Arias Family

Father Carlos

2011-09-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

It has been quite sometime since we last posted in our family blog. This year has been a year of extreme growth! We were able to move to Visalia to be closer to our jobs and have been able to grow and meet many couples through our Bible study! We were happy to hear that we would be receiving a new priest, Father Carlos, who was just ordained 3 months ago! On Friday our small group was able to host a dinner for Father Carlos to welcome him to Visalia. We enjoyed a wonderful Mexican dinner with chicken mole (yummy), rice, beans, salad and dessert. That night F. Carlos gave us a talk on marriage and how we as believers never have free time because there is so much pain and suffering in the world. When we feel like there is nothing for us to do we need to open our eyes and look right before us! We were so encouraged! Alex was also able to catch up with F. Carlos for about an hour and he was so excited to hear that Alex had spent 9 years in seminary! Being that Alex spent most of his life living with priests in seminary, he was so excited to have the opportunity to get to know a new one who happens to live down the street from us! There was an instant connection between the two of them and they began talking as though they had known one another for years! Through the conversation, it seemed that the friendship of both Alex and F. Carlos came at the right time when the both of them were in need of eachothers friendship. F. Carlos was so encouraged and stated that Alex has become his very first friend here in Visalia and even better, they both can relate so well with one each other's upbringing! God works in mysterious ways! We look forward to spending time with Father Carlos and growing in our friendship with him!

Father Federico

2009-04-29T10:57:00.001-07:00

Federico is Alex’s best friend. Many people don’t know but Alex studied 9 years in seminary. While studying in Santo Domingo in seminary, he met his best friend, Federico. Alex is always talking about his years studying and living with Federico. Great news is that Federico finished his thesis and will complete his 14th year at seminary in the middle of May. In June there will be a big celebration of the priesthood. Federico will most likely be a priest or serve as a director at a seminary in the Dominican Republic. This is a really big accomplishment and we are both so very excited for him! He’s been a blessing to us throughout this process as we talk to him every 2 days. He has had a big impact on Alex’s life and I see how he’s grown so much through his accountability and relationship with Federico. As Alex and I approach our life together as a married couple, Federico’s prayer and study with us has come out of Ephesians 5… Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Faith.

2009-04-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. –Hebrews 11:1
This has been my theme verse for so many different chapters of my life and I return to it once again as the anchor of hope in my heart. I LOVE this pic of Alex and I fishing out in Corcran because I have NO PATIENCE and kept casting out my line every few minutes. I'd move, walk around, cast, pace back and forth, just imagine ME! Alex kept telling me to just be still and stop moving around so much. The moment I finally gave up trying so hard and the moment I became still was the moment I caught my first (and only) fish that evening. Faith and Patience. God is really stretching Alex and I in this area and I couldn’t help but blog about it this morning. Alex came to the US and left his job as a professor in his local town. He has 8 years of education under his belt, tall, strong, legal, hardworking guy, very determined. So, finding a job should be easy, yeah? Nope. With the economy and the situation that the Country/State is in, everyone is struggling. When he first got here he was offered a job and was told to wait at 7 AM for the guys to meet up. 7 AM rolled around and he was stood up. This morning he woke up at 4 AM for another job offer and was told to be waiting at 5:15 AM. Stood up once again. We were both feeling frustrated, angry, sad, confused, and tested (especially me, since I woke up at 4 AM to make breakfast and lunch… those of you who know me know that I’m NOT a cheerful heart in the morning!). We sat and watched the sun come up and kept telling one another that God knows what is going on. At that moment Alex told me that we had to do our daily devotion from 40 Days of Purpose. Today was on Faith. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” –Hebrews 11:13-16 The verse couldn't fit our situation any better! Not only could Alex relate with this verse in a literal sense, but he also knew that God was testing, stretching and reminding us to keep our eyes on HIM and what HE is doing. Our prayer this morning was that we would not lose focus and that we would live our life out loud today remembering that what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. God is faithful!

We're home!

2009-04-28T10:51:00.001-07:00

We are in California! Alex and I got back into the US about 4 weeks ago and have been adjusting to good ol’ California! Many people might not have known but we had been in a process for well over a year of debating whether or not I’d move there so that we could finally start our life together without so much traveling… or whether or not we’d leave everything in the Dominican Republic and make a life here in Tulare. Obviously we chose option #2 and we’re very thankful. God has been SO GOOD to us throughout this process. We’ve been together going on 3 years and it feels good to be able to finally be together and have things stable. My parents made a small little apartment thing goin' on for him over at their house and I'm rocking my dad's office until we get married and get on our feet to have our own place. Alex has been a huge blessing in my family and has helped my parents and family out in more ways than I can describe through a blog. This has brought my family closer and I’ve seen where God has really shown so much grace, truth, and love throughout these 3 years… but especially throughout these last 5 months. We’ve been in the talks over the last year about getting married and with the blessing of our family and our parents (both in Tulare and in Jarabacoa), we have decided to get married. This Friday night we will have a simple ceremony with close friends and family and celebrate a dinner afterwards. We are SO EXCITED! We are saving up our money so that in a year or two we can go back to Jarabacoa and have a ceremony with his family. His best friend, Federico, will officiate the ceremony back in his hometown. In the meantime, we’re gonna enjoy this next chapter that the Lord has set before us!

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2008-12-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

I'm in San Juan, Puerto Rico right now and had a red eye flight from 11 PM last night from Los Angeles and got here around 10 AM this morning. I'm BEAT! My next flight to Santiago, Dom Rep isn't until 5:30 but I have an Admiral's Day Pass so I am in an area where I can rest, wash up, get on the internet, drink tea/coffee, and basically there's NO ONE around. I'm sitting here looking at the planes head out, and I took this pic from my seat to show my mom what it looks like.