a dream

I woke up this morning feeling frustrated. Mad really. I was laying in bed thinking I want to be there. I want to be in Rwanda. It took me a while to figure out why. It was because I had a dream last night that I was in Rwanda. The thing is I was there by myself (kinda my Rwanda best friend was with me) at my old house packing up some things we left behind. So weird. It was so good to hug our old guard and his family. It was also good to hug our DS from Burundi. Such a strange dream.
Then I open up my FB a read a note from someone who's daughter feels called to missions. Praise God.
So how does this all work now for me. For someone called into missions but not exactly serving? I wait I guess. Enjoy the memories and know the Lord will use me here.

Love ya and always remember….. too many bananas in banana bread will just make it soggy.

sounds

I woke up this morning and walked outside to toss spencer the phone charger as he was leaving to take the kids to soccer camp and then head to church. after coming back in and sitting at my table in the kitchen i began to think about the sounds that was missing. i miss the sounds of motorcycles on my dirt road. the cars and moto's (including ours) often sounded like in the next hole they would fall apart. when i step out onto my deck here there are no sounds. no people chatting as they see a friend on the corner, no moto's, no dump trucks, nothing. that's okay I guess. today I am trying to hear the Lord speak. adjusting is still not easy but i an thankful for my friends here and there who continue to encourage me and lift me in prayer. God is good and I am thankful.

april

are we weird?

Last year today we were in Oman. I was trying to soak in all that I saw the couple nights before as we traveled through Ethiopia. All that my children were seeing. There was slave trading going on right before our eyes. I am remembering my children helping these ladies with their seat belts on the plane and for helping to open their silverware before they ate. and for them showing them how to get comfortable by laying their heads on the tray that pulls down for your meal. I think if i began to write all of the feelings i was feeling at the time this would be a really long post. This is not about that now. It's about the life we now have in the US.

Life has been on a fast track since we left. Boy that was a huge move. Lots of transition and lots of good and bad days. I miss my life terribly as a missionary. However I am thankful we had the 6 years that we did. Our lives will forever be changed. For the good. For the best.

There will always be a part of me that will miss living outside of the US. I think it would probably be strange if I didn't think about it often. I do, I think about it probably 5 out of 7 days a week. I am sure one day it will become less and less but its always on my mind.

our house is filled with memories of Africa, Oman, Hong Kong and other countries that we were able to live in and visit. I think around 20+ countries. yes we are different. yes we are weird sometimes but it's who we are. it's who my kids are. I know that my kids are different. life was different for them the majority of their childhood. most say they are mature because of the experiences and life they had but there are those others who don't understand and probably won't ever. they treat my kids different and that's okay they just don't understand. some give grace and others don't. that's okay! we used to talk about how we would come home (to the states) before we got too weird. ha. not sure if that happened.

God has been good to us over the last year but we could always use your prayers. pray that we continue to give grace to others as grace has been given to us.

remember I love all y'all and don't forget…. everyone is different..

a heavy heart

my heart is heavy this morning. i woke up to read about a family that lives in Uganda (the Country north of Rwanda) and how they lost their 1 month old baby. this tragic accident happened when they were involved in a car accident.
so many thoughts are going through my brain and so my heart is heavy.
i feel like crying out to God for this family. such a hard thing to process.

i have said so many times about how the lord has protected us throughout the 5 1/2 years living in africa. there were so many times where i know i have put my kids in a situation where it probably wasn't the best thing. times when i find abby jumping off of our water tower onto an small exercise trampoline. the times where our whole family is riding through a safari on top of a truck looking for animals. or times when i took the kids to school on our moto (through crazy traffic). living down the road where grenades are being set off. these are just naming a few.

thank you lord god for protecting us. for protecting my kids…. our kids.

april