Morris Family in Mexico: Fourth of July and Friends

The thought of spending the Fourth of July in Mexico wasn't too appealing to me. I don't exactly know why: it's not like we have ever been big Independence Day celebrators. Perhaps it just pinpointed our isolation of being some of the few Americans in a foreign country. Anyways, one of our original ideas was to take a road trip to San Antonio for the holiday, but with it landing on a Tuesday, it would have required Ben to take a full three days off work. We decided to save that for a 4th of July that falls closer to the weekend. So, that left us here in Monterrey.

Thankfully, we didn't spend the 4th of July alone, as the Lord has blessed us with a friendship with an American family here in Monterrey. The Leonards arrived in Mexico in January for a three year stint working with a missions organization called Back to Back. We met them one Sunday at church and have gotten to hang out with them several times since. They are a delightful family, with four kids that play wonderfully with our kids, and with whom we have a lot in common. Would you believe that the second time that we saw each other was because I ran into Katie, the wife, at the gluten free bakery here in town. Go figure: they have food allergies too. Dustin, the husband, hunts, builds, and loves maps, which means him and Ben never have a shortage of things to talk about. We all love to read and have started to exchange books (no public libraries here in Mexico). I cannot say enough of the Lord's provision of this friendship and we're thankful to have a family with whom to adjust to this foreign-country-living thing.

So, 4th of July in Mexico was not celebrated with a big firework show, but it did include a good ol' American barbecue of hamburgers, sweet corn on the cob, and an American flag cake. And most importantly, it included fellowship with friends. For that, we're so thankful.

Josh helped me make the cake during Seth and Sam's Spanish lesson.

Then Sam and Seth helped me decorate it

These were the boys' red, white and blue outfits...Josh did not want to be pictured.

Oddly enough, we couldn't find any 4th of July decorations at the store, so we handmade some

The finished cake...yum!

Kids table

The kids swam for hours, until well after dark

You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get seven kids to gather together in a pool for a picture

It truly was like herding cats

This was the best we could do

A couple days after the 4th, we offered to watch all the kids so that Dustin and Katie could go on a date. It was verified that the Leonards were a good fit for our family when they showed up with their own weapons for an epic nerf war. We seriously had the funnest evening with all the kids playing. They again swam until well after dark as us parents visited. It was so good for the soul.

Pretty intense crew (not pictured, Micky, the Leonard's 9 year old daughter...she's pretty out numbered with all these boys!)

Kyler (the 2nd oldest son, pictured in blue) has a Where's Waldo book, and couldn't find Waldo on one of the pages. Ben finally found Waldo, and we were all so excited. (Also pictured, the oldest son, Derrick)

On another occasion with the Leonards, we ate PF Changs for Kyler's birthday and then went to "Jumpster." These pictures are of Josh and Jeremiah, their youngest son. Josh and Jeremiah are two peas in a pod and love being rambunctious with one another.

"Bomb's away!"

I love this one of them laughing together

Unlike the jump places in America that we've been to, Mexico lets more than one kid into the foam pit at a time. Josh and Jeremiah just had a blast together, building foam block towers, burying each other, and throwing blocks at one another.