Well, it's been quite a long time since I posted a blog, so I feel like it's time to play catch up! 2013 is drawing to a close, and I like to take time at the end of each year to reflect on how much life has changed in a year. It also gives me hope that if I don't like how things are now, time has a way of changing many things. I started this blog when Will went to Madagascar with a "scouting" group. Our church is planning to send a family or individual to Mada to help alongside the missionaries who are already down there to reach an unreached people group. Will and I felt that God was leading us to move our family there, so we began the application process in 2011 (wow...that sounds like such a long time ago!). Anyway, as we moved through the process, we were excited and a little scared (fear and trembling comes to mind) about the whole process, but trusted that this was God's plan for our lives. Once I came to terms with leaving my family behind in the States and moving my kids far far away from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, I felt tremendous peace, and followed my word for 2013 which was "Obey". I felt like my obedience to God's calling in my life was much more important than my comfort in this present life. Early in 2013, we found out that Will had some medical issues that might delay our going to Madagascar. As we worked through these issues, we continued to trust that whatever God had planned for us would transpire. A few months later, we then found out that there were some other issues from our past that our church recommended counseling for before we'd be ready to head out to Madagascar. So long story short, we've been put on an indefinite hold in going overseas. It was such a life changing decision for us to heed the call to go overseas, and it felt like a huge let down to be told "not now", which seems to have turned in to a "not ever" as time passes...But we are okay with that, and feel like we need to "bloom where we are planted"! Over the summer, I finally picked up Jen Hatmaker's "7" and read it. I had started it once before and put it down (was I really ready for this??!!), but finally finished it in a few days time. And WOW!!! My life has started down a path of what I hope are permanent changes. I was part of a Bible study over the summer that went through the workbook version of "7", and in the fall I had a chance to lead "Interrupted" and "7" as classes at my church. Those books were so profound and changing in my life I can hardly put it into words sometimes...but I shall try!
My whole life I feel like I have been aspiring to achieve "The American Dream"...which became a nightmare a few years ago as my husband and I were forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and lost everything. We could've written a great country song...lost our house, lost our car...and the list goes on. Everything I had worked for, everything I thought I needed were literally ripped from my hands. It took several years for me to get to the point where I wasn't raw just thinking about what we had gone through. Reading a book like "7" was far from where my heart was at the time. But as always happens, time heals most things. And it did. Time and lots of loving from Jesus. So when I finally picked up the book and read it, I was in the right place to accept the message I needed to hear. With the prospect of Madagascar off the table for the immediate future, I decided that I wanted to make a difference where I was...and that was okay with me.
So, for 2014, my word is "content". I think that goes nicely with where I am in life right now. We have some big changes coming. The big one is where we will live. We've been house-sitting for the last (almost) 3 years, and are looking at new places to live since the family will be coming home in the next few months (it looks like). The other is my husband's job. He's only working part-time now and so we're trying to get a web-based business up and running (more on that to come!) So, needless to say there are BIG changes coming our way!! We don't know what our lives will look like this coming year, but we know that God does. So, I hope to journal through this journey and share a little bit of my heart with anyone who is out there reading this in hopes that you will find hope in Christ, and know that there are others who are going through hard times and hanging on as well. One of my favorite Mary Engelbreit posters says...When you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on! That is how I feel I've been living the past few years. But you know what? I'm still hanging on. But it's not because of my strength or anything I've done. It's because of the One who is hanging on to me!
So, welcome to my journey! Let us find contentment and satisfaction in the little things that life has to offer. Happy (almost) 2014!!!
