So, I've decided I'm a bad blogger

As if it isn't obvious enough already, I am terrible at blogging. However, I've decided to turn a new page in my blogging career...starting now. For the sake of accountability, and so I can have a journal that is easy to edit, I am going to start blogging so that I can be more diligent with my Bible study time. Lord willing, this will be a great way for me to have all my thoughts in one stationary place, and I can save it for my children!

Time for a much needed update:
I am now the mother of THREE: Hallie, Titus, and Joel! I love being their mommy, and all the sanctification that comes along the way! May I grow in my relationship with the Lord, so that I can be a better mommy to you three!

Life as a Stay At Home Mom

So, I think the title of a stay at home mom makes it sound like something simple. You just "stay at home" right? NOPE. I stay at home, yes, but not lounging on the couch eating ice cream and watching movies. You're probably thinking, "but hey, you're doing a blog entry, it can't be that bad." Well you are right, I am doing a blog entry, and keeping my eyes on a 10 month old who just discovered Mommy's scrapbook, now the remote, now the wire to my cellphone, the leftover cheerios on the floor...you get the point. You might also be thinking this is a Mom writing to rant and rave about her horrible position in life, and how she got the short end of the stick. However, you are wrong there. My "position in life" is a joy. My job is simple yet complicated, fun yet hard, tiring yet invigorating. I am the only one who spends every waking moment with my daughter...I see the good, the cute, and the ugly. For example, right now she has just decided to pull on my pant legs to stand up, which means that I have to remain perfectly still. Why perfectly still? Because I know that if I move an inch, my daughter will tumble to the ground, and then proceed to cry. I know her hungry signs, her tired signs, her "I just want to cry" noises, her funny face, her "I want my mommy" face.
I get to watch her grow everyday. I get to see her firsts right before my eyes. I get to hold her when she falls, and kiss the boo-boos.
I am not complaining. I'm simply trying to dispel a common assumption about "stay-at-home"rs. We have the task of maintaining a functional home, with toys, clothes, food, and other such obstacles. While taking care of a child who poops, pees, cries, and gets into the most random and dangerous things that you might have accidentally placed anywhere.
I love my job because I know that my job matters in the scope of eternity. The time that I will spend training, disciplining, and sheparding her heart WILL matter...and I can survive the tough times on that knowledge.

Our Family in Mexico

So now that I have verbalized my thoughts about Mexico and our experience there I thought it would be vital for me to update in the form of pictures. While in Mexico Hallie learned to crawl, talk a lot more, learned to sit up, and ate baby food for the first time. It was a very exciting time as far as Miss Hallie Lou goes. She also was a major barrier breaker and we met lots of people because of our cute little girl with blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale skin. My favorite moments were when someone we really knew well held Hallie. That was awesome. Pablo, Eva, Inocenta, Miguel, etc. Those moments were wonderful because even though I didn't speak their language that well, it was like we could enjoy the wonder of new life together...and we could start with marveling at God's creation.

We enjoy two wonderful sunrises looking out at the Pacific Ocean, and ocean that I had never seen before. You might be asking how we could see the sunrise on the Pacific...it's because we were in a cove like part of the southern tip of Mexico that faces the east.
Shane and I learned a lot about each other, and watched as both of us grew in our relationship with Christ. It was amazing to see how close we felt when we had nothing else to distract us like we do in the States. We learned more about depending on the Lord and each other, rather than our own strength. I learned to trust the Lord for every moment, and was taught to have faith in God's future Grace that is in Christ Jesus. We grew together as a family as we all to had to be patient with each other.When we left La Barra, we felt like the Lord had given us direction...Missions. We don't know when, or where, or even how...but we know that God has given us that direction for now. Perhaps that direction is merely to teach us to trust Him and live as missionaries...which is what all of us should be doing. Perhaps it is to teach us to trust God wholeheartedly with our lives. Truly, ONLY the LORD knows. We will trust in Him with our lives...we have no other option.

We are so grateful that God gave us a special blessing on this trip...Cara Bebee. We love you Hermana en Jesus! Have we ever told you that we were glad you were there!? May the blessing return to you a hundredfold...(sound familiar!) You will constantly be in our prayers as you trust the Lord with your life, and live as a missionary in this world. We praise the Lord for all that we learned together on our great adventure...and marvel at what He is still teaching us. Praise the Lord that He had answered prayers in a way that we never would have thought of.
Our trip taught us more than what missionaries do, we learned about fatherhood, motherhood, married life, the Body of Christ, the Gospel, God's grace, and the faith the He gives us to trust in Him.
2 Timothy 2:1 says "Be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus" and we definitely learned more about how to do that. Praise the Lord.

Afterthoughts on Mexico

Well, we have been home for about three weeks, and it feels like a lifetime ago that I was in Barradise.
The Lord was so gracious to us in our time there. We had to battle stomach bugs, fear of scorpions, and the possibility of persecution.
I'll give a brief overview of life in La Barrra, we slept in tents in a banana field, in Oaxaca state Mexico. We were there for 7 weeks and lived amongst the people of La Barra De La Cruz.
Hallie did well, she started teething as soon as we drove into the village but she adjusted very well to the situation there.
We went to the beach every once and a while, it was really beautiful and all, but it wasn't the main point of interest. We baptized one believer Eva there, and that was incredible. It was crazy that we didn't do anything as far as sharing the Gospel with her. When we showed up the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and God had opened her ears. It was humbling watching God make it so we and she had nothing to boast in.
Essentially, we just spent time talking on hammocks with the adults and playing with the kids. We really enjoyed singing with the kids, they were really fun and had so much energy. We shared the Gospel with several people and had some incredible conversations with them, but to our knowledge no one else confessed to be a Follower of Christ. When we left La Barra there were two women believers, Eva and Inocenta, both of whom where changed by God before we got there.
One thing I really noticed when we got back was that we live so lavishly and we don't consider God's Glory more important than our comfort. It was crazy to think that so many of us desire the Glory of God, but we don't live in such a way as to allow ourselves the opportunity to live with Christ as the center.
We also show that we don't really believe in the sovereignty of God for our lives, we talk about it, but we don't believe it. I really learned a whole lot about that. I know that I really don't show that with my own life and that really convicts me a lot.
We also really enjoyed the company of our Sister in Christ, Cara Bebee...we love you lady! Anyway, I realized that we don't put enough of our energy into pursuing fellowship with other believers and that is obvious by our walls and distance from other people. If you have ever experienced sweet fellowship you know how vital it is for daily life. Anyway, we have so much fellowship here at home and were blessed with sweet fellowship there. We learned to pursue fellowship even more passionately when we returned. Also, we learned that it is important to understand where people place The Gospel and Theology. There is only one truth in Scripture, there is only one Gospel, and if we think that there is this general Gospel, then we really haven't come to understand the depths of our depravity, the grace of God, and the life of Christ. Even to just say that Jesus died on a cross for sins is cutting so much of the incredible Grace of God out of the picture. Needless to say, we learned a lot about not just the Gospel, but the importance of theology as it relates to the Gospel.
Another issue, that really effected my Sister in Christ, was the lack of Church involvement. The Church is supposed to be actively involved in missions, it benefits the church, and it benefits the believer...which in turn benefits the people being evangelized to. We were amazed at the distance Cara felt from her church and the lack of pursuit of Cara's well being from the place that said they would be sending her. It is vital that we re-examine our lazyiness when it comes to sending missionaries, and claiming to "support" them.
Regardless, we are home now, and have a new passion for the Church of God and the Body of Believers.

Hola from Mexico

Well we have been in Mexico for a few weeks now, and we are just starting to adjust to the new climate and surroundings. There are lots of bugs, lots of heat, and lots of excitement. We are staying in a banana field about a mile away from the Pacific ocean. We can hear the ocean waves crash against the shore when we try and sleep and we wake up to palm trees and the heat of Mexico. So far the people of La Barra de la Cruz have been extremely hospitable. We have received a warm welcome from all of the people and have been able to have some really great conversations. It´s been hard for Shane and I to not know any spanish, but the Lord has helped us to learn some, and use the good old international greeting of a smile and a nod. Hallie is teething so that becomes a problem some nights but overall she´s doing really well. She´s helped us to gain friends simply because she´s a cute baby. Adjusting to tent life has been fun, and we´ve learned to appreciate our battery operated fan, and our spray-on clothes bug repellent. That´s all from La Barra for now, Buenos Tardes.

House Hysteria

Well, the last few days have been intense. We realized that we only have about 10 days before we leave and our house is on the market as of Monday! AHHHHH! Anyway, we have been working like crazy and hopefully the house will sell soon! Shane and I are both exhausted considering that we've had to do a whole bunch of laborious work. We've had the daunting task of clearing out a garage that was in the midst of being organized, putting peg boards on walls, loading and unloading trailers....and not to mention the fact that we have a six-month old daughter! Well, that's about all for me, I'm exhausted, and ready to eat.

uh....i don't really know what i'm doing!

I don't really know what to write about, but I figured if John Hanson could talk about Deanna's mastitis, and his Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder, then surely I could think of something interesting to write about.
Well, we are getting ready to embark on our adventure into missions soon. We leave on the 18th, and it just recently occured to us...it's September!!!! I can't believe it's almost time to leave! For those of you who don't know about our trip yet, we are going to La Barra De La Cruz in the southern most part of Mexico. They are a quasi tribe that To Every Tribe Ministries has ministered to for the last couple of years. We will be camping in a tent for the six weeks we are there...so be praying for that experience.
Another challenge to this trip will be leaving our family at Faith Community Church behind. We have been so blessed in the Lord leading us to Faith. It has been wonderful to fellowship with everyone, and we will miss everyone while we are gone. Part of my reason for starting this blog, actually, is so that when we are in Texas, either preparing to leave, or returning home, we can catch everyone up on how things are going. Hopefully, I will have figured this things out before then.