Early mornings and great friends

I'm trying to write in this bad boy often but so far I haven't done a very good job at keeping it updated. This first week of being back has flown by. We have had early morning practice at Tec followed by volleyball practice at UDLAP. I want to share a story about one of the girls at Tec.
Her name is Diana and she's from Ecuador. Last semester she played at UMAD when after the last game, her coach was mad because they lost by 2 to the last place team while they were in first, he picked 3 girls out and told them they were off the team. She was one of them. He told her he had her ticket back to Ecuador ready to pick up. She packed up her stuff within the next couple days, went to the registrar's office to pick up her ticket, and they had no idea what she was talking about. Quite the fear tactic he uses. She is a new Christian and had been meeting with Abbey, one of my co-workers, to be discipled. Well, now she has officially transferred to Tec!! :) I talked to her the other day (she is the sweetest thing ever!) and asked her if she'd like to continue to meet like she was doing with Abbey. She said yes! (Sounds like a proposal). So whenever she figures out her class schedule we'll find a time to meet. I'm STOKED!
Yost (our roommate that just arrived last week) and I stayed after practice last week and shot with 3 of the girls for a long time, then went and ate lunch with them. I have a feeling God has some big plans with this team and UDLAP!! Please be praying that my meetings with Diana and Yun (the other girl I was meeting with last semester) will flourish into something amazing that God does! We have some plans with how to try and reach the UDLAP volleyball girls so please be praying that they work. I'll write about them as we figure them out in more detail.
Yesterday was Hudson's 3rd birthday!!!!!!!!!!! We were there all day helping decorate. Then the kids came and we watched Rio (since the party was Rio themed), played Rio games, had a Rio piñata, ate a cake that Natalie made (I'll put pictures up of the cake because it's AMAZING!), opened presents, then came the big surprise.... The bouncy castle!!!!!!!!!!!!! They LOVED it. Totally worth lugging from the States. A great day all in all.
I'm going to put a list of names and who they are so you know who I'm referring to in my blogs...
John: Team Leader
Natalie: John's wife
Hudson, JT, and Lucia: John and Natalie's kids
Erica or Yost (Most likely I'll use Yost): One of my roommates from Michigan
Mary or Katie (Most likely I'll use Mary): Other roommate from Mississippi
Abbey: Co-worker from Wyoming
Jolita: Co-worker from Lithuania

That's a good start. Hopefully it's not too confusing. LOVE YOU GUYS! Thanks for the prayers!!