Josephine Eva-Marie

She is here! We praise God for the gift of life and for blessing our family with our newest little daughter, Josephine! She was born on November 28th at 12:28pm and came in weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 2oz (our biggest baby yet)! Even though she doesn’t look that big, she must have a HUGE heart…and a lot of hair! This labor and delivery was one of the easiest and most peaceful. We want to thank you all for your prayers for our family and ask that you continue praying for Stacie’s recovery. Stacie did great and I have never seen her look so good after the birth. Many told us that a home birth was a bad idea (we’ve had 2 previously at home- both were awesome experiences) and some thought that a birth in a foreign country was even worse. At our send-off Mass from Mission Formation in Louisiana, our Director, Joseph Summers joked about how we were taking the FMC logo a little too seriously .

It is not too often that one would hear about a large family moving to the other side of the world to give birth at their place of residence not knowing if they’re American friends would make it on time to help with the delivery. Mark and Lora Eckstine (with their 10 children) arrived in Malaybalay on the 14th of November. Our family had just moved out of the Romero’s place and into the new house a few days before and after many plumbing repairs- thanks for your help, Sammy. So, if you add their twelve plus our eight…that’s right! Twenty of us living in a four bedroom home. Good thing Mark and I were able to fix a toilet upstairs or it would have been chaotic with only one useable restroom. Days before I was thinking, “Can 20 of us really live here and make it work?” Not only was there enough beds (or should I say bedding?) for everyone in this house and enough toilets but we even managed to squeeze both families into a Tamaraw! Kind of a good thing to not have to worry about seat belt laws here. The only trouble with a Tamaraw full of people is when it won’t start and it has to be pushed to “pop the clutch”- one of my new favorite techniques. It’s actually not too bad of a missionary vehicle. We are just on the lookout now for more downhill slopes to park on .
Back to the house though. Every morning had been immediately glorious in it. Mark brought out his guitar and the house soon filled up with praises from beautiful Eckstine voices and semi-on-key Alvarezes to open up our Liturgy of the Hours. The sounds coming from our home attracted Tito Vic one day to drop by and join us. Tito Vic is the owner of the house and offered it to us rent-free. Praise God! He has an adjoining art workshop next door and came intending to work. Instead, he joined us in prayer and worship. Thank God for the Baretto Family and their generosity!
Now that you have a little background information on how and where we live, I will get back to the main character of this post. Josephine was born exactly when God wanted her to. The Romeros decided after much prayer and discernment to return to the U.S. and share their testimony of how God used them here. Susanna and Rebekah already had their plans to continue their mission and leave for India. That left the Romero’s place open for the Eckstines to move into. We all gathered to pray over Sammy,Lindsey, and family and also for Rebekah (Susanna had already left). So, the very morning that the Eckstines were going to move, Stacie began labor. She woke Lora at midnight to give her a warning that the contractions had started. Romeros and Rebekah leaving, Eckstines moving, us rearranging the rooms…it was all working in God’s perfect timing!
We didn’t have a way to communicate with the Eckstines if they had moved out. All that morning Stacie labored and the contractions got more difficult. We prayed through them together as Lora and her daughter Abi prepared for delivery. Our oldest, Maddie, was also present and helping with preparations. This was it! As it got closer to noon, Stacie was starting to feel the urge to push. It seemed to me that she only pushed a few times and then she was ready. Finally, the time came where we knew that this baby was coming out. Stacie got into a squatting position in the middle of the room and began to deliver our baby. It was an awkward position for me to “catch” but Lora noted that the cervix is able to open 30% more this way. I held the baby’s head and waited for that last push to bring the shoulders and body through. Stacie pushed one last time and yelled," A baby girl! It’s my baby girl!” I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked because I was thinking it was a boy this whole time. Stacie was able to see her first because of the way my arms were blocking my view. It really was a baby girl!!! WOW! “Praise God!” is all that came to my mind. I didn’t think it would be 12 years until we’d have another daughter but God’s plan is perfect. We all smiled, laughed, cried tears of joy together. Well, since it IS a girl, we needed to name her. We found out about the pregnancy on the Feast of the Annunciation back in March and we prayed that if it was a girl born on a Marian feast day that we would name her Miriam Esme. We waited through two Marian feast days – The Feast of the Presentation of Mary on November 21, and the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal on the 27th, thinking surely it would be either of these two days. Since those days had passed, we thought it must be a baby boy to be born near December 3rd (Feast of St. Francis Xavier) since we had chosen to name a boy Xavier Emmanuel. I have always loved the name Josephine. Stacie looked at her newest daughter and said, “She doesn’t look like a Miriam. She looks like a Josephine.” God had made it clear. Cool with me.
P.S. Here are some facts about the name Joseph/Josephine:
St. Joseph the worker is my Confirmation saint. St. Josephine Bakhita is my other favorite saint. My mother’s name is Josefina. These are three of the main reasons why we picked this name.

Here is one of the myths of why we picked this name (inside joke lang):
We named her Josephine after our FMC Director, Joseph Summers. We did it to “score major points” with him so that he would feel SO honored and give us an all-expense paid, first-class trip to Rome to have the baby baptized by Pope Benedict XVI.

Well, maybe. But if that was the case, then we would have named her Josephine “Genie” Brooklyn Alvarez for maximum point value. Until then, we will settle for her to be baptized by our priest from last year’s post on Camiguin : Father “JOE” Villamil  .

She's a "keeper"

"So, what do you think about being born into the Alvarez Family?"

Josephine's 4 Bodyguards    

Custom-made booties from Big Sis

                                     

Ain't a party without a lechon 

Even though he wanted a baby brother...he'll settle for her :)

The first group viewing of the littlest sister

Mexico Mission in Pictures (Part 1)

 

This a small collection of pics from our mission in Mexico this past summer (April-July)

                                                                                                    

                                           

       

 

                                                                                              

                                          

Philippines...Phi-nally Part 2

We boarded the plane bound for Manila and landed within 3-4 hours after Singapore. Since we had our Saturday wiped off the schedule because of the time changes, we landed on a Sunday afternoon. Time travel is exhausting :) Anyway, Stacie decided to stay with the little ones at the hotel because they were O-U-T! Good thing because Maddie, Meredith, and I barely scrunched in to a PACKED house at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It was the biggest church I'd ever seen! The priest looked so tiny that there were TV's on the sides just to be able to see his face and what was going on up front! We made it back to the hotel and crashed. We needed two rooms- boys and girls. Funny thing happened to both of us. The girls' story is funnier-- Stacie woke up and looked at her watch...

Stacie: "12 o'clock!!! Maddie, go wake up Dad we're about to miss our flight (12:55 pm)!"

Maddie (stumbling over luggage trying to reach the door): "Mom, it's dark outside!"

It was only midnight! In their defense, I did the same thing. There were lights just outside of our windows that looked like daylight peeking around the edge of the room-darkening curtains. I stumbled trying to see the time on my watch but opened the curtains first and noticed the darkness. Boom! My head hit the pillow. Next phase of the trip was up as we got in line to board the final plane ride to Cagayan de Oro only to be told that Stacie was not going to be allowed to fly because of the pregnancy. Even though we presented them with a note from the doctor back in Louisiana saying that she was healthy to fly, it was rejected because it wasn't "within the last 7 days". AHHH!!!!! We pleaded our case saying that we just flew over 25 hours and that everything went fine. Still, it was "against their policy". I even used "the Bishop of CDO is waiting on us" thinking I was able to break through just a little bit...NOPE! All this was going on as they were trying to contact the Doc at his office in Louisiana at 11pm. "No answer, Ma'am. You cannot fly." We asked what our options were. They said she would be able to fly only if she was checked out by a doctor nearby. Okay, then. Here were the options:

1. Allow the children to fly to CDO while Stacie, Julian, and I stayed behind at a doctor's office...NOPE!
2. Cancel the entire flight plan and lose all of our money while we ALL visit the doc... NOPE!
3. Beat up the flight crew and take their outfits and try to fly there ourselves...maybe
4. Leave Stacie and Julian behind so that they can get a transfer to another flight after getting to and from the hospital...in a taxi...in one of the biggest cities in the world...and trust God keeps them safe...Okayyy

I ran off to the ATM to get her the taxi fare and hospital fee. For some reason, I felt a calming peace throughout all this even though I knew that my wife gets lost coming out of every Wal-Mart we've ever been to. I got back and all of us decided to turn our prayers up a notch. We started singing what has now become the official Alvarez missionary travel song-- "My God Is Able". (Thanks, Suz, for teaching us that song.) When the manager returned, we told her we'd take option 4. Her eyes got big and she paused for what seemed like forever. Then she said,"You know, it's okay. We will go ahead and let you board but you have to hurry. The plane leaves in a few minutes!" What followed after that were huge sighs of relief and then shouts of praises to our God. "Praise the Lord!" I said loudly. The kids had tears of joy streaming down their faces knowing that "Mom gets to fly with us". We couldn't stop thinking of how GOOD our God really IS and how BIG He is! Another saying we've always repeated after times like this-- "God is rarely early but NEVER late!" We boarded and everyone who had already been seated turned their eyes to stare at this army of 8 coming down the narrow aisle of the plane. All seated and all smiles as we lifted off headed to CDO!
 So, here we are...Phi-nally! Our new mission has begun. We are patiently waiting on our newest member of the Alvarez clan. The due date is November 30th so we appreciate your prayers for a successful delivery and healthy birth of our baby. We plan to stay in Malaybalay with the Romeros (another missionary family from Louisiana). On Tuesday, Lora Eckstine, and her family fly in to join us and the Romeros in mission. Lora will be the midwife assisting Stacie throughout labor so please pray also for the baby to stay put. We thank you all for your love and prayers. The next post should be about the birth...so stay tuned!!!

• "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."--Proverbs 3:5

Philippines...Phi-nally Part 1

So, for the last few months and almost the whole year, we have been trying to return to the Philippines for our next mission. As many of you already know, we returned from Camiguin Island last November just before Thanksgiving. We visited family and friends in Texas, Louisiana, and Kansas. We were invited all over Kansas to share our experience while also concentrating on raising funds for this trip. After bake sales, talks, driving, talks, and more bake sales we raised enough to purchase one way tickets to get back "home". We failed twice in as many weeks to get on board as there were complications with these tickets. We transferred all of our energy to serving in Mexico in April until we could make the appropriate corrections. Fast forward to July/August...we returned to Big Woods after deciding that it would be best to fly before the baby comes. Yes, we are expecting Baby Alvarez in late November! We were at risk of losing all of the money our donors had generously raised for us to return if we didn't use it before February '13. At that time we would be travelling with about a two-month old and that's if we would have received his/her passport by then. Too many IF's so leaving in October made more sense. This time we were prepared. Going to the airport didn't seem real. Arriving at the airport didn't either. Getting our boarding passes was unbelievable!

Then, before we knew it, there we were in a Boeing 777 flying over the ocean. Our first stop was Moscow, Russia. I only bring this up because it had always been a dream of mine to be in Russia even if it was for only 1 hour...it still counts. A thought occurred to me as the little TV in front of me showed us headed over Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries- We are flying over some of the most dangerous parts of the world right now and looking around almost everyone was asleep. I immediately said a prayer for all of the violence going on below us and that this part of the world would know and serve Jesus, the King of Peace.
We reached our destination in Singapore for a 6-hr layover. Changi Airport is probably the best airport to have a huge layover like we did. There was so much to see and do while we waited. We met a young Vietnamese woman  who "noticed" our big family. She was excited to meet Catholic missionaries and wished that we would visit Vietnam one day. Her husband is close to retiring and they plan to start a school for a rural area that is lacking basic educational needs. Maybe, we thought. With God anything is possible.

We continued looking around at the koi ponds, art stations for the kids, the Sunflower Garden, but the most memorable visit we had was at a Prayer Room. How awesome was that!

It was close enough to our regular Morning Prayer time anyways so we went in. Although many signs were visible stating it was a "Multi-Faith" room, we had to weave our way through a lot of Muslim men waiting outside. Inside, there were two rooms: one for men and another for women. Ummm, that's a problem because we like to pray as a family. So, we found a small corner at the entrance before the entrance to pray. It was an awesome experience watching men and women leaving their individual rooms and stumbling upon a family of 9 (remember the baby) praying psalms and especially singing the Canticle of Zechariah. Powerful moment.

"This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life." -Luke 1: 73-75

Week 6 of the Fast and Other Updates!





Sorry about not finishing my update on my last week on the fast. We got back to Big Woods in early July and I was quickly working on the many projects here. The last week of the fast was a little more challenging with the high humidity, heat, and more manual labor. I feel like I was really challenged to let go of my ways and let the Lord take over. Feeling like I am being called to a higher level of service to others over myself and what I want to do. I especially feel called to do this for my family. Peace begins in the home and then everything else falls into place. It has been a great blessing to be home more but it has come with some challenges. Getting to know the kids' home school schedule, routines, and the "way Mom does it" are a few examples of what I mean. It also is an adjustment for the family to know how Dad does things. These two years in the missions have really brought us a lot closer knowing what each other expects and needs from the others. Feeling God's love and blessings growing for us each time we say "Yes!" to Him.



Need...to...update....blog.....



I have been asked by a few people if I was so weak towards the end that I didn't finish posting on my blog. No, I didn't come close to starving at all and I think it was a lot of God's grace during this fast that kept me going. I secretly was thinking of how I can go on a sleep fast like maybe 3-5 hours of sleep a day for a while. With all of the work we've been doing here at Big Woods and at Our Lady of the Bayous, it's actually come close. Well, to be honest, let's just say that I have been too tired to fast from anything right now :)

Our last visit with Dona Elvirita

A lot has changed since we left Mexico. We had planned on returning to the States and preparing to return to the Philippines in September. We were even making plans to deliver our baby with a midwife on Camiguin Island. Well all of that has changed. Here is a quick run-down of what's taking place: We did not close on our house when we expected to on July 15th. Praise God, though, the buyers agreed to change the date to October. So the sale is still on... just delayed. We also have been discerning to go into our next mission post with the Eckstine Family. We held family retreats together and have been keeping our radars open to what's happening around us. It seems very crazy but Russia has been popping up as a possible mission post! It has always been a dream of mine to go to Russia. Now it's almost a reality. Still need a lot things to happen especially some doors to open to visit there soon so please keep us in your prayers. We would love to serve our Russian brothers and sisters if that's where the Lord is calling us. Also, please pray that our home sells sooner than the October date. That would help clear our minds and cut us off from any connections so that we can freely move around the globe as God wants us.



Tigers loose at Faith Camp '12



That is about it for now. I have been planning to make a collection of pictures from our previous missions to share with you. I'll just add that project to my long list. God bless you and know that wherever God is leading you just follow and do as He says. It will change your life...for the better. Peace be with you.





"And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."--Isaiah 58:11