Why we're taking our family to Africa.

Last summer, we said goodbye to my brother and his wife and their four amazing kids as they boarded a plane to head back to Kapsowar, Kenya for another two years. My brother serves as a missionary doctor at Kapsowar Hospital. We promised to try and come visit, at least some of us. In the weeks that followed Tom and I began discussing this. How do we go? Who gets to go? We're a family of seven and it didn't seem reasonable or financially possible for all of us to go. What if just Tom and I went? Would my brother's kids melt on the floor in tears upon our arrival without any of their young cousins they dearly love? Probably! Do we just take our youngest two children who are close in age to two of my brother's kids? What about Anna and Abigail our oldest two who were just dying to go?

It didn't seems possible. I mean, we figured with the money it would take for just the tickets alone, we could buy a nice car for Anna when she turns 16! Or get a semester or maybe a year of college paid for if we put it in savings now! How can we justify it?

I still felt this longing for us all to go. I had this sense that taking just a few of us would be an error. It would make sense to maybe go when the kids are older and working as teenagers so they could help pay their own way. But there were more important things at stake here than just finances, and that's what it came down to. Just a day or two after having a conversation with Tom about the prohibitive cost of the trip, I was sitting in chapel at New Life Ranch. Tom was speaking. His entire message was on dreaming big dreams that only God can fulfill. Following the call of God on your life even when it might seem like a crazy path, and you don't know how it is all going to work out. I went home from chapel, e-mailed my brother right then and told him, "We are coming...All of us!" I forwarded the sent e-mail to Tom and though a bit surprised, he jumped right on board with it.

When our family was just beginning to grow, a seed of desire was planting in our hearts to expose our children to the needs of the world and to missions through a family missions trip overseas. Not knowing when or where or how this would happen, it was just something we talked about. I grew up in a very missions minded home. My mother read us missionary letters from her sister in Peru, and brother in Africa. We talked about missionaries and supported missionaries financially. We had incredible missionary speakers in our home and at our church missions conferences. I even told the Lord as a teenager that I would go and serve him wherever he wanted if he so called me. It was an incredible blessing to be given such a heart for evangelism and the gospel and the world passed down by my parents. But, when the time actually came for me as an adult to actually pursue the mission field as an option, I shrunk back. Tom was excited and wanting to go. We talked with mission agencies. I told them I was willing, but a little scared and I certainly didn't feel the "calling" to go like my husband. The recommendation by all the agencies: take a short term missions trip to get exposure. Though I knew a lot about missions from what I'd been taught, I'd never experienced it first hand in a cross cultural overseas setting, and I was scared. In the end, the Lord called us to an incredible ministry here in the United States that is impacting lives for eternity, presenting the gospel, preparing believers for ministry, and I am so incredibly thankful to be here. But, part of the reason we want to take our family to Africa, is to give our kids the first hand exposure to overseas missions, so that wall or barrier in their hearts can be lifted. That in the future, should the Lord ever call them overseas, fear will not be the response to overseas travel, like it was for me.

The Lord has provided tremendously for this trip. We started out by looking at our miles credit card. We had accumulated enough points for one of our seven tickets, and a little more for travel. Last year, I had begun working part-time just a few hours a week. Being the saver that I am, most of my paycheck money from last year, was sitting in an envelope stuck in my underwear drawer! Ha! Another ticket paid for. We cut a few little expenses out of our budget that over a year's time really add up. Some family gave us funds for our trip. It has been a great exercise this last year, in teaching our children about finances. We opened them each a savings account, birthday money, Christmas money, Anna's babysitting earnings, Lemonade stands, Cookie sales, all has gone into their account. They gladly do it because they know it is going towards our Africa trip. They are saving and paying for their own passports with these savings.  Five children, and I had yet to really get rid of any of their baby/toddler clothing. It was all in tubs in our garage. So, we took them to a consignment sale and took more current clothing to resale shops. We eat out less, and buy less. We've said to the kids when they ask about going out, "Do you want to go to Sonic or do you want to go to Africa?" Their response is always Africa! They've learned a lot about money and saving and delayed gratification this year.

Since this is a missions exposure trip for us and also a trip to visit family, we decided not to raise extra support just for our trip, but we had some unexpected gifts come in from friends and family to our project account at NLR that have gone towards our trip. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be on support at New Life Ranch and see how the Lord prompts people to give when we have needs they don't even know about! Though we didn't raise support, we really would appreciate prayers for our trip. For safety, and travel, and health, and general favor with the Lord and the people. That our family would grow through this, and it would truly be life changing! Thanks for the prayers friends!

Transition to Motherhood..........and Beyond!

       

My husband and I were married for almost five years before we had children. Prior to starting our family, I would say that I was very much achievement driven, recognition focused, accomplishment oriented. I worked full time in public relations at Dallas Theological Seminary, and at the same time studied there and obtained a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies. About the time of graduation, as we were getting ready to move to Oklahoma to serve at New Life Ranch,  my husband came to me and said he was ready to have a baby. I wasn’t so sure. I was scared. I had done a lot of babysitting growing up and worked as a camp counselor, but I didn’t know if I wanted my OWN children. What if they don’t like me? What if I don’t like them? What if I’m not a good mother? What if they like my husband more than they like me?

Well the Lord has a sense of humor about our fears and my indecisiveness, and by the time we moved up here to New Life Ranch I was pregnant. But God was faithful and used the hormones of pregnancy and some incredible authors who wrote some things about bonding with your baby to change my heart. I fell in love. I couldn’t WAIT for my baby to be born. When she arrived I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the miracle of life, by God’s incredible gift he had given us, by the love that I had for her and the joy that filled my heart.

At the same time, I was also overwhelmed in some not so fun ways. I was unprepared for the physical exhaustion that came with motherhood, the sleep deprivation that caused much of it, and the constant neediness of my baby. I wasn’t desperate. I was just taken by surprise and a little unprepared for it all. I also felt the need to read parenting books constantly. I had no idea what I was doing! I wanted to be the perfect mother for this perfect child. I didn’t know how to be that and I was looking for answers.

In lots of ways, here is where Mothering Matters came in. Mothering Matters is a ministry to young mom that is held at our church. I came to this ministry where there were other mom’s like me facing the same fears, the same struggles, the same issues. And we pitied each other! But there were also some moms there who were just a few steps ahead of me. Their kids were a bit older than mine. They had a few more children than me. They had survived it! They had answers! They were the pros I looked up to and learned from.

 I remember our daughter, Anna, had the worst time sleeping at night because at a year old, she still would wake up several times during the night just needing her pacifier to go back to sleep. It got so bad at one point we tried just filling her crib with pacifiers, hoping that she would find one without our help and go back to sleep! I remember praying please please Lord help her find just one of them and go back to sleep without me! We have this picture of her in the morning in her crib with one paci in her mouth, one in her hand and the other trying to stick on in her ear!  I was telling this struggle one time to my small group and one of the other moms looked at me and said, “I just let them sleep with the paci clip on at night.” It was like a light came on. I can do that??? We tried it and it worked! Amazing.

Time management was something I also really needed to learn. I remember my first day home on my own after having my second child. My husband came home that night and asked how it went. I said, “Well, they are clean, and they are fed and besides that I don’t know how I will EVER accomplish ANYTHING else in my days now!” I eventually learned from some other moms that it was okay to train my toddler to play for 20 minutes alone while I cleaned up the dishes once in a while! I didn’t know I could do that!

I think it’s great for us to look at our lives as mothers in terms of seasons. There is a season of mothering young children. I recently looked back and all of a sudden realized, “Hey, I am not in that season anymore.”  I actually get to sleep most nights through the night ALL night long! I think it was probably about two years after my last child was born that it suddenly dawned on me that after almost 9 years of sleep deprivation, I was finally sleeping through the night again! We’re out of diapers now. Hooray! There were days I thought this would never happen. One of my children took two YEARS to potty train! I don’t have toddlers pulling at my legs constantly or little ones I have to watch constantly to be sure they don’t stick their finger in an electrical socket. I tell you this because while I was going through it I thought it would never end. But it does. My youngest is 5 now. My season is changing.

Looking back, I know I struggled, a lot, through those years, but I also look on those years with little regrets. I know that I cherished my children. Even when I didn't feel like this was true, I trusted in the promise of God that children are a blessing from him. Times spent rocking a baby back to sleep, pushing a child in a swing, or reading them a story is never wasted. Comforting a sick child or one who has had a bad dream during the middle of the night are great privileges. Children are a blessing and the years when they are young can be filled with precious times of love, laughter, and cuddling. 

I'm in transition again. My children are all school age now. They don't need my constant supervision and yet they need me in different ways. I'm still figuring it all out my exact role in this new season. Two of my children are in public school. I have three at home that I teach. Figuring out the needs of each individual child and my role in meeting those needs as well as facilitating their independence is a new challenge almost daily! As I doubt my own abilities at times in this new season, I am reminded of the faithfulness of God to accomplish His purposes in my own and my children's lives in Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." 

Crepe Loading

I recently started Hal Higdon's 15K training program and decided it was time to enjoy my first "carb load" the night before running 5 miles with a friend of mine. I don't know if these count completely as healthy carb load options, but a few years ago Tom and I went to Paris and LOVED these crepes we ate right on the streets of Paris from the street vendors. I previously thought I'd have to spend the money to buy airline tickets back to Paris to enjoy these amazing crepes, but I made them at home last night using this recipe and they were absolutely delicious! 

PARIS STYLE CREPE RECIPE

Ingredients: 

1 cups\ flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Bananas

Lots of Nutella!

Mix the first 6 ingredients with a mixer. Heat a medium sized nonstick skillet on medium. Once hot, pour a half cup of the batter onto the skillet and tilt so the batter covers the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes, then slide a spatula underneath and flip. After a minute, drop some nutella in the middle of the crepe to warm and begin to spread out to the edges carefully. Slice half a banana and drop the slices onto the crepe. Lift the crepe with the spatula onto a plate. Fold it over and eat! Delicious!

My kids also liked these plain with powdered sugar on top. Tonight I made one and put provolone cheese, ham, and sauteed mushrooms on it for dinner. Yum! 

Bowling with Mema!

Mema is quite the expert bowler, and so before she left to go home to Florida, the kids and I had to try out our skills with her! Well, I'm not sure how many of them inherited her abilities. We all performed quite horribly, but it sure was entertaining watching Caleb play.

We miss having the grandparents closer by to us, but it was great to have them here for Christmas!

Caleb speaks an alternate language!

I just had to put these funny conversations on here that my friend Laura sent me after keeping Micah and Ezra today:


Micah: When I was born I just came out of my mommy's tummy! And when I came out I had a mohawk. I like Mohawks.

One of the other boys: I was in my mommy's tummy too! (like this is something unusual and something to brag about.)

Another boy: How did you come out of your mommy's tummy?

Micah: I just popped out! It was real easy!


Me(my friend Laura): Micah you are a little monkey (as he climbs up onto a swing that is high up)

Micah smiles

Andrew: (very seriously) He can not be a monkey. Monkeys swing from their tails and he does not have a tail.

The 15 Passenger Van

We've lived at New Life Ranch now for 7 weeks! We've been living in Trailhead lodge, or the medicine lodge, temporarily while our house is being built. Just across a little road from our living room windows is where the 3 fifteen passenger vans NLR owns are parked. I listened in one day to a conversation my kids were having at the table while looking out at those vans. The conversation went as follows:

Micah: "I can't wait to be a dad!"
Ezra: "Why?"
Micah: "Because then I can put my kids in one of those big vans and drive them around."
Ezra: "Yeah, dads with kids are lucky. They get to drive those big vans."
Micah: "That's why I want to be a dad, cause they can drive those. So I have to be a dad."
Abigail: "Or a movie star!"
Micah: "Yeah, I know movie stars get to drive those too."
Abigail: "So I guess you'll have to become a dad or a movie star."
Micah: "Yeah"