Heading back to Kazakhstan!!!! Blog coming back to life SOON!!! :)

Well, I finally made it back to the blog...  It's funny, but the format to post, etc. has all changed.... Mercy - it's been a LONG time!    

We are doing well...   Days where things go great and days when things are stressful...   Much of the stress is just the pure fact that there are 4 kiddos.   We've gone through some changes lately - but, I don't have time to go into all that... BECAUSE - in about 8 hours I am heading on a journey back to Kazakhstan!! 

Bailey (our oldest daughter) and I are going with a team of 8 to  Ust-Kamenogorsk on a mission trip with Two Hearts for Hope! 

I will be writing daily about our trip on the Two Hearts blog... and hopefully will have internet and time to post here on my blog as well!!!   :)     
Two Hearts Blog is:   www.twoheartsforhope.blogspot.com

We are SO excited and know the Lord is going to use this team in AMAZING ways...
There are so many things I'd like to share, but many need to be kept quiet.... just please join us in praying.    I feel in my spirit that the Lord is at work here and GREAT things are about to happen!  

SO....  if you're interested - check back often - hopefully I'll be posting LOTS in the next few days! 

Our trip is from May 3 - May 12th!

Blessings and thanks for praying for us and the entire team!!!! 

I don't have much time - LOTS still to accomplish before it's time to head to the airport!!!  

SO SO SO excited and honored that Bay and I have this amazing opportunity!!!

Two years...

Here I am again posting after a LONG 5 months... SORRY!    I really do mean to do better, but life is sort of CRAZY most days! 

In fact I couldn't help but remember in the midst of the crazy normal of life today where I was and what I was doing 2 years ago today... 

Phil and I were in Kazakhstan FIGHTING the biggest battle of our lives...  we had yet to receive a positive court verdict... and we were yet again WAITING on the next court date...  I think we'd had 5 court dates... and had 2 more to go... MERCY!!! 

I can't get through this time of year (from Oct - March) without remembering lots of details... and I remember the shear desperation I/we felt on these couple of days 2 years ago... 

The Internet in our apartment wasn't working... we were BROKE, tired, worn smooth out, and honestly EXHAUSTED.  

I will never forget throwing myself across that bed in that little apartment SCREAMING into the covers...     

Friends, My Lord heard EVERY. SINGLE. CRY....  He was there the entire time and He had a plan that I knew not of... It appeared hopeless.  The in-country staff were telling us that it looked hopeless.   EVERYTHING in our entire world appeared to not be ok.... but, guess what?   My LORD had a plan... and just as he had a plan for us and our little family... HE HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!!!!!

I had to just stop in the middle of the chaos tonight while making dinner and sigh...   you see it was a fairly typical day.   It was CRAZY and insane and intense...  4 children is busy and everyone needs something (at the same time - ha ha)!    Phil was home (not out of town - thank you Jesus) but, working late so I was flying solo with dinner, homework and listening to the antics of the day.    Trying to NOT be upset with Faith because she yet again had to go to the principals office for being disobedient...    Trying to not scream at the new dog Santa brought us ;).... Trying to be patient as Grace reminds me for the 12th time that I promised her she could play with play-doh after school.   Bailey has news to share from the drama of 6th grade... and Brook is mad because SOMEONE went in her room and messed with her books!  ;)      Grace then proceeds to tell Faith that only babies throw fits.   Faith informs her that in fact she was born first and that makes her older... as Grace yells, yeah, but you are a baby... you have baby feet and we both grew in Mom's heart anyway!!!    Brook starts complaining that it's TOO loud to concentrate on her homework.  Bailey decides that this would be a GREAT time to start practicing her saxophone.... AND about the time I'm about to blow a gasket... Brook says quietly, "Mama, the dog pooped in the floor!"   

At this point you can't help but love the normal everyday life of a working mom and busy family!   
You see...  in the midst of all that craziness that is our life... sometimes I forget that 2 years ago TONIGHT Faith and Grace were laying their heads down in a cold institution in northern Kazakhstan.   They had NO idea that there was a God who LOVED them and cared for them and CALLED them his own....   The most likely (Grace says) cried themselves to sleep that night because they were so cold and hungry.    They were malnourished, starving, and dehydrated.   They were alone and sad...   Grace says that sometimes she could hear Faith crying across the room and she knew her tummy was hurting... and then she asks me if I knew that Faith and her cried for me  and  Dad a lot?!  

Two short years ago...   
I will at some point share more about some of the heartbreaking things Grace remembers...  but, tonight... I just wondered if anyone would be as encouraged as I was to read about our life and my thoughts from 2 years ago this very night...

Goodness Lord... to say I'm thankful doesn't even seem like anything...   Thanks for it all...  EVERY. SINGLE. SECOND!!!!  

Click to read my post from 2 years ago tonight...   and REMEMBER that NO matter what you are facing....   There is a plan and if you will give it to the LORD and trust him... HE will NEVER leave you!!!! 

Here's the link to the post... 
Two years ago tonight! 

Have a blessed night!!!