Don't Miss the BIG PICTURE.........

During World War II parachutes were being constructed by the thousands in factories all over the United States. For the workers they saw this as a tedious job of stitching together large pieces of fabric for 8-10 hours at a time. From their point of view it was a hard job that left their fingers, backs and eyes sore from strain. 

  However, their point of view changed when the manager of the factory explained to them that each successfully made parachute would help aid in saving the life of a soldier. It was even more motivating when he explained that they may even be used by some of their family; brother, husband, father and friend. The big picture was that their job of stitching hour after hour each yard of fabric now held more meaning for them.

My blog for today has two parts. The first part is to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served our wonderful country. It is also a tribute to thank all of those who serve at the present moment. I have friends who have loved ones that are currently serving some have even just been brought back to the states. It is because of people like you who see your job as the "BIG PICTURE" and help protect our freedoms and home-front.  So, for that our family says, "THANK YOU".

The second part of this is as much for myself as it it for my readers. I sit and think how tedious it is to learn verbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns and so on in Spanish. You see, learning all those things are not the big picture. The big picture is that when we are finished here we will be able to minister to the people of Honduras. The great thing is that knowing Spanish we will be able to speak to a whole new group of people. I want to conclude with these thoughts. Don't let the tedious everyday things that you do wear you down. We need to focus on what we do, why we do it and how it can benefit God. We might not know what God has called us to do and why.....but HE DOES.  

(2)In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.   John 14:2-3

Fruit may be Invisible but God is always Working

As we finish up our third week here in Costa Rica we had a lovely test today in grammer. I felt like I was in school all over again. The anticipation of the test itself....(which is for a grade)......was still nail biting and it is not like we are needing the credits to move on in life to get a college degree. (lol) Then, tonight while reading my devotions I came across some verses that really made me stop and think.

It says in Hebrews 11:1-3 NOW FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (2) For by it the elders obtained a good report. (3) Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

WOW! That slapped me right in the face. Well, I do believe and have faith but it hit me that it must be in everything....EVERYTHING...that includes being here in Costa Rica taking a Spanish Class. For you it might be the news you get from the doctor or the bill that just came in the mail. I know that there are many people here in San Jose right now who feel like we are never going to get the language under our belts. But then I stop and think about the trees that the Lord has made and how they go through a time where they do not bear fruit. It does not mean that the tree is dead or the Lord does not have his hand upon it. The tree like us sometimes are just taking in and taking in until the Lord says that we are ready to be used.

I know that for Mark and I and the others here who have been called by HIM to do HIS WILL.....will prevail and learn the language of Spanish. God would not call us to do a work for Him if he was not confident that we could preform the task that he has called us to do. I myself get things a little easier...and I fully believe that it is becasue of my previous teaching skills which again the Lord led there and I was able to teach for six years. I do still get frustrated with myself because it feels like a ton goes in and a dribble comes out. That is where I have to humble myself and say....I know that I can not do this alone but through the help of the Lord around me and the poeple that he has put in my path. I know that I am not the only one in the world who feels this way and I am sure that many who are reading this now can put their name and circumstance in the blanks above. We have to be willing to let God move or else he will not be able to mold us the way he needs us to be.

But the truth is that Gods word is clear and that is if we have faith and believe in the things we can not see but know that he is working......he will use us for what he has called us to do. We will bear the fruit.

It is in vain to gather virtues without humility: for the spirit of God delights

to dwell in the hearts of the humble

Above the Clouds......lies the top of the Mountain......

Well, we have been in school now for a little over a week and things are going good. However, it can be a rather large obstacle to get over trying to learn a new language.....live in a new culture and all of the other things that have come our way....and it is becoming a proven fact that we are no "spring chicken" so to speak in the world of expanding ones education.

In just two weeks it is amazing the new friends that we have made and the things we have learned...not only in language but in culture.  Some people may thank that the people here are different because of the crime rate and other things they hear on the news about foreign countries and even that they have a different sense of values...but I have learned alot in just a few weeks about the hearts of people. Most people only look on the outside of a person to see who they are.....but regardless of what we see God see's and knows all. People are people no matter the color of their skin, mother tongue, or nationality. God made us all and for one purpose only....to Glorify and fellowship with HIM.

I know that it is hard to believe....but after a week of school I am still not fluent in Spanish....lol!!! Okay we all know that everything takes time and this is going to take time. I am pleased to say though that I have learned an overwhelming amount of things in that time. It is such a blessing to have teacher's here who care about us and are patient and encouraging. It is also nice to have friends that are here treading the same waters....and we are each trying to keep the other afloat with encouraging words and help.

This week I have really thought about ....can I really do this...? can I learn enough to help the children of Honduras...? You know what thought comes next?....I can...because God put me here...and HE knows that I can because he has called Mark and I to do HIS WILL. You see, of my own desires and thoughts....I can not accomplish much, but with the help of my Lord and Savior I can accomplish great things for HIM. I only need to empty myself and let God fill me up.

I go to the stores with the little Spanish that I know...and yet the people do all that they can to help me with my needs. I know that they do not understand me at all and it frustrates them and myself. But then I think this thought...." I have joy in my soul"...(Yo tengo gozo en mi alma)....for I know that one day they will be able to understand me and I will be able to witness to them with my mouth...but for now I can be a witness through my actions....acts of smiles, kindness, and being the best Christain that I can be for HIS names sake. For without a pure heart my words will be in vain. 

I will leave you with these few verses to think about....when you get discouraged and can't see the top of the mountain........I am pondering on them myself:

***So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.       Isaiah 55:11

asi sera mi palabra que sale de mi boca; no volvera a mi vacia, sino que hara lo que yo quiero, y sera prosperada en aquella para que la envie.                                                        Isaias 55:11

***Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. 

                 James 2:17

Asi tambien la fe, si no tiene obras, es muerta en si mis ma.

                 Santiago 2:17

What Mary must have felt.....

As, I sit in my house in another country thinking about Mother's Day and being miles away from my own mother and mother in law it brings Mary to my mind. I sit and think of the joy that she must have had in her heart knowing that God chose her and her only to have Jesus. He could have chosen any women in the world but he knew that no-one could have been more perfect than her to be the mother of HIS son. While we all have mother's God chose each one of them for us. He knew how each one of them would teach us and care for us. I know that just like the desires of our hearts...God answers prayer and gives us just what we need when we need it. God has blessed me with SIX children. It is hard for me to say sometimes without getting a little teared up but I have SIX children.

God blessed me with a mother who saw it fit for me to be in church, made me go to more VBS's than I ever cared to go to(LOL) but made sure that the word of God was hid in my heart. I am thankful for that.

Then, I got married and inherited a mother-n-law who loves the Lord and sets a good example for me and my kids as well. I am thankful for that too. Then, in 1996 the Lord blessed me with a beautiful baby girl. My little Taylor Marie.

 She has grown into a wonderful teenager. I am thankful that she loves the Lord and has a desire to please HIM and her parents. She isn't perfect and I do not expect her to be but I am thankful that she cares about whether or not she has disappointed her parents. I love you Taylor! Then, in 1998 the Lord blessed me again but this time with a Big Ole handsome baby boy....10lb 1oz Hunter James. He is a sweet boy and has trusted the Lord as his Savior...he is all boy however, and I pray that the Lord will call him to do a great work for HIM.

I love you Hunter! Then the Lord blessed me with another little baby...a baby girl Zoey....whom I love as much as the other two. How can you love someone you have never met? Well, the Lord said I knew you in your mother's womb. I knew my little baby girl, I can see her now running on the streets of gold with her long blonde hair and blue eyes just like her daddy.

I have even had dreams about her telling me that she is ok and for me not to be sad because that Jesus was watching after her. I love you Zoey! Then, comes Noah. Another gift from the Lord, a notch in my heart that will stay there forever but a face that I have only seen in black and white. He was not born but he has a better home in Heaven. I love you Noah!

Again, the Lord blessed me with another....not sure if this was a boy or girl but went with a Bible name and called him Uriah.

The Lord took this baby before I could hold him or see his face. I love you Uriah! The Lord saw fit to take three of my babies before I could hold them in my arms, give them a kiss, read them a story or let them know how much I loved them....why...I don't know....but I have to say that his thoughts are not my thoughts and my ways are not his ways....but his ways are always right. I do know one thing is for sure and that is I will see them again in Heaven one day. But this chapter of my life does not end in sorrow but in praise and that is the Lord does give us the desires of our hearts and he gave me my little man.

On April 7,2008 the Lord blessed me with my sixth baby...Josiah Ayden. He was worth waiting for. He has been a blessing and I know that he is not just a blessing to Mark and I but to all who meet him.

 He has not ever met a stranger that he did not like...he will hug you and kiss you even if he does'nt know you...the Lord has great big plans for my little man. Thank you Lord for the blessings that you have bestowed upon me as a mother. I pray that you will help me be the kind of mother to my children and to all the children that come across my path through Hope Children's Home both in the states and in Honduras. Lord thank you for choosing ME to be their mother. For my readers....think about how Mary must have felt...when God told her that she was going to be a mother...the mother of Jesus....and then think about your lives and the fact that he did the same thing to you....he chose you to be the mother of the children that you have....or will soon have. God has chosen each of us to be mothers so don't just think about that this mother's day THANK about it in prayer to the one who made it possible....Happy Mother's Day to my readers and friends.....

Adjusting to a New Culture...

Well, can you believe that we have now been living in Costa Rica for 5 and a half days. Things seem to be going really good for us. We have ventured up and down the street by ourselves and feel pretty safe. (Having a husband that is 6'5 helps too.....lol). But anyway we have ventured to the supermarket, the bakery and the farmers market. We have a nice house that has 4 bedrooms so the kids each get their own room. Hunter and Taylor have a twin bed and Josiah has a toddler bed. We also have a very sweet girl named Marianna living downstairs who is from El Salvador and will be getting married in November.

 Her and her fiance will be missionaries to the country of India. She has been such a blessing to us already helping us out with our Spanish. Josiah loves her a bunch and loves to play with her. The kids have had a half day of school and seem to be enjoying it. They are in a traditional style class where English is always spoken except for Spanish class. Things are a bit different in that the cost of living is high here. Things that you buy in the stores are very expensive so we are still overwhelmed by the prices and adjusting to our needs. We can however, get fresh fruits and veggies on Saturday for very inexpensive. We went yesterday and spent about $9 for the items below.

It has rained here everyday but yesterday since we arrived. Rain will be the normal conditions until at least October/November we are now in the rainy season. It has not been to bad yet. We do have a beautiful view to look at each night before we go to bed and each morning when we rise. We have listed our mailing address for those of you who have asked for it. It is on the top right side of our blog. Be sure to use the correct address depending on what you are sending. We have a different address for packages and letters. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us as we have made this move. We love you all bunches and are thankful for each one of you. 

Our new home......

Well, dispite a crazy Monday we have celebrated our first full day in our new home. It all started bright and early on Monday morning when we finished loading our bags in the van and headed to each dorm to say good-bye.  You see some of those kiddos, may not be there when we return and I wanted to make sure to say good-bye and tell them that I loved them....which our whole family loves them all very much. (YEAH!...that was a tear jerker.....some of the boys had been awake since 5:30 or so to see us off.)  Of coarse there were others that slept but it filled my heart with happiness knowing that they loved us as much as we love them. We then move on over to the girls dorm for the same thing to say our good-byes and give a tons of hugs. When then packed into a van and headed to the airport. Pastor Mike the director from the

children's home, his wife Ms. Chris, Jewelissa, Mark's mom and dad went with us to see us off. Boy that was a tough time trying to hold back the tears. You know you never really know just how much people mean to you until you have to hug them and say good-bye. Sometimes, you get so wrapped up in your everyday routines that you forget to tell those special people in your life just how much they mean to you and how much of an encouragement they are to you.  (Ok so, I said that to say this.....don't wait until you have to say good-bye to realize the special people in your life.)  Now onto getting in the airport with 13 pieces of luggage plus a stroller, laptop, diaperbag, purse, and three bookbags. Yes we were a sight to see...lol. So, we breezed through security and made it to our terminal.     

We were suppose to fly out of Tampa at 10 and well due to bad weather in Miami we were delayed until 12 or so and wouldn't ya know our flight from Miami was to leave at 12:10. Can you say....not gonna happen. So, we get to Miami to find that our flight and the next flight had been canceled but we should make the 8:25......yep....that was canceled too along with about 30 other flights. But, the Lord is good and we got to stay in a hotel as a family one last night before making our move. This was a peaceful time for it cleared our heads and really gave us the strong desire to press on to language school.  OK, so now we get to the airport on Tuesday morning to take the 12:10 flight......flight delayed...seems to be the story of our life. lol.  

Our plane was ready to be boarded but the pit crew was on another flight so we had to wait for them....new depature time....1:10.  We get a boarding call to start loading the plane...yeah!!!!! So, we board and the plane is hot...it has been turned off for about 2 hours and we discover that the crew has still not yet landed.....Josiah despite the situation was doing very well. The stewardess was so sweet. She gave him a cheese and cracker tray and he tore it up.....I know now that he loves raisins.  By this time the people on the plane are complaining because there is no air and of coarse there was an older couple that thought they could just give there seats up and sit whereever they wanted on the plane......to funny. So, the pilots arrive to discover on their walk about that there is a leak under one of the engines and a check engine or oil light on up front.....fun......But grateful that they were looking and had ot fixed before take off. (So, are you enjoying this trip so far?) Well, the next part is too cute. 

Some of you may know that Josiah has become quit fond of planes these days along with balls and buses. So his excitement to sit on the plane was just to cute...as he shouted looking out the window at the planes getting ready to take off ahead of us. However, that all changed in the matter of a few seconds, when the g-forces pushed his little body back in the seat....and he looked at me and said...."Momma, I walk, I wanna walk, I not want to fall."  He looked at me with this face of sheer panic but did not want to cry. I had a sweatshirt on my lap and he crawled under it and said..."I hide momma! I hide! It was so sad to see how scared he was and squeezing my leg. It was about 10 minutes later and he was sound asleep....(you can say awe! because I did each time he realized we were still in the air.)  Now the time has come...we have landed and we have to go through customs and security along with trying to gather all of those bags plus manage our carry on's. We know that you all must have been praying for because we breezed right through customs. Now, time to gather those suitcases. We watch and wait and only ONE bag comes out. I ask the guy unloading and he said the words that everyone wants to hear.."this is all the luggage on the plane" GREAT we are thinking, so I ask what do we need, he said file a claim. I make my way to fill out a claim and guess what I SPY?  All the green ribbons, that I had tied on our luggage...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,  and 9 they were all there. PTL. We begin to load them up on a big cart to head over to security. Again, thankful for the prayers they scanned a few and sent us on our way. They were super nice and we had no issues at all. We are now on our way to our new home. (The picture you see is the view from our bedroom window)

It was so nice to meet our new friends Carla and Eric who set us up with an awesome house less than a minute from the school we will be attending. We also have a sweet missionary girl that lives with us named Marianna. She is a super nice girl and will help us a ton with our Spanish. Josiah already calls her MeMe..because she reminds him of one of the girls from the home. We also had some intresting trips to the grocery store.....that will be tomorrows blog......Thanks to all who have been praying for us. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and that we will raise the remaining funds we need for language school.  (BY The way if there are typos in this I apologize.....the Spell check is in Spanish and I am not sure how to convert it back to English due to the wireless being in spanish.)

Saying Good-Bye....

I can not believe that in less than 48 hours we will be on our way to a new country, a new home and a new church. Saying good-bye is a hard thing for me to do. While we all mean well....sometimes your old friends find new ones and the distance between you grows and you seem to be too busy for each other. I know that the past nine months have flown by and yet it seems that every waking moment we had something to do or somewhere to go.

 I miss all of my friends from North Carolina dearly along with all of our family. I am also going to miss all of the friends that we have made here and the children who have been a big part of our lives here. It is amazing to think that some of them are here simply because their parents did not want them anymore. I love each one of them and pray that God will guide and direct them so that they can do great things for HIM.

Josiah is going to miss his best buddy Caleb. They are just a few months apart and have spent the last nine months together. We will have to work hard at incorporating things from the USA into his daily life. For without it he will not know or see much about the country where he was born.

We have been packing our bags all week and we have a total of 13 bags going to Costa Rica. It was a tough job trying to pack for a year.....I am going crazy from looking at luggage and weighing each piece. LOL! Who knew packing could be so difficult. I can not imagine Michelle Duggar( 19 kids and counting) traveling much. I mean for goodness sake she would need her on plane for her family and luggage alone. LOL. We each have 2 bags plus three carry ons....hers would be close to 40 bags.

Well, we have added a SKYPE number for all of you who would like to be able to call us. It is a local number for North Carolina but any out of state people if you have Skype it is free from "S" to "S".  Our number is 919-809-7647. We can have video stream so that we can see each other. However, if you do not have a web cam you can still see us we just can' see you. We had an exciting treat....

Mark's mom and dad drove all the way down from N.C. to see us off. It has been nice to spend the week with them. They along with Pastor Mike and Ms. Chris will see us off at the airport on Monday morning.

Here is my last thought before we get settled in to our new home next week unless I can get some more time to type. This journey has been such a blessing to me and our family. The Lord has really helped me to prepare my heart for the love that I get to share with the children who receive no love. I have heard a bunch of people say that they could not love anyone more than their spouse or more than their own children. Well, I am hear to say that you have just never opened your heart. I have more love pouring out of my heart for the kids here and in Honduras than I could even tell you about.

 I also have a new respect and love for all of the people who answer God's call to become missionaries. It can be a tough road, a discouraging road and even sometimes a lonely road. I challenge you to try and contact the missionaries that your church supports and let them know that you are lifting them up in thoughts and prayers. God himself loved HIS son JESUS enough to share him with the whole world so that through him we might be saved. He gave us a whole book of encouraging words to read daily and we should be willing to do the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are really going to miss everyone not only away in North Carolina but our new FAMILY here at HOPE in Tampa.  We love you all.