What we couldn't take with us...

Yeah, even though he did fit in our suitcase, we had to leave our nephew, Noah, behind. :( Over Christmas break, Luke and I really enjoyed playing with him and seeing him crawl all over the place. It's hard to believe that Noah is 10 months old now and taking steps!

It was bittersweet to leave Indiana. We had to say goodbye to four nephews, lots of brothers, sisters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, etc. We had had so much fun with everyone in the weeks surrounding our wedding. But we were also excited to start our new life back in Nicaragua.

We've been back in Nicaragua for several weeks now and have really been enjoying settling into our new home. School is going well for both of us. My kids have been doing better than I have at remembering my new name, Mrs. Rose. :) It's been great to get back into teaching again. Luke has a new class he is teaching this semester: video production.

Tomorrow, January 20th, we will celebrate one month of marriage!

Our Wedding Day

As of December 20, 2008, I am now officially Ellen Rosenberger. Luke and I were married at Radiant Christian Life in Westfield, Indiana. It was a beautiful and special day for both of us. Luke had his 2 brothers and 3 brother-in-laws stand up with him. And my bridesmaids included Luke's sister and my best friend, Maggie, my best friend from Moody, Emily, and 2 of my best friends from Nicaragua, Carey and Mary. My sister, Karen, was my matron of honor.

Here we are with Luke's 7 siblings: Melody, Maggie, Mark, Paul, Katy, Christine, and Jill. After the wedding ceremony we had a cake reception. Our friends and family really pitched in to make the elementary cafeteria look so beautiful with lots of lights everywhere. We had fun dancing, taking pictures, smearing each other's faces with cake, etc! :) It was awesome also to have several friends from Nicaragua come for our wedding - very special for us!
With a bubble send-off we were on our way to our honeymoon in Colorado. Luke and I are so thankful for all of our family and friends who were able to come and participate in our special day.

We feel very blessed and are looking forward to what God has in store for us as we start our new life together. We'll try to post more wedding pictures in the future.

My little angels

Or so they seem in their Christmas program costumes! :)

My kiddos participated in the annual Christmas program that NCA elementary students put on. They were all decked out in their adorable angel outfits. Very precious! :)

I realized the other day that I am about half way through the year with these little guys and it makes me kinda sad. I've really loved having them in my class. Each of them is very unique and I love seeing their little bodies and minds grow!

Merry Christmas from Nicaragua and from all my "angelitos" down here!

A Shower In Nicaragua

During the rainy season, Nicaragua has daily showers and in the "rainiest of weeks" it has downpours. Streets are flooded, school sidewalks are impassible, and laundry is continually damp.

A different kind of shower was thrown for me a few weeks ago....it was full of fun, laughter, fellowship, prayers, gifts, delicious food, beautiful flowers, and a lot of my favorite people! :)

It was so nice to have many of my teacher friends from NCA gathered along with other dear missionary friends. I was surrounded by genuine love and support for which I was so grateful. Luke and I received a lot of wonderful things for our kitchen...we're excited to use them in our new house!
We played a game where every time I got a question wrong that Luke had already answered, I had to put a gumball in my mouth. It was a fun challenge...I got quite a bit of questions right but I still ended up with a mouthful of gum!

Two of my very best friends, Mary and Carey, threw the shower for me. I'm excited that both of them are bridesmaids in my wedding!

I felt truly as if this time were a special downpour of blessing in my life.

Snapshots of the past few months...

Even though I haven't posted on my blog since August, life has been full of activity down here in Nicaragua! Hopefully these pictures will give a bit of an idea of what's been going on.

Our school celebrated Independence Day in Nicaragua in September.

My Pre-K students recited a poem at our Independence Day program.

We kicked off the year in Youth Group with theme of: Living Above The Line. Our theme verses are Colossians 3:12-17.

One Saturday, we did a "Compassion in Action" day with the Youth Group kids.

We visited a hospital and played with kids who have cancer.


Hanging out with "our married friends", Lauren and Mike.

Birthdays are super fun in Pre-K II!

What's a birthday party without a pinata?

Candy = happy (and hyper) kids!

Look who else got candy! :)

Helping lead worship in church.

Counting down the days until we'll be Mr. and Mrs. Luke Rosenberger. :)

First Week of School!

Our first week of school at Nicaragua Christian Academy went very well! I've really been enjoying my position as Pre-K teacher. I have the level 2 class which is 4 year olds. So most of them have at least had 1 year of experience in a school routine. I have exactly 7 girls and 7 boys. :)
It's been fun starting to get to know each of the personalities and unique things about each of the kids in my class. And I've really been enjoying teaching this age group! :) It's a great fit for me and I'm so thankful to be teaching Pre-K.

This first week of school we learned the rules...again and again. :) And we talked about Noah's Ark in Bible class. We're learning to count and to separate things by color. In reading, the kids learned about all kinds of jobs and workers.

And....they learned to say my name! Miss Stewart is not the easiest name to pronounce...especially for a kid whose first language is Spanish. But by the end of the week they were chanting "MISS STEWART!" :) Too bad they will have to learn a new name to call me when they come back to school in January! Mrs. Rose shouldn't be too hard to learn but it will take some practice! :)

I'm so thankful that I have a teacher's assistant, Ana. She has helped me so much and has a lot of experience with Pre-K at NCA. Her extra hands and eyes are a huge help to me as these little ones keep me on my toes. A day teaching Preschool takes lots of energy and creativity....I feel like I use up my whole day's energy already in the school day with them! But at least I'm not exhausted. I'm just tired at the end of the day, which is expected....but content to be teaching and to be back in Nicaragua. :)

8 States in 7 Weeks!

Ok, so that includes the airport layovers but still, its crazy to think that Luke and I were in: Florida (twice), Texas, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Georgia in the 7 weeks we were in the states this summer! We also were in 6 different churches 6 weeks in a row!

So, yeah, we were in a lot of places. But we had a great time! :) It was so fun to be part of both of our two sisters' weddings, to spend time with family and hang out with friends, and plan a lot of our own wedding! :)

In the month of July when we were in Indiana I felt like we fit 2 months of activities into 1!

A lot happened in July:

My sister Karen's wedding reception in Chicago


4th of July celebrations



Catching my first fish!

Going to Cedar Point with Luke's 3 sisters and their men

Celebrating my birthday

Several times!

Holding babies :)

Watching the Indianapolis Colts practice

Being in Luke's sister Katy's wedding...

...and much more.

It definitely was a month full of fun and activity and some relaxing too. :) Its fun to be on vacation and with family...but now that we are back in Nicaragua we're both ready to get settled into a school routine and life here. I'm super excited to be living with a missionary family this fall and to be teaching Pre-K at NCA!

School starts on August 11th! All this week we have teacher orientation days to prepare for the new school year. I hope to be posting some pics of my kiddos once school gets in swing.