NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

This has been a really warm winter here in Ontario. It has been so hard to know from one week to the next whether we will be able to go sledding or skating outside since the temperature is ofter above 0 Celsius. If you read our post from this time last year at http://blogs.ntm.org/nicolas-masse/2011/02/09/snow-snow-snow/, and compare those pictures with the ones we took on the same day this year you will notice a huge difference. Is this God preparing us for warm winters in PNG? Fortunately in a few weeks we will be in Quebec and able to enjoy the snow that they have received.

Since we have sent our last news lettter we are happy to announce that we will not need to bring diapers with us to PNG! Justin is pretty faithful with using the toilet now…even though there are some mishaps they are very few and far between, Praise the Lord! He even tells us now when he has to go. He just recently (Feb. 19th) had his 3rd birthday and he is proud to be a big boy in underwear.

With the arrival of spring, the new life we see sprouting everywhere, the beautiful sunshine and the warmth that comes with it also comes the joy of spending time together as a family and enjoying hours of fun outside! We have been busy with raking rocks off the grass, clearing the gardens for the new life that’s coming up and most importantly playing outside with the children. We’ve spent much time on our super fun trampoline, taking walks, sliding, pushing swings, biking and they’ve even tried out sleding in the grass. All in all we are enjoying the spring weather and thanking God for the joy that it brings!

Yesterday was my birthday and what a day it was! It started by my sweet hubby letting me sleep in (when you have four kids that in itself could have left me satisfied!). Then Justin had to get vaccines so I went into Hanover for that (something he was not to fond of). My sister had invited me for lunch so I went over after the appointment and had an amazing grilled sandwich that would make anyone say Mmmmm… and she made me a cappuccino that warmed me right up as we enjoyed watching an educational program. After that I came home and the house was all decorated with balloons and streamers, something Nico worked very hard at, and my children jumped out yelling surprise and happy birthday mommy. We ate wings, chips, veggies and dip for supper and for dessert had my last icecream cake from Dairy Queen, for a very long time. After supper we all played Disney Scene It, one of my gifts, and I won. Once the kids were all ready for bed we had a pillow fight and then it was off to bed with many kisses and once again birthday wishes from my little cuties! To top it all off, once the kids where in bed I sat down and took a look at facebook which was loaded with wonderful birthday wishes from so many dear friends. It has been a week that has shown me how truly special family and friends are and how important it is to cherish every moment with them. Now I’m 32 and loving it, thanks everyone!

We have gotten our work visa’s approved and are waiting on our entry visa’s to be approved, it is now out of our hands and into the governments, and ultimately the Lords. I think the fact that the time is going so fast is giving us an itch for being in a nice warm place all year round, we’re ready!

Just when you think that the snow is starting to melt away another storm hits and you get more. We do love the snow but the cold is not so fun and this week has been very cold. Last week the kids had a snow day because of a huge winter storm that started in the southern States. The kids loved it and they had two days in a row off because they had a scheduled day off of school the very next day. The picture that you see is what our porch looked like after our day of blustery snow, it was such a blessing to have a nice warm house from which to look at it.

The other day Lydia brought home a book from school, in the book were instructions on how to make special popsicles. She asked me if I could make them and so I tried two different ones. One was banana and chocolate and the other a creamsicle made with berry juice. Even though it has been freezing cold we ate them and enjoyed every bite. The statement made was “Oh mom, you have to make these in the summer they are sooo good!” I agree that they would be better in the summer seeing that we all had to warm up by the fire after…good times!

Just last week our 6 year old boy Zacharie lost his first tooth. Oh what a proud day that was for him! Our 3 year old Jeremie had his first official sleepover with his cousin Caleb. The next evening he realized that he had forgotted his favorite blanky there and was quite upset but quickly fell asleep assured that his cousin was taking good care of it. We realized that our Justin turning 2 in just under a month speaks mostly french and responds to all we say in french. He is the first of our children to be so french and it is quite cute. And although our daughter won’t admit it she understands all we say in french, she’s very good. She thinks it’s funny to withhold her speaking ability, she plays tricks on her daddy all the time. Once she used his ipod to hack into his computer and mess around with his mouse…it was great! All this to say we are extremely blessed and proud to have such wonderful children.

Hello Everyone,

For the past 7 years we have moved every summer and every time we’ve had more kids and more stuff to move. This time we moved our website to this one and it has been the easiest move so far!

Hope you like it!

Nico & Jessica