right now but only he knows all the details.  We are listening to his voice and trusting that he will lead the way.

Pray with us in these years to come that God will make his way clear and that the adoption with go smooth from this point forward.