Who's sick out there?

Aren't they (Julia and JoAna) absolutely beautiful??

The cold has arrived here... Both my babies are recovering from a cold. Nothing serious, thank God but annoying. Now Matthew has got it and his situation got worse with a sinus infection which he is starting to treat with antibiotics today. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week.

I'm the only one that is not sick. Well, somebody has got to take care of the family, huh?

WOW, Almost a year has gone since I last posted something here. Well, what's new? Our family has grown with our precious JoAna who is now 10 months old. She is a doll, a wonderful baby, great joyfull personality, full of energy! Julia is also our doll, she is 2 1/2 years old and she found out that she can speak. And boy, she CAN speak! We just love to see her excitement as she finds out new words and new things to explore all the time. Children have this God given quality of be in awe of the smallest, simplest things. And that is the true beauty of life. I'm so thankful for our daughters that reminds us that we live in an amazing world created by God for us to enjoy.

Matthew and I are very busy with 2 young daughters + The Pregnancy Center to direct. It's such a big job, full of responsibility and we can only do it by the grace of God.

I'll post a recent pic of the 4 of us and try to be more consistent on my postings.

Love to all of you, our friends and family

From the 4 of us.

JoAna Schaetzle will arrive in July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I'm 5 months pregnant and we are having a little girl in July. Her name is JoAna, after her grandmother, JoAnn. The meaning of the name is "God is gracious" which couldn't be more perfect and true. We are so thankful to God and so happy to be parents of another little girl. God is indeed gracious and good. I did an US yesterday (Monday, 10th) and everything is perfect with her. As we expected, she is a perfect creation of God and his wonderful gift of love for us!! Praise you, Lord!! Everything is going well with me during this pregnancy and that's great.

Julia is 16 months old and she is simply a doll. She is a wonderful baby, so full of joy and excitement! It's wonderful to see her grow and develop, truly! I don't think she fully understands what is about to happen in July when her sister comes but she stares at my belly as it grows and especially when I pray for the baby and touch my tummy. We are simply praying for both of them and their adjustments to change. God will show us the best way to deal with each situation as they show up.

As far as our Ministry, The Pregnancy Center, it's going really well. We are in the end of our training with Asher and Suzanne (the previous Directors) and we are learning a lot from them. They did such and amazing job, especially Suzanne, who's been the Executive Director for over 8 years. They are leaving HUGE shoes to fill in... We are not planning to step in their shoes, we have to have our own shoes, but we will do what it takes to keep up the good work and, God willing and helping, we will allow the Ministry to grow even more, to the next level.

We do need your prayers, though, it's an enormous amount of work and it's a job of huge responsibility. We really need God's guidance and wisdom to know what to do and when to do it. And we also need His guidance to know how to balance ministry life with personal and family life.

Two Fridays ago we had the visit of a 15 year old girl at the Center. She called days before the visit saying that she needed information on abortion. I asked her what kind of information and she said - I want to know how much it cost do have an abortion. I explained her we did not do abortions but we had all other kinds of information on that subject and we could even do a free Ultra Sound for her so that she would know for sure how far long she was. She said she had come to us before and done a Pregnancy Test so I scheduled her for an Ultra Sound, hang up the phone and went to look for her file. As I could not find her file, I decided to call her back to see if she was confused as far as having been to the Center before. As I spoke to her she told me she thought she was calling Planned Parenthood instead of The Pregnancy Center. But she was still interested in coming for the Ultra Sound.

Any doubts that this was a divine appointment?

She did come and Suzanne had a great talk to her before I did the Ultra Sound. We were able to help her to start thinking about all the aspects of an abortion and also about other choices that she had, other than the abortion of her 6 weeks old baby. She will come back with her boyfriend for another Ultra Sound so keep her in your prayers, please. As our services are confidential, I can't say her name but let's just name her Sally to make things easier. God knows who she is.

We are in huge need of more volunteers for the Center. We need help in all areas, counseling Ultra Sound technicians, office work, maintenance, cleaning, fundraising, outreach to the community and teaching. Please, pray that God will send more labors to His harvest. With Suzanne and Asher stepping out, we will need more people if we want to keep our doors opened as they are, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. We don't want to reduce our hours, we were actually praying for an increase of volunteers and hours.

If you are interested in knowing more about how to support The Pregnancy Center and/or how to support our family, as missionaries, please, let me know and I'll be happy to explain it to you

Well, this is all for now but I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading and praying.

PS - Please, also read our website. Matthew does a great job on it. You will find more details about us and about the ministries we are working with.

www.globalwarrior.org

We are back in Hawaii

Dear friends and family, it's been a long time since I've last posted something in the blog but we've been traveling a lot these past months.

We headed to Brazil on November the 20th, stayed there until December the 20th and from there, straight to Indiana until January the 3rd.

We had a GREAT, ABSOLUTELY GREAT time among family and friends. It was hot, hot summer in Brazil and that was a big contrast with the freezing cold winter of Indiana, but we survived. Julia had such a wonderful time getting to know so many people and everybody absolutely loved her. She is an adorable baby and I mean it!

After 6 weeks away from home we were certainly ready to sleep in our own bed and it felt good to come back home. We were also excited about starting our new job. We were invited, last year, to be the new directors of The Pregnancy Center. Both of us, Matthew and I, have been volunteering there for quite a while and the Center is a ministry that we both learned to appreciate and love. We prayed for 2 months and felt peace to accept it. It could not be a better fit, God knows what He is doing and we are so thankful for the opportunity.

The previous directors are also a couple, the Motola's. Suzanne has been the Center director for 8 years and Asher, her husband, came to help her 2 years ago. They are great, great people and the ministry grew immensely under their administration. They are still here and will be training us for 3 months until we are able to do the work on our own. So we are experiencing an intense time of training and learning. It's been great!

The other great news is that we will have a baby in July. I'm 15 weeks pregnant and feeling good now. I'm finally over the morning sickness, praise God! We still don't know the sex but will know in a few weeks, hopefully. Whatever it is, it is a big blessing and another wonderful gift from our Father in Heaven! Thank you, Lord!!

Julia is doing great, she is walking and is cuter by the day. She is becoming more and more expressive as time goes by and her personality is showing up more and more. It's so amazing to watch and it's such a privilege to be able to guide her as she grows and develops.

Well, I won't make this very long but I'll try to be more faithful from now on...

Blessings on all of you

Ana

BRAZIL AND INDIANA, HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get ready!!!!!!!!!!!

This orange is OK but I'd rather try this little green thing on the floor...

What was that noise?

How did they find me here?

Mom, I'm just helping you organize the closet!!

I love my bath!!

And I love my food!!

Is there something wrong with my face??

Yes, we are getting ready to go visit both of our families!! PRAISE THE LORD!!

We are so excited that it's hard to describe! It's been over two years since we've been to Brazil and Julia and I have never been to Indiana. We are looking forward to the time we will spend among family and friends. We are heading down to Brazil on the 19th of November and will be in Guarulhos after 26h. Then we have a 4 hours drive from the airport to my parents' house. They will be waiting for us at the airport, praise God!

We will stay one month in Brazil and we will fly to Indiana on the 19th of December to spend Christmas, New Year and Matthew's birthday with his family. And then, back to Kona on the 3rd of January for a new job!! Praise God for that either!!

It will be summer in Brazil and it will probably be snowing and freezing cold in Indiana. Please, pray for our trips as well as for health during all these transitions. You know, Julia and I are "Brazilians"... we don't know what "snow" means, hehehe!!

We are going through and interesting time right now... Matthew was laid off his job this past Monday as soon as he came back from a week of vacations. We were not expecting that and truthfully, we are still a little bit in shock. But we DO TRUST God and we know He is in control, even when we completely loose it! We are not sure what we will do during this month that we have ahead of us, before we go to Brazil, in terms of job. So, please, pray with us for wisdom and direction from God!

God is so faithful that He has already been providing for us so we believe we will be able to pay our rent and all our basic expenses until the new job comes in January. If you do pray for us; please, pray for our finances too because we don't want to go into debt during those 3 months.

I've uploaded some very recent pics of Julia. She is doing great! She is becoming a social butterfly. She waves and smiles at everybody now and if anybody smiles back she wants to play peek-a-boo wherever she is. She is a wonderful, peaceful baby. A true gift from God!

Thank you Lord, for all of your blessings in our lives and for your love and faithfulness!

We are looking forward to seeing our families and friends during this trip!!

Blessings to all of you!

MY BELOVED CHILD

June the 6th, what a day of joy!!! I found out that you existed through a positive pregnancy test. It was a bit unexpected but it was a wonderful surprise!! My heart was filled with great joy as I expected and anticipated your arrival!!

Your dad and I began to dream about you and to make plans for our future with you. We were very curious to know if you were a little boy or girl and began to imagine how you would look like. We began to choose a name for you and imagine each detail of your physical appearance, personality, your gifts, everything. What a joy!!

July the 9th, what a day of anguish!!! It was our first visit to the doctor and she could not find your heartbeat in the Ultrasound. Is it possible that it’s still too early to detect? The possibility of you not being alive filled our hearts with deep, deep sadness.

We spent a week praying and asking God to breathe his breath of life upon you. We knew He could do a miracle!

July the 16th, what a day of deep sorrow!!! The doctor could not see you at all in the Ultrasound and she told me that the gestational sac was already collapsing and that I would have a miscarriage. Your dad and I could not believe it! Actually, I had a really hard time accepting the truth. I hoped and dared to believe that you were still alive or that Jesus would perform a miracle and give you back to me; especially because you are still here, inside of me…

July the 28th, day of revelation!!! Two weeks have passed and you are still here, inside of me. My hope of Jesus performing a miracle was still alive because I know God’s character and I know HE CAN DO IT if that’s His will. But today God revealed me the truth. Dad and I were praying and I saw you in my arms. Jesus was in front of us and He was asking me to give you to Him. He was asking me to release you onto His arms of love… At that moment my heart knew that you did not belong here, you did not belong to me, you were not alive! My heart broke in a million pieces under that revelation and after many, many tears and a sea of pain I was able to release you into Jesus’ arms. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life.

As soon as I gave you to Jesus I could see your face and you were smiling. In the depths of my heart I knew that that was your place; that was where you belonged. I knew that Jesus’ arms were the best place for you to be but that did not take away my pain and sorrow.

You are still here, inside of me but now I know that this is not your place…

Your dad and I have been crying and grieving since then and we feel deeply inside of us the pain of loosing you. It hurts because you are part of our future, you are part of our plans; you are part of ourselves that we are missing. It hurts to know that I’ll never be able to get to know you, to know your personality, to know your gifts and talents. It hurts to know that I will never be able to hold you in my arms… It hurts!!!

What gives us some comfort is the certainty that these are God’s plans for your life and for our lives. For reasons that we do not understand now you had a brief existence here on earth but we know that you live forever in eternity!! Praise God!! We know that God dreamt about you since before the foundation of the earth and that He planned the day of your conception. You were not a mistake! He planned each day of your existence and He even planned the day when you would meet Him. We know God is in control and we know that His plans are perfect although painful for us at this moment.

What gives us some comfort is the certainty that one day, we will see you face to face, we will hold you in our arms and we will worship Jesus together, in eternity: mom, dad you and Julia, your big sister. It was my privilege to have you in my womb for a few weeks and for that I’m thankful! You are a very important part of our lives and will always be! You will be remembered with tender love, always!

I anticipate the great joy that it will be the day that I will see you face to face and that I’ll be able to hold you in my arms. Meanwhile, I want you to know how much we love you and how much we miss you.

May God bless you, my beloved child!

With all my love,

Mom!

CALIFORNIA

We've just arrived from Irvine, California, where we spent a week at Concordia University taking part at the Exodus Conference. Living Waters (Matthew's ministry) is part of Exodus. Exodus is a ministry created to help people to understand the roots and causes of homosexuality, to help strugglers deal with it and find freedom in Jesus Christ and also it trains people that minister to strugglers. Its main focus is homosexuality but it applies to all kinds of brokenness, mainly sexual brokenness. Because, as they said throughout the entire Conference, the opposite of homosexuality is NOT heterosexuality, it is sexual wholeness; and that, we find in Jesus.

It was an amazing time with amazing teaching and a heavenly worship. I was not able to take part of all the teachings because of Julia but I prayed that God would take me to the ones I'd take the most out of and I believe He did that and I truly enjoyed our time there.

It was also great for Matthew to network with people all over the country and from other countries too. It was our first trip off island after we got married and Julia's first flight. She did great, by the way!

We came back to an awesome transition time. We finally found a new house!! So we are in the process of moving. Cleaning the new place, packing and the final move will be on the 14th of July. Coming up fast but we can hardly wait for it. We are so ready to have more space!!

We know God provided this place for us because He confirmed to both of us and to the owner, who is also a Christian so we do believe He will provide the finances because the rent is twice as much what we pay now. We live in a 400 square feet studio apartment and with Julia and a new baby on the way there's not way we can make it in here. But God is good and faithful and He ALWAYS come through! Praise Him!!

We are very excited and thankful for this new place, please, pray with us during this transition time so that things will go smoothly.

With love