Boxes line the walls of our house. Clothes are piled up by size and gender. Books are all stored away, ready to make their way to the storage unit. But before I get ahead of myself, let me start by backing up to the beginning of the week...
In the midst of the moving chaos, my husband was called to work out of town for the final week that we had our house. He stayed up to help me move as much as possible the night before he left, and consequently, had only a few short hours to sleep. Rather than sleep however, my husband stayed up and held me while I cried, and cried at the realization that I would be packing and moving an entire house, alone. Well, not alone, I would have the help of a 5 year old, 3 year old, 2 year old, and 11 month old. They are most helpful at unpacking boxes, and removing things from the trash that I must have accidentally thrown out. (After all, they clearly weren't done using that broken dollar store toy!) If any of you read my post earlier in the week, this was the stem of my crying incident I briefly mentioned.
So my crying later turned to prayer. Prayer that sounded mostly along the lines of, "Why in the world did you see fit to send my husband out of town THIS week... of all the weeks, this is clearly not a good one!" But then, God showed me yet again that He is faithful (despite my heart of complaint) and that what seems terrible at the time can end in a serious blessing.
Some precious friends had sought us out a couple Sundays ago at church and mentioned that they would be more than willing to be helpful however they could in our moving process. When they said this, I imagined maybe a few hours that they might watch my little ones, or perhaps they would drop a meal by. They have their own four children and plenty on their plate already, so I could never have imagined quite how much of a blessing they would be with their willingness to serve.
For the past four days in a row, this sweet family has been by our side. They have watched my children for countless hours, sorted and folded hundreds of pieces of laundry, raked my entire yard, brought us many meals and helped to move the majority of our furniture in one very late night adventure.
What seemed like a chore became a lighthearted task when accompanied by friends. Our friend's lovely teenage daughter has just began dancing on pointe and my daughter challenged her to a dance competition. So while all the little ones were tucked into bed to watch, the two girls had a dance off. All the while, the two of us moms moved the furniture to the storage. After a few loads I had learned several things. A sofa is remarkably heavy, my back isn't as strong as it once was, and I have tremendous friends for being willing to help into all hours of the night.
We sat on the front porch chatting for over an hour, and they didn't leave my house until at least one in the morning. Yet these are the moments which I will never forget. The conversations for which I am so thankful. Not even because of the content, so much as just because it is so wonderful a thing to have a friend willing to share their time and conversation at such an hour. They skipped sleep on my behalf, in an act of kindness, and for this, I am so very thankful.
These sweet memories, I will treasure.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
The Choice
Do you ever sit down, burdened and overwhelmed with life? Over the past several years, countless times I have felt the weight of the world sitting on my shoulders. I have sat down and wondered how to get through another day. I understand that God is my strength. I really do. I know that He cares for my every need, and that He provides. Yet in those moments of helplessness, you just can't clearly see in what way He will meet your needs.
I remember a time, years ago, that I plopped myself down onto my couch and said with a huff, "I just don't know what to do!" and my daughter, who was a mere two years old at the time, said to me, "Walk in all His ways. Deuteronomy 10:12." I looked over at her and as a smile crept onto my face, I said, "You're right!" and I rolled off of the couch and got up. I suddenly felt rejuvenated, a glimmer of hope washed over me and my heart was full. She was right. I needed to walk in all His ways. I needed to choose in an overwhelming moment, to honor God with my actions.
Unfortunately, we don't always have a precious child by our side speaking words of truth into our ears. Often, at least for me, as a mother of four little ones, I hear a child crying in one room because she can't find her toy pony, two others arguing about who gets to hold the imaginary flag claiming they rule the land, and a baby... wait, it's too quiet, where IS the baby?! We have to live real life, ordinary, everyday, hard life.
Life can be draining, life can be emotional, and life can be hard. However, life can also be fruitful. Life can be beautiful. Life can be peaceful. In each moment, we have a choice. We have a choice to honor God, or to claim defeat. We can either accept where we are in life and choose to see the beauty in it. Or we can plop ourselves onto the couch and exclaim, "I just don't know what to do!"
I remember a time, years ago, that I plopped myself down onto my couch and said with a huff, "I just don't know what to do!" and my daughter, who was a mere two years old at the time, said to me, "Walk in all His ways. Deuteronomy 10:12." I looked over at her and as a smile crept onto my face, I said, "You're right!" and I rolled off of the couch and got up. I suddenly felt rejuvenated, a glimmer of hope washed over me and my heart was full. She was right. I needed to walk in all His ways. I needed to choose in an overwhelming moment, to honor God with my actions.
Unfortunately, we don't always have a precious child by our side speaking words of truth into our ears. Often, at least for me, as a mother of four little ones, I hear a child crying in one room because she can't find her toy pony, two others arguing about who gets to hold the imaginary flag claiming they rule the land, and a baby... wait, it's too quiet, where IS the baby?! We have to live real life, ordinary, everyday, hard life.
Life can be draining, life can be emotional, and life can be hard. However, life can also be fruitful. Life can be beautiful. Life can be peaceful. In each moment, we have a choice. We have a choice to honor God, or to claim defeat. We can either accept where we are in life and choose to see the beauty in it. Or we can plop ourselves onto the couch and exclaim, "I just don't know what to do!"
More, or Less?
I just had one of those moments, the kind where you completely loose control of the well of emotions within yourself. The kind where you are blubbering and crying and can't hold it in anymore. And while those moments were a fairly frequent thing in our early marriage... they are quite uncommon in the past several years.
For the past four and a half years we have lived a fairly typical American life. My husband has a job, we have a couple cars and a motorcycle, though I must admit, they are far from new! We live in a three bedroom house with a fenced backyard, in a good neighborhood. We have a church, and we have friends, our kids have friends whom they have known since birth. We are settled.
Yet despite being "settled" we are quite unsettled. We have a yearning in our hearts for more, or is it less? I guess it just depends on how you look at it. More in many ways I suppose. More time studying God's Word, more time with our kids, more outreach, more experiencing real life together as a family. However, in order to have more of one thing, you must always have less of something else. You only have so much time in the day. So in order to have more, we choose to have less. Less stuff. Less distractions. Less internet.
We tell our children all the time that people are more important than things. Yet we don't have time to spend with our family because we are always trying to clean up our house that is full of "things." We don't want to spend all our time cleaning. We don't want to spend our time looking hopelessly for a matching pair of shoes. We want to spend our time thoroughly enjoying our family, and genuinely praising and honoring our God.
We feel the need to take a huge step back and examine our lives. We want to spend time devoted to studying God's Word and not just while we're exhausted and trying to "fit it in". We don't want to be Christians who try to find time to fit God in. We want to be on fire with a passionate love for God and to see people through His eyes.
So now, we examine.
We examine our hearts and minds and we look to see what we need less of, in order to have more of what we truly value most.
For the past four and a half years we have lived a fairly typical American life. My husband has a job, we have a couple cars and a motorcycle, though I must admit, they are far from new! We live in a three bedroom house with a fenced backyard, in a good neighborhood. We have a church, and we have friends, our kids have friends whom they have known since birth. We are settled.
Yet despite being "settled" we are quite unsettled. We have a yearning in our hearts for more, or is it less? I guess it just depends on how you look at it. More in many ways I suppose. More time studying God's Word, more time with our kids, more outreach, more experiencing real life together as a family. However, in order to have more of one thing, you must always have less of something else. You only have so much time in the day. So in order to have more, we choose to have less. Less stuff. Less distractions. Less internet.
We tell our children all the time that people are more important than things. Yet we don't have time to spend with our family because we are always trying to clean up our house that is full of "things." We don't want to spend all our time cleaning. We don't want to spend our time looking hopelessly for a matching pair of shoes. We want to spend our time thoroughly enjoying our family, and genuinely praising and honoring our God.
We feel the need to take a huge step back and examine our lives. We want to spend time devoted to studying God's Word and not just while we're exhausted and trying to "fit it in". We don't want to be Christians who try to find time to fit God in. We want to be on fire with a passionate love for God and to see people through His eyes.
So now, we examine.
We examine our hearts and minds and we look to see what we need less of, in order to have more of what we truly value most.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Introduction to Our Family
Our oldest, Jendalyn, is a ballet dancer, she dances everywhere she goes. She is elegant, eloquent and simply beautiful, oh yes, and extremely intelligent too. I could never have asked for a better first child. She is a huge helper and is very aware of the little ones.
Our son, Amasiah, is the sweetest little guy. He is soft hearted and gentle and a serious lover of babies. But he is also the same little guy that I find in the backyard after a rain storm, caked in mud and pushing his trucks around.
Our third, Lyubov, could be the definition of spunk. She is our crazy, our little fireball, the one that will let you know the moment you get in her personal space bubble. Yes she is sweet and kind too, but only once you have been deemed "safe" by time and experience.
Our baby, Merci, is precious. She is sweet, and seems to be much more extroverted than her big sis. For now her big eyes and precious smiles describe her best. She is the one that thinks she can't survive without someone talking to her... at all times. She thrives on eye contact and snuggles.
As for my husband and I, we both have a heart for missions. We love travel and between the two of us we have been to Mexico, Peru, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, Canada and lots of Europian countries. The majority of which was for missions, but Canada was just an unplanned trip that we ended up on a foot bridge over the river with only an expired ID. Fortunately, they let me back to the States after. ;-)
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