Prelude to 2014 - UGANDA

             

          Take that, 2013 ... we made it! 

2013 passed, we made it to Uganda and came back and here is 2014, and it seems like it so easily came, but ...

it has been a long way to get here. Many obstacles where overcome and it took much help and support to make it happen.

2013 has been a crazy year for our family. We have tried to live quite radical, or perhaps I should say, that's just what was put in the path.
We started the year, having one of those moments, realizing we needed change, much change and that we wanted to spend the year focusing on building a stronger, Christ centered family!

Early on in the year, we both (Chris and I) came to realize we had things we just needed to let go and choose to want whatever God's will for our lives is!

Little did we know, this would turn everything upside down! We were constantly stretched, tested and taken completely out of our comfort zones!

Remember, be careful what you ask for ... 

the answer just might not come the way you where expecting!

It was a incredible year, incredibly full of very FEW ordinary days, many, MANY crazy ones, super tough ones, and thankfully also many fun and joyful ones!


We made the decision for  me to leave my job field in Veterinary medicine, permanently and start full time college, to study Human Rights, with International Studies and Teaching. But shortly after starting, we were led to put it back on hold and home school our kids. 
Interestingly that didn't happen until after I managed to take some art courses, clarifying some new directions for me and meeting people that would be important later in the year, even so we had no idea then. We finished a couple of quarters at college, got ready for homeschooling, and dealt with financial ugliness. 

In the midst of it, God said ... time to GO!

It's time to start checking into missions, time to check into adoption and time to follow the path I have for you!

It wasn't a thought, it was not from me and clearly not simply said by Chris! 

We have been together  20 years, and what it took for me to finally let go of controlling my future and dreams, it took for Chris to let go and be willing to hear and feel what his Father has for him.

Many doors closed, and the right ones opened in amazing ways! We met just the right people, at the right moments and just for such a time as this! 

It has been incredibly to see God at work this past year!

As we tried to obey and tackle this much bigger than us thing, everything seemed to fall apart for a while. We dealt with marriage problems, seeming too large to handle, a ton of financial stress, the new world of homeschooling and insecurities about leaving the job field permanently along with all the other normal parenting and every day problems.

And now, we are trying to take our whole family on a mission trip to Africa, 

we surely must be crazy!

But, you know, it really wasn't our plan! We could not have made all of this work on our own, no matter what! Throughout the year, God has had his hand so clearly in our lives, there is no denying it! Just as much as the enemy was waiting at every weak moment for us!

When God is at work, the enemy is working hard as well! We definitely learned a lot about that this past year.

However, we also learned that is absolutely, without a doubt, God that will win the battle every time!
The key is to let him! Things go terribly wrong when we try to do it our way, but when we step back, our Father always stepped in!

We had amazing people come along side us during the tough times and also to celebrate the joyous moments of the year. God put forth his troops to support us for sure!

We experienced what it means to truly be broken, what it feels like to be completely humbled and  what a tremendous amount of grace, love and unbelievable support and encouragement our Father has for us! 

All in all, I think it is safe to say ... 2013 was the hardest year EVER! 

But it at the same time it was likely also the most interesting, radical and challenging one (and I do like all these things)!

For us to have made it through 2013, to have made it to this place of getting ready for the first mission trip, is nothing short of a miracle!

It is all HIS doing, and ALL the glory goes to our LORD!

We experienced a lot in 2013. It was good to go through the hard ones and the good ones. I am excited to learn how to use all of it in the future and to see how God is using us.

And, to be quite honest, a few of the lessons I really do not want to do over again! Hmmm, good reminder to self ... try harder in some areas. :-)

We serve a awesome God and along some pretty amazing brothers and sisters in Christ!
Thank you all so much for walking with us this last year!

And now I will start blogging about the actual trip ... with photos, enjoy :-)

What's in a table and a map?

This is one of our favorite spots in the house. We just LOVE this table!

A few weeks back I decided to follow my friend Roisin's advise and bought a big map at Costco to put on our beloved, big table. It was a loved teaching tool in her home, along with all the great books from Sonlight. We want our children to learn about this grand world around them and since we are traveling through the eastern hemisphere with our home school curriculum, we thought it was a great idea.

Little, did my sweet friend know, that this is exactly what we needed to be grounded each day! It's great for learning about the world and great travels during meal time, but for us it has become so much more.

Among the great books that came with our curriculum, was also "100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 window"

We love it! The book explains in a very easy, understandable way, what the 10/40 window is, their challenges, why we should pray and talks about the battle for the Gateway Cities. The book features 100 cities and and for each one it gives a quick overview, including the religious breakdown and explains the city's significance and history. Then, at the bottom, it lists about fife prayer points.

We marked the 10/40 window with sharpie on the map and each day, we circle the city we prayed for.
All the green dots in China, we already covered.

They both love finding the cities on the map, and love how many of them are part of the historical fiction books Lenah reads. Most of them we make the family read a loud, and even Luke loves them.

They get very engaged as they look for the cities, and great conversation happens between the two.

After the first hesitant prayers (leading prayer, out loud is a new experience), our girl leads in prayer for the city of the day!

And seeing that, this morning, reminded me what it's all about! Not about feeling behind on chores or all the mission trip stuff, not the overwhelmed feeling of fund raising miracles, nor my feeling of inadequacy in our first home school year!

It's all about God! We come to together, when we pray just like when we meet at our door in the mornings. It helps us to focus on Jesus, asking for our fathers company and to choose to be intentional each day. We are learning, growing and loving, a little more each day, loving a little deeper each day, just a tiny bit more like our loving, heavenly father!

Maybe, this week the nouns of direct address and the writing of the perfect paragraph got neglected. So what, that the little guy didn't get to do all his little letter games and crafts, because we had to work on self control and obedience most of the time!

We are so incredibly blessed by everything we have and the privilege to home school and worship freely.

I look over to the table this morning, and I see them pray. My heart melts! It is so beautiful to see them come together like this, they are learning to care for the world around them, not just our town.

Prayer is becoming a important part of their day to them, they ask for it! Our little girl is blooming by leading in this way! Together we are learning the importance of praying for all of Gods precious children and because of this book and the map, these places and their people, now have a face to Lenah and prayer has become so very personal.

They are growing in matters close to His heart, and that, my friends is so much more important than any lesson plan!

THE first 5K

So, sometimes (or often) things don't go quite as planned ... sounds familiar?



Seems to be the always present part of every story in our family, but you know what! It teaches you to be flexible, to rely more on God and how incredibly blessed we are!
All the time!

We signed up for the Tacoma Color Run month ago, with the dreamy thought of being totally in shape by the time it rolled around. You know, start in the summer (since we are JUST relaxing, or NOT) with jogging and long hikes and fun walks.

Then by school start, we'd all be doing yoga twice a week and run a mile or so three days a week before school.

We are homeschooling this year, so why not shoot for the stars, right?! LOL, well and then there is reality ... no hikes, or long fun walks, not one single Yoga session and certainly no mile runs to prepare.
The closest we came was one walk around Lake Louise a week ago. Want to guess how long it took us? Yup, that's right ... over and hour, for one mile.
The vaccinations I got a week prior for the Africa trip, didn't agree with my Fibromyalgia too well and I for sure thought I am totally done after this.
And in the midst, our family seemed to just be grumpy, make bad choices and fight all the way to bed time the night before. Luke felt sick, I was hurting and the weather looked terrible!

So there, not the pretty picture I had planned, but a reality that most of us experience in one way or another very often. We try to do great, new things and while it seems great in our heads, getting to it sometimes is not that smooth.

Well, all that said, what happened then?!

We decided to go and pull through with it. I must admit I prayed a fair bit that night, and while getting ready.

We got there, met up with a sweet friend and had a awesome time!
The kids did amazing! Lenah ran most of the way and even the little man ran together about half of it. My body seemed to hold up much better that expected and I am so grateful how this area was covered and realize yet again how incredibly blessed our family is to be able to do something like this and how well our father knows us and takes care of us!

Our list of things that will stretch our comfort zone in this Radical Year has one more check mark!