Just When You Thought Canada Couldn't Get Any Whiter

This is the park from our window

This is slow, cold torture

Just when you thought Canada couldn't get any whiter...it snows! We haven't had much snow this winter but when it comes it flies in like its mad at you. I used to love this in Poland. I could just retreat to my high rise apartment and wonder how long it would have to snow before the accumulation reached the 7th floor. Here in Canada, though, I am required by law to shovel the sidewalk in front of our home. It is exactly 4 ft of sidewalk, hardly worth the $10 I spent on the shovel, but I am a law abiding immigrant. Luckily, Sophia thinks this is the greatest job in all the world. She asks everyday to "Go shovel snow?". So this is Sophia with her own shovel we bought her, doing her best.

 

TIME WITH FAMILY

Sophia enjoying the room Tio prepared for her!

      Erin , Elias, Sophia and I were able to spend Christmas and New Years in Texas.  It was our son's first trip to America which feels so weird to write.  Of course anywhere can feel familiar and like home when you have a loving family waiting for you.  My brother went over the top in how he prepared the kids' rooms.  Sophia, especially, who is always shy for the first five minutes she sees anyone no matter how familiar, immediately dropped her guard in when she saw her new room.  She slept in a tent!  It was a perfect ending to a hard day of traveling.

All the cousins!

     Erin's family was great as always.  We ate so much together and watched our kids play.  Sophia loves her cousins and hasn't stopped listing their names yet (Aidan, Jacob, Chloe, Riley, Will and Baby Bennett get mentioned everyday here in the Great White North).  Grandma and Grandpa were great as well providing a life saving rocking chair to help us put our boy to sleep every night.  The only thing missing was Papu and Abu (who will be here April!).

How can you not love this guy?!

      We also connected again with our friends at Richland Hills Baptist, Marine Creek, Gethsemane, and CityView and others. 
     The time we had made me think about how blessed we are to have a loving family to visit, the resources to travel, and the health to enjoy every second.  God is good!  I also am thankful that we have a place in Toronto that we were happy to return to because of our incredible chance to serve here in a meaningful way. 
Thanks to everyone who made our short time in Texas special and we look forward to keeping you posted on a great year!

Here In Toronto

The Vazquez Family!

     Well everyone, the Vazquez family is in Toronto now (actually for the last 5 months). We finally are writing an update now because I am desperately looking for a way to avoid changing another diaper (and Erin said this was a good reason). We now have two children in diapers, Elias was born August 25th at 10 lbs and 20.9 inches. Sophia, of course, is 21 months and about ready for those pull-ups (but as you can see, it takes us 5 months to write an update so Sophia will be lucky to be potty trained by her teen years). 

      Sleep hasn't been a problem, especially while I'm driving (I catch a few Z's at the stop lights and on mostly straight roads). Erin has been supermom day and night and is recovering very well from child birth. Sophia is jealous but coping and getting better everyday. She loves her brother. She loves her parents. She just doesn't love when her parents hold her brother (or feed him or change him or look at him).

Erin's sister Mandy with Elias

      We've been blessed by Erin's mom and dad, Kay and Ron, during the birth and her sister, Mandy, afterward. They've done cooking, cleaning, changing, burping, and rocking with such loving generosity. Thank God for good family! Well I won't try to catch you up all in one post so more to come (some time in January at this pace).

Erin's mom Kay and Elias