2025

                                       A New Year, a New Grandson!

Another year come and gone, time for an update on the life of Lisa!

The biggest and best news of this past year was the safe delivery and birth of our grandson Aidan Stanley Helios Sierra.  He was just a tiny little thing when he was born, 4 lbs! He is a happy, plump little guy now at almost 9 months old and the joy of Grandma and Ojii-chan.❤

Dear readers will only get an incognito view of our little man as he is not allowed public photos for fear of paparazzi! 😋 You will have to take my word for it that he is the CUTEST little guy!

                         Katie was the cutest little pregnant Mama. 😊❤

               Here I am when I was pregnant with her, How time flies!

    I remember being so excited to have a daughter...still am!

Two other major milestones of 2024 was my 60th birthday and our 40th wedding Anniversary!  We had a cozy celebration,( just the kind I enjoy..I am not a big party kind of gal)at Katie and Cris's and Gary got me a Kindle Scribe..now I can journal without leaving notebooks in storage all over the world!😜

Our 40th Anniversary was lovely. We took our annual trip to Costa Rica and relaxed, ate good food and explored San Jose. 

      

 Forty wonderful years of life, love and adventure!!!

The ministry work has been continuing as well. We were invited up a mountain for dinner at the home of one of our families. 

The view was great..but it was quite the climb! The city in the valley is

where the church is located.

Coffee on top of the world!

Chrismas this year was extra special as we were able to celebrate with our daughters. This is the first time in MANY years that we have all been together for Christmas so of course we made tamales! ❤ I love my sweet daughters SO much!

There have been a few bumps in the road of 2024, life isn't always a smooth road.  Gary's mom has had a very rough year after falling and breaking her leg and arm with several set backs...but she is the toughest little Japanese lady I know and is still with us at 94years old! 

We lost a good pastor friend to a sudden heart attack and other family drama occurred as well but such is life. Overall though, 2024 was a good year and I look forward to the new things in 2025! 

                                               2024   A New Year!

And just like that a new year has begun! I remember as a child thinking that the year 2000 was forever away and now we're in 2024 and this year I'll turn 60 years old!  60 feels both older in some ways and younger than I expected in others! 

We started the year off a bit sadly as our little family with their 4 childen moved away to Bocas del Toro.  We will certainly miss them all but I pray that the time we were able to minister to them will bear fruit some day.

We spent New Year's eve with a nice church service and after church we had coffee,cocoa and a rosca. It was a nice time of fellowship and chatting. ❤

On the way home we stopped at our veggie stand and I found the largest cantaloupe I've EVER seen!  It took me forever to cut it up and dice it but it was very sweet and delicious!!

                                                              

We spent the evening in and at midnight when the neighborhood fireworks were set to begin we had a deluge of rain instead! We fell asleep and a couple hours later when the rain stopped the fireworks began...in the middle of the night! It sounded like a warzone!😅

So the old year is gone. Goodbye 2023 we are thankful for all the blessings that year brought.     God was truly good to us.❤

                                                            

Hello 2024! I'm looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us this year!             

                                                                  

                                                             Goodbye 2023

2023 is coming to a close. It seems this year flew by and while it was a year filled with some challenges and some heartbreak for family members, it was also a year with more blessings than pain. I always count that as a win as there have been years in the past that I was happy to say goodbye to.  

The biggest blessing is the imminent arrival of a new Grandchild in 2024.  We look forward to meeting little Aidan Stanley Helio Sierra in about 4 months. ❤ 

         He is only our second grandchild after Matthew, who turned 16 this year! 

I find it funny that given we only have the one grandchild and another on the way, we spent the year full of children!

             Often times they were sleeping on my lap...I guess I was comfy.😜

For Christmas this year we had planned a nice Christmas service with coffee, cocoa and homebaked goodies after Christmas Eve church service. Instead, a large part of Panama had the electricity go out...for several hours! We had a church service without airconditioning or even fans! As hot as we all were during service, poor Gary was drenched by the end of preaching a short but beautiful Christmas sermon. Still, we had a good time...giving gifts to the kiddos and enjoying the goodies with water instead of coffee and cocoa.  The homemade fudge was a hit...but folks weren't sure about the ricekrispi bars.😛  

Adios 2023!!!

                                                                 Fun with Sister

                                                 Back to more travel memories of 2023.  

In August, Lynn treated me with a trip home to Wisconsin. We spent several days just doing fun stuff...hiking, ferry rides, beach picnics...delicious food and rock painting! The most fun though was just spending time chatting and laughing and being together!  The hardest thing about our nomadic lifestyle is having to leave family behind, so on the rare opportunities we are together it is a special blessing!                  Thank you so much Sis for the wonderful memories!❤❤❤❤

                                                      Hiking...lots of wonderful hiking. 

                        It was fun discovering hidden rock villages on Madeline Island. 

                                                                       Shenanigans 😜

                                                                    Riding the ferry.

                                                 

                                                             I LOVE Lake Superior!!!!