I would be lying if I said that the start to this grand
adventure that God is taking us on started out smoothly. Our plans were to
leave on a Thursday afternoon, and by God’s grace we did, but not without our
fair share of obstacles to overcome that morning. First of all, we thought we
were a lot closer to getting rid of/sorting out all of our stuff, but the stuff
just never seemed to end! We spent the morning packing the van (which is
stressful in itself to try to fit your life and the life of your family into a
minivan!) and organizing/getting rid of the rest of our stuff. I guess it was
just a high stress time, and to top it off, Aurelia gave us a pretty good scare
when she lost control of the little four wheeler that she was riding on,
started to go down a pretty good sized hill, and rode straight into a tree.
Thankfully, and with God’s hand on her, she didn’t hit her head hard enough to
have a concussion -- just a fairly large goose egg and some bruising and
scratches.
That was our morning -- the morning of the day that we had
been waiting for; the day of our grand adventure. That is not at all how I had
pictured it in my head. I thought I was going to be very excited to get in the
car for the first time as we took off for our first destination, with the kids
singing and happy and Josh and I excited and on the same page. In reality, by
the time we got into the car, it was the last place I wanted to be. The kids
were tired and fussy, I was irritable, and Josh and I were at odds from all the
stress and craziness leading up to that moment.
Whew. Now, I don’t want you to think that I am just going to
whine about all the negative things that happen on this trip. My goal is to
tell you the positive things that God shows us, and the ways that we get to see
God moving. I just had to tell you this so that you know that even though we
have, by faith, given up everything to go where God is calling us to go, there
are still hardships. But I believe that God uses these hardships to bring us
even closer to Him and to rely on Him more still. This is still hard for me – I
try to fix things all on my own instead of looking to Christ to be my rock and
my foundation. When we look to Christ in not just the big decisions, but even
the little decisions we face on a daily basis, our relationship with Christ
will grow.
Okay, so we finally made it to the Beutlers’ home, and we
were so thankful that we did! We have been able to bless them by doing some odd
cleaning jobs around their home that they haven’t been able to do because of time
restraints or other things. (To learn more about the Beutlers and how they live
out their faith daily, you can tune in to my newest blog, Everyday God, coming soon!) We have been able to wash windows,
clean out their pool and get it ready for the summer, and mow their lawn.
The lawn mower was especially fun to use, and it was the
first time either Josh or I had used a zero turn mower. And Aurelia really
enjoyed helping clean off the blinds (although it seemed like we ended up
getting sprayed more than the blinds did…)
Beyond cleaning and helping out our friends here, it has
been really great to just talk and catch up. We’ve been able to hang out with
our friend/sister Jody as well (if you watch the video Aurelia talks about our trip, it is the same Jody that she refers
to two times!)
We were also able to go to the youth group of a church near
Caro and play some live music and just hang out with the teens. God is always
working, and we are able to see Him in the everyday things by putting aside our
schedule and helping others. We are planning on being her until Thursday, and
then we will be headed to the Chicago area. Thank you for your payers and
support. God is good!
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