Home

We were blessed this week to spend time in Florida. The beaches were amazing, weather glorious, surroundings beautiful, and the companionship was excellent. I love spending time with our kids. They are great! Watching them interact together, their excitement about anything new, they have such a zest for life! They keep me laughing constantly and I can't think of anyone I would rather spend the week with. Well, other than my husband;) He spent the daylight hours at ECHO in training. He absolutely loved his time there as well. (He says he will post later).

As we told the children goodnight and turned out the light in our small bedroom, my son said, "This has been awesome, but it will be so great to be home again. Goodnight mom and dad, love you." With those sweet words, I lost it. A huge lump rose in my throat, and tears poured down my cheeks. "Home?" I thought, "everything this child sees as 'home' will be disappearing in a few short weeks. How in the world do I help him handle this?" I went to the bathroom, closed the door, sat in the darkness and blew my nose, repeatedly. I was a total mess. As I sat there, I realized the only one struggling with this was...myself. I also know the kids will take their cues from me. I sat and talked to my Father, blew my nose again, and surrendered anew to His gloriously exciting plan. Can't wait to see what's around the bend!

Mundane made marvelous

Do you ever have those moments when you feel like someone hits you on the forehead with a 2x4? Those moment of clarity when things fall into place and it all makes sense? Perhaps it's a verse in the Bible you read for the millionth time, and God  gives you fresh insight. Or when you are with your husband or kids and you get a lump in your throat as you realize how your Father has incredibly blessed you. Maybe for you, its those moments you spend in His creation. Well, this happened to me not so long ago.

In the midst of my "sorting chaos," one of our kids had constructed a fort. It was surrounded by piles (organized piles of course;), boxes, totes, papers, etc.

As I looked at the sign on that fort, I thought to myself with a sigh, "boy, wouldn't I give anything to climb in there for a few hours." I took two more steps and stopped in my tracks. I nearly dropped my overflowing dirty laundry basket. "Carrie," He said, "I AM your fortress! I AM your strong tower. Come to me and find rest for your soul." (2x4 moment) Pretty sure I got a goofy grin on my face as I continued my trek to the laundry room. I thought about that all day long. And I have been marveling anew over this truth that He made new to me in that moment.

May HE make your mundane marvelous.

Confession

Here it is.
The truth.
I am scared to blog.

I worry about how I will sound. I worry that I won't be able to communicate clearly, that I won't be able to explain accurately what God has placed in my heart and what He has done in my life. I truly wonder who in the world is going to read this anyway and are they even going to care? I will probably sound foolish and shallow. I barely passed freshman composition class anyway. Plus, I write in run-on sentences (that's how I talk!) and people might judge me for my bad...or should I say incorrect grammar? -gasp- "does she actually think she can homeschool her children?!?!" (Well, honestly, sometimes I am not sure I can...but let's stick to one confession at a time)

So...with that off my chest...I realize that my focus is in all the wrong places. Look at all the "I" statements in the above paragraph. I know one thing for sure. Every time I take my eyes off Jesus, I end up looking at myself (or others around me). And every time, I end up dissatisfied, discontent and disgruntled.  (Doesn't disgruntled create a great mental picture? Don't you absolutely love the fact that God gave us language to express things. I digress....another post, another time) Turning my eyes back to Jesus brings clarity and focus to the things that really matter. I truly desire to declare who He is and what He has done and is doing. And if this blog will make Him just a little more famous...then bring it. I will blog for that.

Calvin's Wild Ride

As people have asked me how preparation is going, I have been relating it to the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that shows Calvin launching his wagon down a very steep hill, dodging rocks, logs, and trees.  Even though it is hard to philosophize on the way down like Calvin does, we continue to see God's faithfulness in every obstacle that comes along.  The "rocks" that cause anxiety and stress melt away through prayer.  The "logs" that threaten to upset our wagon splinter as friends and family pray and support us. 
I have often asked myself recently, "Who am I to assume God can't or won't provide for our family?" or "Are God's resources limited?"  Gently, He reminds me that He is in control, that life isn't about me, and that we need to simply trust and obey.
So, we may reach the bottom of the hill with sticks in our hair, a few bumps and bruises, and dirt in our fingernails, but we were never promised a smooth road. And we look back in appreciation of the teaching God has given us through it.  Why are we so blessed?  To simply be a blessing to others.  This is our prayer for all God's soldiers bravely engaged in the battle.

There, my first blog post ever.  I humbly submit it to the world wide web, launch it into cyberspace, and send it to the blogosphere (whatever that is).  May God be glorified.

Erik

Update:
We leave this Saturday 4-13 for North Fort Myers FL.  I will be attending a week long Tropical Ag Training through ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization).  Carrie and the kids will hopefully find time to relax a little and reconnect after 2 months of very busy preparation, presentations,  and travelling.  We also look forward to family coming out to Leo May 4th and 5th to help us prepare the house to sell, sort through stuff, etc.  We then leave May 11 for MTI training in Palmer Lake, CO.  We will be there for 4 weeks.  Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Fridays

The end of the week is pretty exciting around here. Its a day we have dubbed "Unfettered Friday" for our school day. (a fancy term that means no workbook work) Even more exciting, Friday is when we receive our latest updates from the Lifesong for Orphans office to let us know who has joined our team. We are repeatedly in awe of how great our God is. He surely supplies all our need. In order to help our children understand our goals and to visualize where God is taking us, we created these charts to track the generous gifts His people are giving to Him. We are humbled and covet your prayers to be good stewards of His resources.

preparations

Well, it has begun. The preparation part. Finding out what vaccinations are recorded and what the schedule is for getting them. Taking passport photos. Registering for training. Each day we are attempting to sort through something or someplace in the house. Suitcases are multiplying in the garage. We are now up to 14. The kids are having to make daily decisions about what things they value most in their life. Does it go into the storage tote, the Zambia tote, garage sale box, Grandma's house or the cousin's box? I knew sorting would be hard for us, but I didn't calculate the emotional toll it would take on all of us. We have had a lot of great laughs as we have pulled out things from their younger days. Old books I used to read to them were met with exclaims of delight and demands of me reading it to them again. They didn't understand why I was crying as we cuddled on the couch and read Ping together. I mean, for pete's sake mom, this book is about a duck! Yes, I know, but its so much more than that. It's me realizing how blessed we are living together, having shared memories together. People who love us and care for us. We are healthy, we are safe. We have food to eat today...and tomorrow...and the next day. All of the things I take for granted that I know will be lacking in a lot of the people's lives we have the opportunity to serve. I am struck by the fact that the most important thing I can do to prepare my children's hearts is to PRAY! Pray He will enlarge our hearts for the Zambian people. Pray He will give us opportunities to serve children living in extreme poverty. Pray He will help us to share our resources. Pray His love will fill our hearts to overflowing and it will pour out onto others. Pray that He will be glorified in all we do as a family.

Staying awake...

In those weird moments that I waken in the middle of the night, I find my brain consumed with the activity of discovering what exactly it is that I am awake for. I usually don't consider myself a worrier but there is one picture that keeps filling my thoughts in these nighttime awakenings. Jonas and I have been doing research on snakes in Zambia and a picture we have come across can be seen below.

This is a picture of a spitting cobra. It lives in Zambia. Its common in Zambia in fact. If you know my children, you know how adventurous they are. Its quite possible they will come across one of these babies on the farm. And in case you are wondering, that is indeed venom. ;) They can spray approximately 6 feet. Don't you just love things that drive you to your knees?