My dearest husband

Here is Javi's "costume" today. His name tag says " All That" - those aren't his sunglasses either, but he doesn't own any so he found these and said he needed them because all the guys who think they are too cool where sun glasses.


OK - those of you who know my husband know that he is loud and crazy and always joking. He can actually be kind of stern and quiet and reserved before he is comfortable with someone, but usually he struggles to be serious. This picture shows his confident and silly personality. We don't do Halloween in our home, we just have a fun family night, but he couldn't resist dressing up for work today. Who do you think he is? He is "All that and the bag of chips". Ever since he was learning English he would learn a new phrase and say it over and over until he found a new one. I don't know if it is the second language, but he thinks it is so funny. Well according to the kids and me, we do think he is "All that and the bag of chips" :)

Actually, I have to share how proud I am of Javi. He came here at 17 to play baseball and played a couple of years in the minor leagues and didn't make it to the big leagues. When we were first married at 19/20 yrs old, he was working 2 jobs as a cashier at a grocery store and a cashier/stocker at a drug store. A far change from his dreams of making it big, but he never looked back and just worked hard at his new job. His English improved and he moved up to night stocker and then a low level manager, often working 70-80 hour weeks between the 2 jobs. When our first daughter was several months old, he took a pay cut to be a manager at a cleaning company so that he could be home more. He has really learned on the job and become the second highest manager in AZ for this cleaning company. This year he was a key person in securing more than 10 million dollars in business, including a contract to clean Sky Harbor Airport. He is not in sales, but he has been selling a lot of business the last few years. He taught himself how to build, fix and use computers better than most and he never even used a computer until he was about 19 years old. He never went to college either.

Besides this, he is an amazing father who teaches his children the Bible, trains them in baseball, cooks, mops, helps a lot with the kids when he comes home from work and always puts them to bed. He is a loving husband, at times too loving - if that is possible :), who always tells me I am even more beautiful when I have gained a few pounds (I lucked out there :)). He has also learned to be a wise investor of our money (which is good for anyone, but especially for someone who grew up very poor and never learned about $ management). I am so proud of him also because he completed 2 1/2 years of a rigorous Bible/pastoral training center at church. It amazes me how he can read and study the Bible and theological books so well in a second language. Those of you who know a second language know how it is very different to speak a language than it is to study at a high collegiate level in it.

It is funny because every time we go back to his country I hear all of the stories of how he got into so much trouble as a kid and they are all so surprised at how he turned out. They always say that America really changed him, but we know and share that it is his relationship with Christ that changed him. Of course, we have our share of struggles because we are two sinners, but I really do love and respect this man. He is more than I could have hoped for.