The Nichols Family-Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

Sunday, January 29, 2023

ANSWERS TO PRAYER:

- Karlee finally got over her sickness that lingered over the Christmas break and can sing again! Everyone else stayed relatively healthy over Christmas break

- All four of the kids have great friends they hang out with outside of school

- We helped our close friends Hiram and Cristina get engaged! We will be walking them through pre-marital counseling as they prepare for a life together!

- Both of our dads (Reggie and Karlee) had major surgeries in December during the same week! Although healing was a bit slow and some final results are still unknown, they are both recovering well and there were no long-term negative side-effects.

- We have had to find local businesses to help us on a couple small repairs for our house and vehicles. We are grateful to now have connections in our immediate neighborhood, which makes this faster and easier, but it has allowed us to develop relationships with our neighbors!

- On January 3^rd, Karlee was able to get permanent residency! What a blessing this is – and no trips to the US were required!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

- Language learning for the kids and Reggie. Reggie is still exploring language-learning options without a tutor

- We are waiting for a couple pieces of documentation to get Reggie and the kids

permanent residency. If they don’t arrive by the end of February, we can easily renew their temporary residency status and upgrade to permanent when all the paperwork comes in. Please pray it arrives from the States quickly so we can go straight to permanent status to save $360 per person.

- We are still working on raising long-term funding to meet our family needs, emergencies, trips to the U.S., emergency travel, etc. Please pray with us as we build our long-term team!

- Reggie: guitar class, Dream Team conversation class, short-term group coordinating, and responsibilities at home

- Karlee: English classes, sharing at Bible study and youth group, and teacher training workshops

¡Hola, amigos! - It’s a nichols Kids Update!

Karlee Nichols

We want to thank everyone who has been actively praying for our children as we transitioned to life in Morelia. I’m not going to try to sugarcoat it…the first school year was tough. Although each child adapted at their own pace and in their own way, the exclamation, “I’m so grateful this year is not last year!” has escaped my mouth more times than I can count concerning many things, including for my children.

This school year has been FILLED with friends! All four of them have found themselves genuinely excited for returning to school, church activities, and NOE because they can’t wait to reconnect with their friends. What an answer to prayer! Hand-in-hand, this also means that their language development is starting to snowball.  Although still far from perfection, it is incredibly rare that language is the reason for stress. (That being said, please pray for Selah as she takes on classes like chemistry, Mexican history, and Spanish literature while still trying to learn the language!)

We know God is faithful, and I find myself with tears swelling in my eyes, praising Jesus for His faithfulness as, almost on a daily basis, I hear laughing, giggling, game-playing, group project meetings, and recounting things that happened at school in 100% Spanish with people they love and who love them. Sleepovers, playdates, hanging out with friends at the mall, etc. As parents, our hearts swell with joy!

We know they are SUPER excited to see all their friends in the U.S. this summer, to reconnect and share everything they have experienced in almost two years, but it is also so comforting to see them make Morelia “home” and “normal” as we watch them truly become Third-Culture Kids.