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| If you return to the Main Page, we hope that you will sign our guestbook. We hope to share the encouragement and kind words with Maria someday. |
| 8/18/2006
Dear friends and family, Thank goodness it is Friday! I am ready for a couple of days to rest and recuperate from school and meetings. I am pretty drained, which is typical for me on a Friday evening. I will be heading to school tomorrow for a bit to do some organizing. I was just too drained to get it done today. Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Today when I ran home for lunch (rather I DROVE home for lunch...my school isn't THAT close), I opened my mailbox hoping there might be a video in it. Our agency recently visited Guatemala, and many of my friends using the same agency have received their videos. I was pretty sure we weren't getting one since we were out of PGN, but I cannot help but HOPE. It has been 2 1/2 months since we last watched Maria in action. Oh, how our heart longs to be with her. So I opened the mailbox in eager anticipation and instead found a lot of junk mail AND a brown envelope. I know the video box...it wasn't there. But I was curious about the brown envelope. I tore it open, noting that it had the name and address of one of my "agency friends". (I have mentioned before that some of us from the same agency have a message board, and these wonderful ladies have become like family to me.) Inside was a sweet little shirt, personalized for Maria. I will have to take a picture of her in it as soon as we get home to share. It is adorable. It was such a sweet gift and very unexpected. What a friend! We have never "met" in real life, but I just thought that was a "Proverbs" example of friendship. Then I was even more touched when I thanked her and she mentioned that she sent it since it didn't seem fair that I wasn't getting a video. :) How sweet is that! I maybe didn't get pink, and I did not get the video I wanted, but I did get a blessing from a dear friend...that is a true gift from God. I just have to mention a couple of other blessings. Thank you, Betsy, for signing the guestbook with encouraging words! You are not only a dear co-worker, but also an encouraging and kind friend. Trust me, anybody who can spend the week in inservices and STILL check on us to encourage us...another blessing from God! Oh, and Mrs. Vicky...thank you for the very sweet e-mail. Those words mean SO much, just like all of your encouragement and prayers. As we go into the weekend, I just want to say...thank you. All of you are friends to us. We are very blessed that you are in our lives! sometimes OVERTHINKING gets me into trouble. Praying for Pink! |
| 8/19/2006
Very short and sweet tonight...I think we have a little storm heading our way. I am not liking the look of the lightning out there. We had a good family day and are enjoying the last hours before school starts. And of course, we are praying like crazy for our little girl to be home very soon... Have a good Sonday! |
| 8/20/2006
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. I am so glad that Christ's grace is sufficient for me. I need a LOT of it. I find myself wondering if we are being delayed because I haven't prayed enough. Or if every time I feel a jab of envy that delays us one more day. (In that case, it may be 2007 before we get to bring Maria home...) But though I joke about it, I know that His grace is sufficient for me. His power is made PERFECT in weakness. I am so thankful for that, aren't you? Tomorrow is the first day of school. It is such an exciting time...a year of hope and new adventures. It is such a scary time...will our children be able to keep up with the demands and expectations placed upon them? Will I be the teacher I need to be? So many emotions, so many prayers. Of course, this year we are sending not one child to (elementary) school, but TWO. I sometimes wonder how that happened...where did the time go? I look at our daughter...she was our baby. How did she get old enough for school? I look forward to seeing what God has in store for both Hunter and her this school year. Please continue to pray for the make-up of my class (which is not determined until Wednesday). I am praying for just the right students and parents who will be able to monitor and adjust when faced with my maternity leave. Also, please continue to pray for pink. We truly hope this week is the week, though we know God's timing is perfect...pray for our strength if it is not time yet. Finally, I just want to say a quick congratulations to my husband who has been named to "Leadership Springdale". I had no doubt that he was a perfect candidate for that job and am so glad that the reviewers felt the same way. If you don't know us very well, I will say that we are very unified in our beliefs and our vision for our family. We tend to agree most of the time on Biblical issues and some of the time on political issues. Other than that, we are quite different. Leadership would be one of those areas. Mark loves to lead and be in those types of positions. I will lead 5 and 6 year olds, but that is about as far as I go. I am grateful to God for Mark and his many special talents and abilities! I am a blessed woman! Thank you for waiting AND praying with us! |