this old house...

Is our new our home!!! 

It seems as though this has been a long time in coming, but, we finally have a HOME!!!

We had been searching for a home and seeking Gods leading for quite a while, and as we thought about all of the possibilities for our future, a conversation I had with a friend a few months prior to going to Colombia stuck in my head.  She adopted a special needs child and made a comment something to the effect of: following God and doing that adoption was such an incredible, exhilarating, and wild ride that when it was all done, it was like...now what?  A few years later, they started to take steps to do a second adoption, but soon felt that God did not want them to proceed.  They realized that for now, doing the seemingly "mundane", caring for their family, and ministering to others in their community is what they were supposed to do.

Doing what is in front of you, being diligent and obedient in the here and now, is just as important, although it may be much less exhilarating or glamorous at times.  It's all about God, and what He wants to do in and through you, and sometimes that may look like selling everything, and moving to a foreign country or, it may 'look' very normal and boring, but I assure you, if you are seeking opportunities to serve Him, He WILL give them to you, and your life WILL NOT be anything BUT normal and boring!

I get that!  We were sorta at that place, where, the adoption was done, we knew we had to move from our current house, and we wondered if God was going to use that, to send us elsewhere, especially when so many houses just didn't 'work out.'  But, we prayed that God would let us know what HE wanted for us, not what we wanted, {although to be honest, staying was my first choice, I find that alone unbelievable, as most of you know I came here kicking and screaming, so to speak.}

We are excited and once again humbled by the outpouring of love from our wonderful church family.  We are biting off a bit okay, way more than we can chew with this "fixer-upper" and once again our faithful friends are coming along side us and helping us out.  We really look forward to the day that we are NOT the recipients of the blessing, but the givers!!! 

Stay tuned, I will certainly be blogging about the before, during and after of our renovation {in reality, this old house could be a forever project, we are just hoping to get some of it done before the snow flies as we have to move in by then!}

We are really excited for it to be done....is that a bad thing?

So, what's the big deal?

Asks Luisa...

She's sad because all she wants to do is go play outside....

But, she can't figure out why no one wants to join her {for very long,} while she jumps on the trampoline.... 

hmmm...

wait for it...

Oh, there it is...

 The dreaded cry!

She doesn't cry often, but when she does...she really has at it!

What she doesn't understand is that while she may be used to all this heat, we are not!    Poor baby! 
*She did, by the way, get to jump on the tramp!  Her brothers are suckers for her tears, and once they realized what she wanted, they took her back outside, for a little bit ;)

Keeping my eyes on Jesus...

Okay, so here is the back story on the last post.

First off, the IRS.  Funny how they demand your money from you at a certain time or else there is a big penalty, but when they owe you money, they can simply say..."We think there was a miscalculation, here is $5,000. less than what you were supposed to get, have a nice day!"  Um, no, you still owe us $5,000. and so, we are fighting with the IRS.  Our tax guy assures us we will get it, we just need to bug them for it!  Okay tax guy, have at it, and I am so thankful that that is what he is doing!

I was hoping to post this exciting post about our 'new home,' but, we are having some major issues with our FHA, 203k "Specialist"   Ha!  That is a huge joke.  This person is completely inept, you can read about what they are supposed to do here but, unfortunately our experience,  has been one of delays, in fact, we were supposed to close on this house on June 29 and this is the 3rd extension we have had to file since our 'specialist' keeps asking for more information and more inspections usually a day before we are supposed to sign on the house!  Now, I don't have a problem giving them the info and doing the inspections etc...because we don't have the $$ and we need it from them, but for heavens sake, make a list, check it twice, if certain things need to be done, tell us up front, don't wait till the last possible second!!!  So, yes, we are hoping we will have a house soon, but I'm not gonna tell ya all about our new place until it is signed for!  Hopefully with in the next 2 weeks...we shall see.

What does all this have to do with keeping my eyes on Jesus?  Well, sometimes, especially in situations like this, I take my gaze off of Jesus and fix my eyes on something else.  In this case, money or a house.  All of a sudden that 'thing' becomes the most important 'thing' and well, that's just not right.  I did that with Anaya, when things started going awry with her adoption, I stopped focusing on Jesus and the things God wanted me to do, learn, and cling to at that time, and I became fixated on her, and the things that were going wrong.  And that, my friends, is a miserable existence.  Easy to do though, isn't it?  I don't know about you, but when things go wrong, I get all aflutter and start questioning, "Now, where is God in all of this, what in the world is He doing?"  And while I might ask myself that, the answer I am coming up with {this time} is that God has a plan, HE knows, HE cares, and I better believe that this is for my good, and trust HIM.  And so, as we wait, we are fixing our eyes on Jesus and trying to live by HIS example, waiting patiently for God to reveal HIS plan and continuing to trust HIM!    

Hebrews 12

                                                                             ( The Message)
 ^1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

IRS, 203K, FHA...

 

What do all these things have in common?

They are all giving me one HUGE headache!!

We need to get a few things straightened out SOON, and I know GOD alone can move the mountains ahead.

Thanks, and I plan to expand on this topic soon...but for now, we could use some prayer!

4th of July...

My sweet friend Lee loaned me her camera so I finally can post a few pictures of our holiday weekend!  It was a great weekend, one I would repeat every weekend if possible!  We spent time with friends, went to the beach every day, and had fun hanging out with everyone home!!  Ryan was gone on a mission trip the week before, so it was wonderful to have him around for an extended time. 

 playing in our 'big sandbox!'

Silver Lake

Ryan and the boys in the lake below, I stayed on top of the hill this night as they only had a little while to swim, no way I was going to go down and come right back up that ginormous hill!

The kids sliding down the dunes.

girls climbing back up the hill, love the ruffle bottoms!

Campfires + hotdogs + s'mores, = summer fun!

a little target practice...

We even rode our bikes all the way to the dunes!  Easton rode on this little tiny bike, the sprocket on that thing is so small, he had to pedal 20x's more than we did, and he never complained!

Lucy loved the sand, she laid in the sand, rolled around in the sand, slid in the sand....

did several face plants in the sand!  We would just dunk her under water and she was good to go, she loved being dunked, crazy girl!!

Spencer was digging a big hole with his hands and found a shovel!

the ginormous hill we had to climb

Thank goodness for a strong big brother, Lucy was getting tired, but there was no way I could carry her!

We only have one bike seat so we took turns riding and having the girls ride, this was Luisa's first bike ride{with us, at least!}