Brand new, again.

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New blog, new community, new country. 

Same faithful God. 


Hello and welcome to the first post on the brand new blog! 

Husband and I are sitting in our local coffee shop, where we sit almost every Friday morning, wrapping up all the things for our vision trip to Albania tomorrow THIS afternoon. The lists are getting checked off, the gifts are getting wrapped, the bags are being packed. And all the big, BIG feelings are happening in the family. Oldest has been counting down the days every morning... "Mom, it's almost the weekend... only 3 more days... only 2 more days..." Youngest has been finding us in the middle of the nights or asking for extra snuggles at bedtime. Middle has quit accepting bedtime hugs from us... "Hug, buddy?" "No, thank you."

And I cried... when I finished buying the groceries to leave for the baby sitters... when I checked off the "clothes for kids"... when I finished the laundry for the trip. It's hard for our family to be separated for so long. 

At training this summer, one of our leaders observed that our family likes to do things together. We play together, eat meals together, even serve together. (Our kids got super upset when we were leading worship and we picked one of their favorite songs but hadn't planned on them joining us on stage. So we let them join us on stage. ;) 

And we realized that we do, indeed, like to stick together. 

So being separated for a week is hard for our family. 

And it's giving us a chance to practice all the techniques... emotions check-ins, family meeting processing, finding what each kid needs to not feel quite so anxious. But mostly, it has given us a very, VERY clear picture of our incredible community. 

A couple from church is spending most of the week with our kids. Another friend is letting our kids hang out for a play date. More friends are excited for our kids to spend a few nights. Our pastor invited us forward to be prayed over and so many friends came down to be a part of sending us off, praying for us, speaking words from the Lord, sharing visions of how God was going to use the trip. 



And most of all, most encouraging for us anxious parents... we've had so many people ask to be put on our Emergency Contact list. People making sure that our baby sitters had their name or number just in case they needed it. So many people willing to be called at 2am if something was going wrong. So many people who want to be part of caring for our kids. 

And that has been the best thing ever. We are so grateful for our community who is stepping up to be a part of the story that God is writing for our family. And we will be excited to come back and share our stories of Albania with them. 

So as we begin a new blog with new stories to tell, we start with gratefulness to a faithful God and a faithful community. Thank you all for wanting to be a part of this story. 

Comments

  1. Nana ConnellOctober 4, 2022 at 10:24 AM

    As a mom myself I have your same heart when it comes to being separated from my children (and grndchildren!) but as always I trust God to alert me to your needs so that I can talk with Him about our mutual hopes and fears so that He can assure me that you are always and forever in His tender care. All my love, Mom

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