Happy Birthday

to Jeff! He is 25 years old! I am so glad that he was born 25 years ago to be my life partner. I love you, babe!

Mission Trip

We just got back from our mission trip to Southeast Texas to aid in Hurricane Ike relief. It was really hard to be away from Colin, but it was a very rewarding trip. Jeff was on a team that rebuilt quite a stretch of fence. I was on 2 different teams. The first day I spent at this precious old lady's house. Her home was not in great shape to begin with, but the hurricane damaged it more. I helped knock down some sheet rock on the walls and ceiling. The next 2 days, I went with our youth girls and a few other ladies to help paint a sanctuary that had been rebuilt from the storm. After we finished that job, we went back to that ladies house to see the finished product and to see her reaction when she saw it.

It was the most God moving reaction I have ever seen...

This was an African American lady in her 90's. She came in with her walker and just cried. She said, "My house has never looked this good!" She kept saying how good God was and how thankful she was. Then she wanted to sing for us. She tried to sing Amazing Grace, but couldn't get through the first line because in her words "that song just gets to me." So she sang another old gospel hymn in the most amazing voice I had ever heard in my life! You know what kind of voice I am talking about. That deep black spiritual kind of singing. It rocked my socks! Everyone was standing around wiping their snotty (and mind you our snot was dirty from the dust that we had inhaled the past few days) noses with the left over paper towels from cleaning the house.

This woman worshiped the Lord. It didn't matter that we were all standing there. It didn't matter that she STILL didn't have the best living conditions. It didn't matter that she was 90 something years old. All that mattered was that she loved her Lord and was praising his name. It was beautiful.

This trip was much needed for me. This lady reminded me about what matters. I could sit all day and think of things that could be better about my life...things that could be easier. But none of that even exists if you are truly in the presence of God. God's power and love is big enough to distract us from poverty, sickness, depression, lingering sin, worries. Its like that old hymn says...

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth
Will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace!

at mother's request

My mom told me to update my blog and I DO want to follow God's command to honor my father and mother (haha!) So I am obeying...

But...I really don't have much to say. I have noticed that I type ......... alot in my blogs. Ha!

Today was a rough day. Every once in a while (usually on Wednesdays!) I just get overwhelmed by all the responsibilities. I am not one that handles stress well. I don't do well when I feel rushed, or when something "out of routine" happens. I am trying to better about it...(there I did it again!) to be more flexible and calm when kinks are thrown in the day or when I have a lot in my day to tackle. I guess this is part of being the "servant" that God has called me to be. God has burdened my heart to be servant-like and it is hard to not always think of my own interests or preferences. Its also hard to find the balance between giving of myself and protecting my time and family time. There ARE times to say "no." Im just working now on discerning when that is.

We are very very slowly starting to house hunt. We are in no rush to buy until about this time next year, but the market is small here and I figured it wouldn't hurt to look. I have seen some cute houses that are definitely in my range. Marshall has a TON of older homes that have such character! Pray for us though. Its hard to make a decision when we don't know our future plans. If we are going to be here for 10 years or more, then I want a house that my family can grow in. But if we are just here for 3-5 more years, then I will look for something on a smaller scale. I trust that God has a house for us, I just need to learn to let it fall in place instead of trying to "over plan."