Life Comes At You Fast

I love the "Life Comes At You Fast" and "Wanna Get Away" commercials. They are so funny, yet so true. We laugh at the calamities of the unsuspecting victims along with the screw-ups of the not-so-bright.

But life does come at you fast and sometimes you do want to get away, but not always because you messed something up or stuck your foot in your mouth.

James 4:14 reminds us that this life is just a "mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." So what will we do with that 'little while' that we do have here.

I don't know about you, but I want to get away, not to a better life, but to a life that finishes well, this 'little while' that I am here on earth. As I move from room to room in my home, slowly getting rid of items that we won't need either in Costa Rica or Venezuela, I feel that, in a way, I am purging my life of all the unneeded items that clutter my inward self.

As I have been typing this out, I have been listening to Francesca Battistelli's song, Beautiful, Beautiful.
The lyrics speak so deeply to my heart, that God would take me and make me something more than I could ever be on my own. I want my life to be something beautiful for His Glory.

Don’t know how it is You looked at me

And saw the person that I could be
Awakening my heart
Breaking through the dark
Suddenly Your grace

Like sunlight burning at midnight
Making my life something so
Beautiful, beautiful
Mercy reaching to save me
All that I need
You are so
Beautiful, beautiful

I have come undone
But I have just begun
Changing by Your grace

I want Him to continue to change me by His grace, purging all the impurities and unnecessary junk out of my life.

Because 'life does come at us fast' and we should 'wanna get away' from whatever is holding us back from serving Him with this 'little while' that we are here.

On The Road Again

Traveling can be exciting and fun, but also boring and mundane.  In the midst of all the driving and motels, meetings and church services, life goes on, which for our family means school work!

So, from math books in every hand, to yelling spelling words over the back seat, to reading science units, we make it work. We have incorporated our own beatitude: Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken!

We are not always on the road, but for everyone who has traveled with young kids, you understand the struggle with the break in routine.

Thankfully, a friend shared with us just prior to Malachi's birth 13 years ago, that we don't conform to our child's world, but they conform to our world. We took that advice literally and our kids have always been a part of what we do and where we go. They have learned to be flexible in the midst of whatever circumstance.

I believe that was another part of God's preparation for our family for mission work. Flexibility is not always easy, and can sometimes be very trying to this mom's Type A personality. But I know that God is always trying to teach me something new.

For this season, He is teaching me to be willing to move when He says move, to change when He says change, to make my schedule fit His, and to walk according to His plans, not mine.

He gave me a scripture recently that I believe is for all the seasons of my life and I will walk in obedience to Him because "He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it." I Thess. 5:24(ESV)

White Christmas & New Year!

Another big snow for NC! We had about 10 inches at our house and the family enjoyed every minute of it. From sledding with friends, to making a snowman, to the hot chocolate afterwards, it was a wonderful event. We know that these moments are to be cherished and remembered and will be all too few once we are in Venezuela. Although we enjoy the snow, we are looking forward to the warm weather there.
I am truly not a fan of winter-time! Maybe that is why the snow is so exciting. Without it, there is just cold, with chapped lips and fly-away hair and sickness that we all spread around while we are all huddled up together trying to stay warm. :D
The holiday season has passed all too swiftly this year. We blinked and it was over. New Year's has come this week and we begin a fresh new year. 2011, for us, will be a year of changes. We will be traveling and traveling and traveling some more, itinerating. And when we are at home, we will be sorting through and selling and/or giving away the material items of our life here in the States. There are moments that really shake me that life is completely changing and I tear up thinking of all that we leave behind. But also in those moments comes the thought of a people who need Jesus and the hope that only He can bring them. What could we possibly give up here that would be worth more than their lives? Our friend Brett just recently made us aware of an amazing Christmas song by Marc Martel and his group Downhere called How Many Kings?  “Bringing our gifts for the newborn savior all that we have whether costly or meek because we believe. Gold for his honor and frankincense for his pleasure and myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer... [For] How many kings, stepped down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? How many gods have poured out their hearts to romance a world that has torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their sons for me? Only one did that for me.” 
Those words bring it all into the proper perspective for us. What are we willing to give up for Him? We can never match His gift, but we can surely give of ourselves for Him. This new year I pray that my resolutions, or any goals that I set forward to accomplish, may not be based on selfish ambition, but on what I can do for Jesus to honor Him.
Happy New Year!

T'was Eight Days Before Christmas

In honor of our recent experience and the Christmas season, I re-wrote a favorite poem.
Enjoy!

T'was eight days before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for a mouse.
The stockings were hung in the hallway with care,
In hopes that the mouse would not find the candy there.


The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of presents danced in their heads.
And mama with her computer sat working in bed,
With dad right beside her snoring out of his head.


When out of the bathroom ran the little gray mouse,
Mama sprang from the bed waking up the whole house.
Away to the mousetraps she flew like a flash,
Tore open the cabinets and set one behind the trash.


She woke up the dad with a frightful, wild scream,
He looked under the bed with his flashlight's bright beam.
The mouse had went hiding and couldn't be found.
Sleep finally came, but not very sound.


Each day went by slowly, waiting for mouse to be caught.
But all five traps stayed empty, with more to be bought.
At last four days later, at the end of the day,
The trap made its snap, and the mouse, dead it lay.


The daughter sprang to the trap just to see,
"We got it! We got it!" she shouted with glee.
The house could sleep soundly that night without fear,
The mouse was now gone, no more to appear.


The last four nights til Christmas would be joyful and bright!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Uninvited Guests

Have you ever had one of those moments that you know you saw something but you can't be sure and you really don't want to have seen anything, so you try to talk yourself out of having seen it in the first place? Yes, I had one of those moments the other night. I was sitting in bed, well past 1am, working on my computer, because I couldn't sleep, having had caffeine well past the time I should have. As I reached up to scratch my head, I thought I saw something brown go across the floor. I immediately jumped up and looked under the chair and shook it. I don't know exactly what I would have done if something came toward me, but I didn't think of that until later. Anyway, I didn't see anything, so I hopped back in bed and proceeded to talk myself out of what I had seen. I tried to make it a figment of my imagination. About 5-10 minutes later, I heard a sound and saw out of the corner of my eye, something in my bathroom. I slowly turned my head and as if in slow motion, watched a little mouse walk along the wall of my bathroom to the shower. It walked in front of the door, paused, looked around and ran directly under my bed. I immediately shook Scott awake, yelling that there was a mouse in our bedroom. At this point we didn't know which way he had gone and I was a little stressed about going to bed not knowing where he was hiding out. I continually asked Scott over and over, "How did he get upstairs?" in a very high-pitched voice. I just couldn't understand why it would come to where there was no food source, especially my bedroom!! We set the one trap we had in the house and placed it where we had seen him last, the bathroom, and then headed back to bed. Do you know how hard it is to sleep when you know there is a live rodent somewhere, not just in your house, but in your bedroom? I was a little excited about that, and my heart was beating a little more rapidly than normal. I only fell asleep after  Scott prayed for God to give me rest and kill the mouse.
Of course the next day, we went out and bought more mouse traps, setting all five and placing them all over the house, upstairs and down. We went out of town that day, praying that we would find the mouse caught when we returned home. The first thing we did when we came home was check every trap, but alas, to our dismay, nothing! We set them in new places and went to bed. The next day we found 3 of the 5 with nothing on them, but not tripped. Great! We have a super-intelligent mouse! Yesterday, we found a spot that Micah was sure was the spot where it was coming in, so we placed the trap there with fresh peanut butter smeared under the trigger to make it harder for this little genius. As we sat watching TV last night, we heard the snap and Moriah came running in the room yelling, "We got it! We got it!"
The entire family had to go check the trap and we cheered over a dead mouse. What a great family moment! Needless to say, we will have traps set for a while to make sure we have no more uninvited guests in our home!

First Official Post

Okay, deep breath, now to write my first post for our new blog. I can't tell you how exciting it is for us to be able to communicate with our friends and family this way. To share our story of God's leading us to be missionaries in Venezuela is going to be fun, but to have you follow us in our continuing journey is even more amazing than I could have imagined. Thank you for joining us in this journey. We appreciate all your prayers and look forward to hearing from you in comments or emails. So, first post, done and I am ready for bed. This will continue to be a work in progress as we add pages about our story and about our kids. Thank you for being patient as we get all the details worked out!