Welcome Home!

If you are new to our Blog or unaware of how our story first began,  scroll down and begin reading :  " Living with Invisible Bird Mites"  prior to the recent Blog below.

We returned home a week or so before Christmas after being gone from our home for almost three months.  The three month journey to get there was amazing.....

If you remember from our previous Blog written in October, we talked about leaving our home with Dehumidifiers running to try and dry out the bugs.   We also believed the Lord told us to stop depending on man and depend on Him by praying and fasting for 40 days.  After a week of beginning this process, Danny and two friends prayed over our house for deliverance one evening.  When they were done, one of the men said "okay, turn off all the dehumidifiers!  He's taken away the bugs.  To leave them on would be like a slap on God's face not believing He has done what we prayed for."  When Danny called me to ask what we should do, all I could do was laugh.  The Lord told us to depend on Him completely, and He meant it!  This all happened on the 7th day of our fast.

I have never experienced and seen a real miracle before.  Ya sure, stories of them, but not one with my own eyes.  Then I remembered a prayer I prayed in May sometime when the bugs were literally from head to toe I could barely keep my mind off of them.  I wept for us and the many others that were feeling these bugs all day long and unable to get rid of them even after many repeated exterminations. Many of them were thinking of suicide, and all I could think of was how they would leave one torment in exchange for an eternity of torment.   I told the Lord, "God, I would love to see you get rid of these bugs through prayer!  How awesome would that be?!"  I prayed that night and wept for hours, with no answer.

Five months later our fast began.  If you have never fasted before....I truly recommend it.  We had no idea what to expect, but our lives changed incredibly!  Danny's prayer earlier in the summer was "Lord, don't take this away from us until we completely draw close to You and grow and learn from whatever it is you want to show us."   I never forgot that prayer he prayed and even became upset at times knowing how busy this bug infestation kept us from our kids, each other, and especially God.  

When we began to fast, our times with the Lord went from a struggle to a joy!  Our days began AND ended in the Word.  It was filled with excitement and prayer all day long.  Everyday we would come home and share something new the Lord shared with us that day.  It was so amazing.  We heard His voice speak so clearly.  Our hearts were cleansed, we kept short accounts with God and each other, our actions and attitudes changed toward one another. God would wake us up in the middle of the night and pray.  We daily felt His presence and talked to Him all day long.  It was the most beautiful experience the two of us have experienced in our walks with the Lord. We truly didn't want to stop from fasting because of the intimacy we were experiencing with our heavenly Father.

A week before we were to return home, I was beginning to say...."well, if they are not gone....." and make plans for the "what ifs".  I knew the Lord could do miracles, I just didn't know if that was His will.  We had prayed in faith and belief but I was nervous to come home.  One night I went to the house to begin cleaning and preparing.  I was listening to worship music and the Lord brought me on my knees in the livingroom praising Him and worshiping Him for what He has done (although I did not know).  He told me to go up to our bedroom and pray laying on the bed.  I began to weep as I walked up the stairs because I knew He was clearly telling me to do that and it was not me.  I did not want to go where my most fearful memories of these bugs were.   But I did, and I prayed and cried and rejoiced with the Lord.  He gave me the most incredible peace about coming home.  And told me not to worry. 

That weekend we opened our home up to many of you to come and pray and worship and to prepare the way for us returning home that weekend.

We have been home now for almost 40 days and NO BUGS!!!    There is not one day that goes by that I do not thank our God and Father for answering our prayers!   Some days I just cry in disbelief because the memories are so etched in my mind.   He did it!  He did a miracle!  Some of you may think, "well, you weren't there for 3 months, so the bugs just left".  Not true.  There are studies done that have shown that bird mites can go up to 8-10 months without a feeding.  Crazy I know.  One couple put their couches in storage for 8 months and when they took them out....they felt the crawlies as soon as they sat on them.

Since we have been home, I have still had a few bites here and there which have caused me to doubt God.  Some of you have told us..."oh, those are demon bites",  meaning that Satan is just trying to cause us to doubt God and be angry.  Honestly it has been a battle.   Living with this for over a year makes it hard to believe anything else could be possible.  But it IS with God!   I begin to pray immediately and proclaim His goodness and miracle He has done here in this place when I see a bite.  It is all we can do.  We have even postponed writing our Blog because I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to write that God got rid of these bugs just to find out He didn't.  And do you know what the Lord told me one night?  " Ah Tammy, you are so sweet.  You want to protect my reputation!  You don't want others to think I am a fraud....."  And I laughed.  Okay God, who am I to think I can protect you, or that you are unable to reveal your love and faithfulness to others even if the bugs were still here?

We have chosen to praise Him no matter what!  We are different people after this past year's experience.  We have drawn closer to our Lord through the power of prayer, fasting and cleansing of our hearts.  We have learned to sacrifice in order to walk closer to our Lord.  We have seen the importance of Christian community and the need to develop God centered relationships.  And most of all we have seen how much Satan desires to steal our time away from our family and God, and how to fight for both of them!  Last of all, through this we have left a place of selfishness to arrive at a place where God has opened our eyes to see others with His eyes.  There are so many people that either need God (hope), or encouragement to live more on fire for Him.  To live with joy, reverence, and passion,  the life we each now share with Christ.  It is so easy to fall into complacency and stay there.  We had been praying for two years now for our lives to be closer to God.  We are so lazy.  Praise God for hardships and trials that remind us that HE is so able, so faithful, and so good.  I am in awe that I get to call the King of kings my Abba Father.

Thank you all for your commitment to us in prayer, your sacrifices in helping financially, for opening your homes to stay, and the many hours of listening and even crying with us.  The body of Christ, You,  our community of friends, have blessed and loved us through the very heart  and hands of God.   Oh how we love you all and hope that our experience stops you to fall on your knees and just bask in His love for you.  To stop and sit on His lap for awhile and let Him tell you the plans He has for your future.  To give you a life of hope and fulfillment that only He can give. And to walk in His power that can move mountains and valleys and completely rid your home and hearts of the things that steal the joy of your salvation.  Hold on!  Fight!  and Go!  He is with you...always.

Rejoicing Together,

The Sanchez Family

Here is a video summarizing our journey, and praising our Lord!  We never want to forget this time and the things God has taught us and how He will use it in the future.

Also, if you are on Facebook, I suggest you go to "videos" and view it from there.  The quality is not very good here and the titles are hard to read.

CLICK  BELOW:

Praying for freedom

Play the adorable video above.

We are praying this will be our last blog on our bird mites.  Some unique opportunities and events happened that have given us our final hope of killing these bugs.

There is a person that found a study done on killing bird mites using dehumidifiers and high heat.  The bugs and any following eggs hatched were dead within 5 weeks.  Bird mites thrive in an atmosphere with moisture, so the goal is to create a hot, arrid-like desert in your home.  

Upon finding this out two things happened:  A friend of ours graciously opened up their guest home for us to stay in during this time free of rent, and another friend and coworker of Danny's opened their home up for our exchange student that was living with us to stay since the guest home was only a two bedroom.  This was a huge blessing and opportunity.  During this time it would be important that none of the bugs bite any of us so they cannot reproduce, so being out of the house helps.  It will also be very hot inside.  

More importantly, and excitingly....(is that a word?)....God was finally bringing us to a point of desperation and began to move us deeply to stop depending on man (exterminators, HOA, bug sprays....etc.) and depend fully on Him!   Last weekend we listened to Pastor Garlows sermons on a forty day fast the church is doing for Prop 8 and immediately were convicted.  The Bible talks about how some things require prayer and fasting to find freedom.  Danny and I have only fasted maybe two days with a goal of three but never quite reaching it.  

We spent long hours of repentance and allowing God to cleanse us that night of sin, and surrendered the next forty days from eating so that we can see Him have victory over our lives and others.  This past year Satan has allowed these bugs to steal away so much of our lives.  NO MORE!   Our prayer is for Prop 8 to pass, for God to ultimately kill these bugs so we can go back to a house where we can again enjoy our family and friends, and be a place of worship and peace.  And most of all, that this time will bring us to the place with our relationship with God that Danny and I have been yearning for but not doing much about to get there.  We also have some friends of ours that are going to pray over our home this week and anoint it with oil and claim this home for God!  Did you just get excited?  I know we are!!

We urge everyone one of you, our dearest friends to keep us and this situation in your prayers.  We need it.  Pray for strength, as the enemy as already begun to attach.  Pray for victory in all of these areas we mentioned.  Danny keeps saying...."This is going to be a story that God uses to touch people in many different ways someday."  Let's pray together that this will be done in the name of Jesus!

We so look forward to talking with you all in the next six weeks to praise our Lord together!!!

Psalm 61:5

   "My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him."

Thank you Lord for allowing hardships that we may be reminded of how real and mighty you are and how much we need you.  Sorry for trying to live life on our own strength.  We love you.  And thank you for loving us first!         Amen

You are each treasured in our hearts.

Love,

The Sanchez family

Living with Invisible biting "Bird Mites"

It is amazing how one can take for granted the every day pleasures of our daily living.  If someone were to tell me my family's story eight months ago, I don't know how I would have responded.  But I know now, that it has taken me to a place that has opened my eyes to have compassion towards people that are hurting in ways I myself don't understand, as others too don't understand our own everyday hurt and hardship.  But, we DO rejoice with the strength God gives us daily to do so.  It is hard, but we look forward to see the people that we will have become when this is done and gone!

Our mysterious biting bug began last October of 2007, now almost nine months ago.  One night after a strong wind storm, I began to feel crawling sensations all up and down my body while in bed.  This continued for months along with the pin pricks and mosquito-like bites under my arms and on my legs.  We bought a new bed, and two weeks later they were back.

In November our condo complex was tented for termites and the exterminator told me that whatever bug it was that I was feeling would die.  Two weeks later, they were back.

I went to a few doctors and they told me I was imagining the "crawling bugs", and that my bites were from my razor!  I did everything I could possibly think of to find out what was bothering me.  I changed our soaps, detergent, cleaned the whole house, blinds, and carpets.  We thought we had fleas from our dog so we bombed the house with many expensive foggers...it did nothing!  

Our daily lives began to change.  We began to throw away many of our belongings that these bugs were infesting.  We began to wash all of our clothes in hot, hot water and put them all in trash bags.  We would also only wear them once and put them in a trash bag to soon be washed.  We began to only use a bath towel once after our showers and then bag it to wash because it would be infested by the next day.   We also began to sweep, mop, and vacuum daily which helped to get rid of the bugs and eggs.  The bag had to be taped up between uses because they would crawl out.  We also changed our bedding every single night.  This regime obviously became exhausting.

In late March our mysterious bugs became very aggressive. I would try and sleep but all I could feel were these invisible bugs crawling all over my body.  After two weeks of no sleep, I finally called an exterminator and he told me we had a mite.  He sprayed, and again, two weeks later they were back!

After some research on mites, I found a website called birdmites.org, and all the symptoms matched.  Two weeks later we found three bird nests hidden within the bricks of our condo.  And within a month, our next door neighbors had an active bird's nest, and within a week after it vacated, they too began to live our same nightmare.

In April we began a month worth of new treatments of pesticides that are normally used to get rid of bird mites, and afterwards they returned....but with vengeance. The pictures posted are the bites that we began receiving shortly after the final spray.   Cambria, our 10 month old girl began to cry hysterically in the middle of the night for a three day period and would not want to go to bed.  One early morning I put my crying baby in my bed with me and realized within minutes that she had been crying because her bed, and her little body had these bugs all over her.  She was hitting her ear for three nights and had bites in them.  Micah had them on his mouth, and Danny and I had them in our hair, and me in my nose.  

We then took the kids to pediatrics and they basically said that they don't know much about bird mites and there is not much that they can do.  That same week we called the Health Department in San Diego, and they too said that they have not heard of bird mites being so resilient as the ones that we have, and cannot help.  

Our current exterminator is now trying a new pesticide which has only made them angrier in the last few weeks.  They now are in every part of the house and bite us all day long.  Our rigorous regime of laundry and cleaning has increased along with giving the kids baths before every nap or car outings.  We threw away our couch this week and ripped out our downstairs carpet and are trying to find a time to rip out the upstairs.

We don't know how this will end, and at times we  feel very hopeless, but we know that we have to go to Lord each day for strength to fight this battle.  Recently the Lord gave us a very familiar verse we all know..."Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6.  The Lord has taught us many things along this journey we are taking.  But in losing most of our material possessions and my husband not working so he can care for our family, the Lord keeps telling us not to worry.

God has used many of you to be the body of Christ in our difficult time.  Whether to give us a hug and not be afraid of getting this bug too, or making us dinner, or sending us a little help to make it through these summer months, we will forever give our heavenly Father praise for His blessings He has shown us through each of you.

Please continue to pray for something that will work to kill these very resilient  bird mites.  Pray also that this will happen soon.  Our exchange student returns to our home the second week of August and our home is a reck right now and in no condition for even us to currently be living in.  Last, please pray that we will be able to financially be able to replace our carpet and at least a couch for our living room when this is over.  It doesn't compare to how much we have thrown away or have spent on cleaning supplies and electricity used to try and kill these bugs.  But we know that whatever happens, all these material things are nothing in comparison to having a relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords!  We are so rich and have so much to be thankful for.   Let's praise Him even now, for all His goodness towards us!

  

 

   

 

  

It's been a while

I wanted to give a brief update on how our family has been.  In a nut shell, we have been challenged and broken by creatures we cannot see but definitely feel.  The beauty of it is that we WILL be delivered by our Creator who also we cannot see but truly feel.  Please keep praying for us as we endure this battle.

The kids are doing well.  Micah is almost three and growing like a weed.  He still loves sports,had mastered his Razor scooter, is swimming a lot, potty trained (praise God), talks non stop and looks after his baby sister Cambria.  He loves yet still likes to be the boss.

Cambria has really begun to melt my heart.  She is a beautiful little girl.   She is almost ready to start walking, she has 8 teeth and eats everything.  So far we think she is allergic to egg.  Micah is allergic to both egg and dairy.  We will find out when she turns one in 2 months.

I will try to give more updates as the summer and days go on.  Here are some of the latest pictures we have of the kids and family.

Sweet San Diego

Since our last blog we have really started appreciating the little things in life a lot more.  We have truly been blessed with a lot.  On the same weekend we lost Poncha we were able to enjoy snow in San Diego and then the Bay the very next day.  It was awesome.  We had fun.  Everything here is green and the wild flowers are growing.

Our kids have also been growing like weeds.  Micah is truly becoming a 2 year old boy with a lot of energy.  He has such a funny and tender personality.  Cambria is getting beautiful by the minute.  She has her 2 bottom teeth and is rolling over.  

God is good even we are not.  This is such nice peace to have.  Here are some pics of our kids.

Viva La Poncha

Dear friends and family,

Yesterday Poncha got run over by a car when she saw a
person walking by that she excitedly ran to greet.  It
was at the home of a close family member of ours that
is fenced except at the entry way. We yelled at her to
come back but it was too late.  She died immediately.

Danny brought Poncha home after I came home from the
hospital after a miscarriage in 2003.  If you know
Poncha, you know she is hard not to love.

She would cuddle in our bed until I became pregnant
with Micah, and then she had to learn to sleep in a
less warm place.

When Micah was born, we realized how good she was with
kids.  Micah and her became instant buddies.  Many
mornings I would lay on my bed, and let Micah crawl on
our patio upstairs trying to get Poncha under the
chairs.  He would laugh for hours.  

Sometimes they took baths together because she loved
the warm water so much and it made Micah laugh.  Micah
fed her in the mornings, wrestled her almost everyday,
something Poncha endured because she knew it made
Micah smile.

Lately, Cambria has fell in love with Poncha as well. 
Go to our Blog website www.familtasanchez.blogspot.com
and you will see what Cambria did everytime she played
with Poncha.  That girl would just follow her with her
eyes and smile when every she saw her.  I am so sad
she will never get to be a part of her life.  I'm sure
she would have become best friends with her as did
Micah.

Danny and I cried uncontrollably for a good half an
hour after that, and many time since then.  I never
ever understood the loss of a pet until it happened to
me.  I used to think why my students wouldn't come to
school after they loss their dog, and now I do.  Our
house felt so empty when we came home and more than a
hundred things remind us of her.  She was family and I
never really knew to what extent.  

As much as it is so difficult for us right now, Micah
has not stopped asking for her.  The minute she was
gone, she asked for her.  He yelled, "Poncha, where
aaarree you?"  and did his imitation of Papi's
whistle, which always makes us laugh.  When we left
without her he insisted on getting her.  When he got
home and looked for her he said he wanted to see her
over and over and began to cry.  He has not stopped
asking for her this morning as well.  He is used to
playing with her all morning and yelling at her to not
steal his cherrios, or any other food he drops on the
floor.

Please pray for him.  His little heart is so tender,
and him and her were best of friends, as she was to
both Danny and I as well.

No dog could ever be as perfect for our family as
Poncha was.  She never barked for any reason, she let
us wrestle, bite her ear (Danny's favorite thing to
do), and let our kids love on her in any way they
pleased.  We miss her so much already and cannot
imagine life without her.

These pictures are in memory of her.  

Last, we have walked away from this reminded that life
is short.  If I could have Poncha back today I would
let her sit on me all day and not get bothered by the
hair she left all over my clothes, or her wet saliva
she left all over my face and ear because she just
wanted to love on me.  I would give her a little more
of my time even though it is so consumed by my two
little children.

If only we would love so unconditionally.  I pray that
we would live each day without regrets.  Our lives are
so short and can be gone at any time.  I pray we would
not hold on to bitterness and grudges against family
and friends, I pray we would cherish the family, kids,
and the gift of our husbands and wives (the love of
our lives) that we have been given to share this life
with.  Most of all, I pray that we would not miss the
chance daily, to spend with our Lord Jesus.  He wants
so much to love on us, and His love is ALWAYS
unconditional and abundant, and fulfilling.  And those
that do not know Him as your personal Saviour and
friend, I pray so much that you will not leave this
world without Him.

I love you all.     Thank you
for your friendships and the love we get to share with
each of you.  God bless you and your families.

The Sanchez Family,
Danny, Tammy, Micah, Cambria, Poncha


Our emails have changed:

Danny's-  dannysancho@gmail.com
Tammy's- tamisanch@yahoo.com

Sanchez Family Update-much awaited

Sorry for not updating our blog. A lot has gone on since Cambria came into the world. As a family we are doing well. God has been good as usual. He never seems to forget about us even though we do. Cambria is now 5 months and 2 days old. She has rolled over, stands on her own in the bouncy and recently got her ears pierced. She is so beautiful. Just like her Mami. Micah is now 2years 5 months and 12 days old. He is a very active and talkative young boy. He is into motorcylces, trains and the color red. He loves his little sis. Micah is very tenderhearted. They are both getting over a sickness. We can't wait until they are both back to normal

Tammy is doing well. She is enjoying being a momma. This last week has been one of her toughest. She had to care for a very sick 2 year old, 4 month old baby and her baby husband that just got shoulder surgery. God Bless her servant heart. She was our life-line last week. She also has been asked to lead worship in the Junior High chapels at Christian High. She excited about getting out to do something she loves.

I (Danny) have been trying to recovery from my surgery. After 1 week i am gaining a lot of strength and mobility in my right shoulder. Work has been a challenge but I still feel like I am doing what Gods wants me to do.

Our student Stephen has been a blessing and pleasure to have in our home. He is super smart and very considerate. Micah enjoys wrestling with him and Poncha enjoys his attention. Oh, Poncha is still alive. She is ugly and cute as usual. Cambria seems to enjoy her the most.

All in all, our family has been blessed. It is awesome having kids even when the tough moments arrive. It is a true test of our stewardship and patience. We love you all. We will try to be more consistent with this. Enjoy the video and some of the pics.