I’ve been thinking ever so much lately about what are the most important things in life. That made my mind wander to what are the most important things that Jesus taught. Let’s read:

Matthew 22:34-40 ³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Did you catch the two greatest commandments? 1.) Love the Lord your God with your everything. 2.) Love your neighbor as yourself. Both of these have to do with love. Loving God first of all. Verse 37 gives us specific instructions on how to love God – with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. That doesn’t leave anything out. That’s our everything. Loving our neighbor is the second greatest thing. We also have specific instructions how to love our neighbor. Verse 39 says to love our neighbor as ourselves. Ouch! That leads me to ask “Who is my neighbor”? Webster’s dictionary gives two definitions of the word neighbor.

1.) one living or located near another 2.) fellow man

Okay… does the second definition exclude anyone? Fellow man. Isn’t that every human being? So now we know that we are to love fellow man as we love ourselves.

What are the two most important things to do in life? It’s very simple and very clear.

1.) to love God with our everything and 2.) to love fellow man like we love ourselves.

It’s all about love. It sounds so simple yet actually doing it doesn’t feel simple at all. It’s hard to love. It’s hard to love God with our everything. It’s even harder to love our fellow man as ourselves. It makes sense why we should love God so totally. After all He made us. He redeemed us. He made our lives worth living. It makes sense that we should love Him with our all. But our fellow man? Why should we love him? He hasn’t done anything to merit our love. In fact, he’s done just the opposite. Our fellow man is a sinful human being. Our fellow man fails us and lets us down. Our fellow man can break our hearts. And yet, we are to love our fellow man. Not just barely or ever so slightly. No, we are to love our fellow man just like we love ourselves. That’s impossible!! No wonder Jesus said in John 13:35 that “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” It’s because we can’t. But Jesus in us can! We can be known as Jesus disciples just by the love we show. That also leads me to 1 John 3:18 “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” You know what that means, don’t you? You can’t just say that you love. Your actions need to prove it. We have all heard the little saying that states “Actions speak louder than words”. Yes. How many times have we heard someone say they love us but their actions don’t show it? Do we feel loved just because they say it? Absolutely not! It’s needs to be proven. If we are going to really love our fellow man we have got to show our love through our deeds. It’s takes a lot more than words.

Thinking about all of this and how God’s heart is that we would love Him first of all and then our fellow man leaves me with a burden. Am I loving well? Can people say that I am Jesus’ follower because they can see it in the way I love? I know conflicts arise. People hurt us. Sometimes we need to call someone out. But, can we face conflict, hurt, and pain in love? Can we speak the truth in love? When God’s love is in us we can love in ways that are humanly and naturally impossible.

That leaves me with this thought and burning desire. No matter what I face in this life, can I be known as a person that loves? When my days on earth are over can it be said of me, “She was a woman that loved well?” I think that is how God could get the biggest glory of my life. So help me, God!

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. – Apostle Paul

Intentional. It’s a word that God brought to me a few months ago and I have been musing on ever since. I wouldn’t have told you this because I didn’t know it but I had just kind of slipped into the rut of life. Day in day out. Basically doing just what needed to be done for us to survive. There definitely wasn’t a lot of intentionality happening. That is not the way I want to live life but that’s the way I was unintentionally living it. When God brought intentional to my mind I started thinking of all the ways I was missing it. All the ways I just wasn’t being intentional. It was a sobering moment for sure. I want to write about a few of the areas I want to live with intentionality and not just let them pass by unintentionally.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

First of all my relationship with God. I got to the place where I was praying a lot throughout the day (not a bad thing) but wasn’t having undistracted time with the Lord. I’d read my Bible while nursing and while being constantly distracted by my children. (Also not a bad thing and I do hope to keep doing that). But that is not enough for me. That is not the best I could give God. So I’m committed to being more intentional about having non-distracted time with God. At this stage of my life making that happen is a challenge and I can’t spend an hour of quiet time with the Lord like I once was able to. My sleep is disrupted many times each night and in order for me to function well I need a certain amount of sleep. But I can be intentional about getting to bed earlier so that I can get up earlier. I can be intentional about getting up when the alarm goes off instead of turning it off and going back to sleep. (There are times when it is necessary for me to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep but I don’t want that to be my habit.) That gives me a little window of uninterrupted time with God first thing.

“To live intentionally applies that it is not going to be always convenient, but it is what will take you to significance if you do not give up.”

The second place I want to be more intentional in is my marriage. It’s easy to just let each day go by without doing anything intentional about our marriages. While that might make a good marriage it doesn’t make a better marriage. So I committed myself to being much more intentional in our marriage. Putting the phone down when my husband is speaking to me and making eye contact. Limiting my time on the phone after hours as we call it, when the children are in bed. Instead of wasting our after hours time scrolling social media or binge watching YouTube videos being more intentional with our time. Investing in our marriage by using that time to talk, play a game, exchange massages, read a book, and many more things. I have committed myself to being intentional about greeting my husband when he’s done with work for the day and when he comes home from somewhere. I’m committed to being more intentional during our times of intimacy and also being intentional in making it happen. Once I stopped and thought about it there are just so many ways I can be more intentional in my marriage. Many things I can do to help us move from a good marriage to the best marriage.

“Live less out of habit and more out of intent.”

The third place I want to be more intentional is with my children. Stopping to really enjoy them and the things they enjoy. Listening to them when they talk (again not having a screen in front of me and making eye contact). Staying off the phone as much as possible while in their presence. Inviting them into my work space. There is so much they willingly help with if I ask them. Helping cook, wash dishes, fold laundry, and clean are just a few of the things they can help do. Taking the time to read a book, go with them outside, color a picture, laugh, dance and sing funny songs, the list goes on. But I think you get my idea. To intentionally invest in them and intentionally let them be a part of my life and me a part of theirs. Yes, my house might not be as clean and my work might not all be done but if I’ve intentionally invested in my children that’s all that really matters.

“The busier you are the more intentional you must be.”

Another place that I want to be more intentional in is with my church family and friends. Well, not just them, I guess with people in general. Being more involved in the lives of my church family. Giving a note or gift to that Sunday school teacher, blessing the pastor’s family with ice cream, remembering birthdays. Intentionally inviting people into our home – believers and non believers, friends and friends to be. Remembering to pray for a friend on her test day or the day she has a doctor’s visit scheduled and then following up afterward to see how it went. It’s easy to just wave or say hi to the neighbor in passing. It takes intentionality to stop and chat with them, find out how they are doing. People have so much value to God. I want them to have value to me too. I want to be more intentional with the people in my life.

“Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest – well, that’s a choice.”

To sum it up I think what I’m really desiring and feeling the need of is to just be intentional in every area of my life. Not to mindlessly go through my life but to invest and enjoy and get everything out of life I possibly can. To live with such intention that once I’m gone people will be able to say of me, “She was a woman who lived life intentionally”. Life is short. We only get one chance at it. Let’s make the most of it. For God first of all, for our families, for our friends, for strangers, and even for ourselves.

“We were never meant to live life accumulating stuff. We were meant to live simply enjoying the experiences of life, the people of life, and the journey of life – not the things of life.”

I’d love to hear from some of you how you are living or want to live with intentionality. Leave a comment or message me so we can chat and encourage each other more. Happy intentional living!

“A more intentional life purposely slows down enough to enjoy the very process of living life more intentionally.”

I forgot all about my blog for at least a year! I have no idea how that happened but a while ago someone asked me if I still blog and I was shocked. Me? Blog? Oh yes, way back in my mind I pulled out a foggy memory of a time when I blogged (albeit quite infrequently). I had totally forgotten about my blog. Not sure how that happened (probably has something to do with the infrequency of my blogging life). 🙂 So here goes a little update for those of you who haven’t heard anything from me for a year or more.

Last July 9, 2022 Alex legally became our son. He had been a part of our family for over 3 years previously. So you can imagine our great joy after being in the process for so long he finally was a legal Weaver. His joy was evident and the best way to describe it was that he glowed that day and for at least a week after. He kept telling us over and over again that now he was Alex David Weaver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks later found Alegria and I on our way to the States for a very special occasion – my mom’s wedding!! That was certainly an occasion we were not about to miss! It would have been super special to all be able to go but because we did not have all of Alex’s paperwork done we were not able to leave the country with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 6, 2023 we welcomed our second son into our family. Caelan Asher was born two days before his twin sisters turned three. He is such a fun little guy. We are really enjoying him and can’t believe how fast he is growing.

 

 

 

It was special to have my dearest Mama and her husband here for 10 days a week after Caelan was born. It was the first time that Joe got to meet the rest of my family. Alex stuck to him the whole time they were here. It is very special for us that our children finally have a grandfather. They love their Pawpaw very much!

 

We finally got all of Alex’s legal documents changed to his new name and a few months ago we applied for his immigration visa. The system is very backed up and we have to wait months before we can even talk to someone. We were hoping to be able to move back to the States by the end of this year but we are feeling quite doubtful that we will have Alex’s immigration visa that fast. It’s hard to believe this but we have been working with paperwork for Alex (first guardianship, then adoption, and now his visa) a total of over 5 years now. This has definitely not gone as smoothly and quickly as we imagined when we first started. 😦

June marked 10 years since I moved to Bolivia. It is crazy to think that it has been that long ago!

Another thing that is hard to believe is that we have lived here in the city for 4 years now. When we moved here we were expecting to be here 1 year max. Just goes to prove that things don’t often go as planned. Even though we’ve been living in the largest city of Bolivia for almost four years now does not mean that we enjoy city life. Sure, there are perks to living in the city. For one, everything is super accessible (that fact alone made budgeting a must for us!) and one doesn’t have to go far to get anything. Another perk is meeting so many different people. But even for it’s few perks I think there are at least double the amount of negativity. I won’t go into all the reasons why we don’t like living in the city but I will say that we dream of the day when we will live in the country once again. Fresh air, a place for children to play outside, animals, and space are definitely among a few of the things we dream of. All of this waiting and feeling misplaced has definitely made us seek God for what His purpose is for us to go through these experiences. Many times I have cried out to God pleading with Him to use us and teach us whatever it is He wants us to do or learn because of going through this time of waiting.

We are blessed with many friends here. We are also so grateful for the church that we have been attending for the last year and a half. After watching church in our living room on YouTube for over two years and then finding a church we felt comfortable at, we have a greater understanding of the reason the Bible tells us not to neglect the gathering together of the saints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Sometimes we get so hung up on doing something great, we forget the best thing is often the smallest.”

 

I’ve really been hit with the realization that time is valuable and fleeting. My life is just a blip that is blipping by fast. Am I making the most of my time? Of my life? Am I using my short span of time here on this earth in a wise manner? My time here is so limited. Yet I squander what precious little time I do have way too often. I lose perspective of my life’s time by being so caught up in today. I forget to sit back and look at my life from an eternal perspective. I’m not here long. As a matter of fact, I’m not even promised tomorrow. If I die today will my short span of life have mattered? Will it have made a difference in eternity? Without me even realizing it these moments of today are slipping through my fingers never to be repeated. Am I making the most of them?

Along a similar line I’ve been thinking a lot about sacrifices. None of us like to make sacrifices. Who eagerly gives up sleep, our phones, food or personal me time? It’s not fun. So often we don’t do it. We sleep a little longer, we stay glued to our phones a little more, we eat all the time, and we give ourselves time to be pampered. We are just living in the here and now. We don’t think about how we are using our time and how valuable it is. If we did we’d get up early to spend that much needed time with God, we’d put our phones down and invest in the people palpable to us, we’d skip meals for prayer and fasting, we’d forget about making sure we’re pampered enough. Those little things we don’t want to sacrifice don’t matter in the light of eternity. What does matter is who and what we’re investing our time in. These things that bring us pleasure will be stripped away when we meet our Maker. It will just be us, naked before Him. Will we feel embarrassed for how we’ve wasted the few short years given to us? Or will we hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? Will we have something to show for the years that He gave us?

I fall to my knees in repentance and conviction. I don’t know how much time I have left. I’ve wasted time in the past. I don’t want to waste time in the future. Time is a precious gift that God has blessed us with. I want to use it wisely. I want to treasure it. I want my time to matter. I want my time to make an eternal difference.

“Only one life ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”  ~Charles Studd

 

Hello!! I was absolutely shocked when I came on here and realized I haven’t written since December. Wow! How in the world did seven months fly by so quickly? Since it’s been such a long time I guess I’ll do a little update of sorts.

January we moved across the city. We now live in a three floor condominium. Condominium life definitely is not our preference but we’ve learned to be content here and enjoy things here too. We were quite bothered by the people in the apartment above us. Lots and lots of floor noises, arguments, dog barking and loud tv noises. I guess we weren’t the only ones who didn’t like it because they were asked to leave. It’s been two months since they left and we enjoy the peace and quiet. We’re expecting new neighbors soon though. Hopefully they won’t be as loud as the last ones were. We are very glad that although we live in a condominium we have a nice yard outside where we go and often hang out. What a blessing in the middle of the city!

My sister Janelle also came to visit in January. We had a fun time with her and even went on a little vacation (something we weren’t brave enough to try before without help). I was so glad that she got to see Alex since he’s a member of our family and that she got to meet the girls.

February to April were pretty normal months for us. Enjoying our little family and our little life.

May was a monumental month for two reasons. First we celebrated the girls’ first birthday. We had a little party at a park. Algeria was super fussy that day but we still enjoyed the occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week after their birthday Aryana had a huge surgery. I’m assuming that most of you heard about it. The bones in her skull had closed shut thus hindering her brain from growing. A CT scan showed that her brain had grown all the way up to the bones and had no more room. So a major surgery was performed where they cut her head from ear to ear and opened up all the places where the bones had prematurely fused shut. They put in plates to keep it open. The surgery looked like a huge ordeal to us and we didn’t really want to have it down here because of the poor care from hospital staff. We talked about trying to go to the States for it but our time crunch was a short one before damage would have been done to her brain and all the logistics just weren’t really going to work out. So we decided to trust the Lord and have it down here. Many, many people were constantly praying for us over that time and I know that is why everything went so much better and beyond what we even hoped for. She even had a VIP room in the hospital with excellent care for no additional charge. We saw many, many answers to prayer over the surgery and recovery. She was even released two days earlier than predicted because she was doing so well. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about all the Lord’s goodness to us over that trying time.

She has recovered wonderfully and a CT scan next month will reveal to us how things are looking. We were so grateful that my mom was able to come be with us over that time. Her help was tremendous and her constant presence here a stability for Alex and Alegria as Anthony and I were coming and going a lot over that time. One thing that you all will probably find intriguing is that a week before the surgery Anthony had to go pay to rent the saw they used to cut the bones and forthe plates they put in. I’m sure that is something unheard of in the States. For those of you wondering he did not need to take them to the hospital. The lady he rented them from did that. 🙂

Aryana is our special little lady. At about three months we realized that she was not developing at the normal rate. Now at a 14 months it’s more obvious what some of her handicaps are. She is not able to sit by herself or even crawl. She has a hard time holding her head. Obviously at her young age and without further testing it’s impossible to say exactly what is wrong with her. At this point she gets therapy twice a week by a therapist that comes here to our house. She does a wonderful job with Aryana and we are so blessed by her. It’s an extra special blessing knowing that she is a strong believer and sings to Aryana often during therapy. Giving her therapy obviously helps increase her chances of sitting and walking but even with therapy there’s no guarantee that she’ll ever be able to achieve those things. At some point we’d like to get further testing done to help us determine exactly what she has but until that’s possible we will just keep doing what we can for her.

As I write this Anthony and Aryana are in the States visiting family. We had really wanted to go as a family this year but at this point that doesn’t look like it will happen because we are still deep in the adoption process. So we decided that we’d take turns going to see our families. I told Anthony he could go by himself but he wanted to take Aryana along to meet the family. I tell you what… he’s a brave dad. His trip is eight days. We eagerly are counting the days until they get home. Only three more to go!!

Speaking of the adoption if you want to pray for something pray for that. A little bit of progress has been made but it is just moving at a snail’s pace. A lot of the time we feel like our social worker is not being honest and she’s not very diligently working on our case. The whole process has been deeply discouraging for us. We thought we’d just be living here in the city a few months maybe a year at most but as of now we still don’t see an end in sight. We face a lot of loneliness here and we miss not having a church family. I want to believe that God has a reason for us still being here even if we can’t see or understand it. Being here so by ourselves has brought us one big blessing – lots and lots of family time! We treasure all the family time we get since we don’t have social activities filling up our schedule.

Anthony is still teaching English online. He has now met people from over 70 countries. He really enjoys his job. An added perk is that he has his office right here at home so we get to see him throughout the day a lot. The past month he has had a man from here in the city that comes every morning for English classes. He really has enjoyed his time with him.

Okay, hopefully that gives you a little glimpse into our lives. We are grateful for each one of you!!

“When God says He will do something He will do it. We don’t need to help Him make it happen.”

 

 

So… there is something that has been on my mind for a long time that I’ve been really thinking about. I feel a need to write about this but honestly, I’m a little scared. I feel like it’s somewhat of a touchy subject and I don’t want to preach at anyone. I just want to share my thoughts and I’d really like some feedback.

Probably close to a year ago someone asked me (with the very best intentions) what I do for self care. I was stumped. I had no idea how to answer that question. Living in a land where luxury is not very accessible and where I was living a life of service I guess I just forgot about such a thing. At first I felt kind of embarrassed. You know, I had no method for self care. But the more I thought about it since then the more I’m actually glad that I don’t have a method for self care.

Okay, hang on. I’m just going to dump some of my thoughts. Why do we need to do something to pamper or make us feel better about ourselves? Why do we do self care? Are we really supposed to be focusing so much on ourselves anyway? Doesn’t the Bible tell us to deny ourselves? So then why are we pampering ourselves? I know sometimes we just need to refocus. I totally get that. I’m not speaking against that at all. I know how draining and tiring life and serving can be. Sometimes we just need a breath of fresh air. I so get that. What I would like to talk about though is what we do when we need a restart. Do we spend lots of money and go to the spa? Do we get a babysitter and go splurge shopping? Do we go to a 5 star hotel for the night? How do we use our time to recharge? Is it solely focused on pleasing ourselves and pampering ourselves? If so, how do we really feel at the end of it when it’s time to go back home and face life? Are we really that much more inspired and ready to do life after focusing so much on ourselves?

Maybe we need to take the focus off of ourselves. Maybe we need to embrace a life of constant giving and dying to self. Maybe we wouldn’t burn out so quickly if we expected to live spent. (Isn’t that kind of what it looks like to be a Christian anyway? Unselfishly giving and giving.) Maybe it’d be better to look at all of our overwhelming things as something we get to do to for the Lord instead of something we need to gruel through.

When I embrace my season of life and live with a grateful heart that’s connected to my Father I don’t feel the need for some “me time.” I’m not saying I never need breathers. I do. But what am I doing with my breathers? Am I spending it all selfishly focused on me and my needs? What if my self care, me time, breather or whatever you want to call it would be focused on God instead of me? How would that change things? Instead of going to the spa I go for a walk out in nature communicating with my heavenly Father. Instead of binge shopping while my children are at the babysitters I invite another mother and her children over to my house giving my children play time with her children while she and I sit and talk and encourage each other and pray together. Maybe instead of going and sitting by myself at Starbucks I put the children to bed early and I have some precious heart-to-hearting with my husband. Maybe instead of spending the day by myself doing my own thing I go out with a friend and we share our hearts and encourage and inspire and pray for each other.

I don’t know if any of this is making sense. But I’m just thinking that we need to take the focus off of ourselves. We don’t deserve self care or me time. That wasn’t Jesus’s attitude. He freely gave and gave and gave. In His giving He found strength to go on giving some more. But, here’s a little secret. He wasn’t depending on His own strength. Maybe that’s part of the problem why we burn out. We try too hard to do life in our own strength. Jesus did alone time! But what did He do during His alone time? He went up into the mountain to pray. He used His alone time to reconnect with His Father. Let me guess that is where He got His strength from and that was His secret to living an abundant joyful life. He used His time off wisely. He wasn’t wasting it on the flesh. He used it to build His spiritual life. By investing in His spiritual life He received the needed strength to minister to the throngs of needy people.

You know what? I’ve been trying a new approach for refreshing myself. Instead of focusing so much on me I’ve been using my time more wisely and being more intentional about connecting with God during my alone time. I feel much more rejuvenated when the focus is on Him instead of me.

Can you hear my heart? I’m not saying that there is not a place for some purely selfish me-time. Maybe there is. I did recently take a nice soak in the tub with a book and a cup of tea. It was wonderful and I felt much more relaxed after that. I didn’t regret that decision. But I’m not going to do that every time I need to recharge. One day recently when I was feeling especially drained I spent the time when my children were napping and having their quiet time to have some prayer time with my Father and refocus by writing things out in my journal. It wasn’t more then 30 minutes but it gave me the boost that I needed to face the rest of my day with joy. There may be times when I’ll go out for coffee by myself or when I go get a massage. I don’t think doing those things is wrong. But doing things just for my pleasure all the time is not a good thing and I won’t make that my habit.

My challenge to you in closing is simply this. Use your self care time wisely. Don’t waste it all on yourself. Find a way to refocus that is not all about you. Maybe, just maybe if we take the focus off ourselves we’ll find the strength we need to do life really, really well. Maybe then we won’t even need to look for ways to keep going day after day. It’ll just flow out of us because we’re focused on the right things. Maybe we should all at least try to deny ourselves and let God’s strength become our strength. Life is not about us. It’s about Him. And others. We as Christians are called to give and give and give some more. In giving we receive. And maybe just maybe when we keep that perspective our hearts will be so full of joy and energy that we’ll think pampering ourselves and focusing on ourselves all the time a foolish thing to do.

“You have found true joy and happiness in life when you give and go on giving and never count the cost.”

I don’t know who the author of that quote is but when I read that I knew that was the perfect summary for this post.

This beautiful place that we’ve called home for almost a year, soon won’t be ours anymore. The mission has sold this lot to a university. I’m sad for several reasons. Perhaps the biggest thing that saddens me is the fact that the mission decided to sell this lot because there aren’t enough missionaries here anymore that it’s worth keeping it. Did you see what I just wrote? This mission guesthouse was built 75 years ago as a place for missionaries to stay when they came to the city to do business. The old timers talk of the days when there were so many missionaries staying here that sometimes they had to put up tents in the yard to accommodate everyone. I can’t even imagine! Now this mission (World Gospel Mission) has no missionaries that stay here anymore. The last of their on-the-field missionaries have retired. That’s what has happened. All the older missionaries have retired and there are no younger people to take their places. This is what breaks my heart. I can’t speak for world wide missions but South American missions have all but died out. Yes, there are still a few workers faithfully staying on but there aren’t many of them. It seems to me like many in my generation have lost the vision for foreign missions. I know the focus for missions has shifted more toward the Middle Eastern countries instead of the South American countries. That’s okay. But even there how many people do you know who are willing to give their lives for foreign mission work? Haven’t we all just gotten too lazy and comfortable where we are?

I say this in tears because we will become one of the statistics soon too. We are here temporarily right now. We want to move back to the States as soon as Alex’s adoption paperwork comes through. Sometimes that troubles me. The whole us moving back to the States thing. Many people have told us that we’ve been gone long enough. It’s time to move back. But I don’t feel that way. There’s a side of me that is terribly ready to move back. I’m tired of loneliness and being so far away from my family. I’m tired of pouring myself out for other people often getting nothing in return. I’m tired of life being so hard and difficult. I want an easier life. I want to be with my family. I want to have American friends again.

But the other side of me resists the idea of moving back. It’s okay to live a hard life. It’s okay to be lonely. It’s okay to give until there’s nothing left to give. It’s okay to be thousands of miles away from my family. That’s what Christianity is all about. That’s what it feels like to live out the great commission. This is what I want to be doing. I don’t want to move back to the States. I want to be faithful here. I want to be a missionary in a foreign land. I want to do my part to make sure foreign missions don’t die out. But… the truth is our mission here has died out. There is no longer a place for us in the mission we came here to work in. We were willing to keep gritting our teeth and trying to make it work. But God pulled us out. (If you question that let me know and I’ll tell you that story).

In some ways it feels like going back to the States is defeat. We’ve been here for 10 years and what do we have to show for it? Failure. Heartbreak. Disappointments. But you know what? That’s okay. Do you know why? Because we were faithful. God called us to the work here. He didn’t ask us to make a name for ourselves or make something to show for. He simply called us to come and give our all for HIS work here. His work. Not our work. And we were faithful in obeying Him. We gave our all for His work. Was it worth it? All the sweat, tears, sacrifices, loneliness… Yes. A heart resounding yes. Even if people think we were a failure because we’ve nothing to show for? Yes, still worth it. There is such a deep peace because we did what God called us to do. We gave our all. The results aren’t up to us because it’s not our work. God sees the results. Remember? It is His work.

Okay, that was a long speel I wasn’t planning to write when I started. What I was going to say is that we need to be out of this house by the end of the year. So in about 22 days. We have no idea where we’re moving to next. Yep. Don’t have anything lined up yet except for some houses to look at. The most surprising thing to me is that I’m not freaking out. I’m the organized like-to-have-my-things-all-planned out type. Normally this would be very nerve wracking for me. But it’s not. I totally trust God. He’s always provided and cared for us. He’s never let us set. So I know He’ll do the same in this situation too. Yes, we’re fervently looking for a place (our part) but we’re also totally trusting God (also our part) to provide for us exactly what He knows is best and what we need (His part).

I’ve decided to look at this as an adventure. It’ll make it more fun that way. It’ll be especially challenging though because it will be a temporary place. We hope once Alex’s adoption is complete we can make our big move to the States. I’m really hoping that even though it’ll be a temporary place we can make it feel like home. No one likes the feeling of living in a temporary place and so I want to make it as homey as I can for my family. Any advice you might have on making a temporary place feel like home would be welcome.

Especially thinking of our next place being so temporary (and even this place too) has got me feeling a lot like a true pilgrim. We all long for a place to just settle down in and live at the rest of our lives. But, moving so many times isn’t all bad either. At least it makes me long for my permanent heavenly home and it serves as a good reminder that we are suppose to be pilgrims here making this our temporary dwelling place.

The other thing that this has caused me to realize is that a house is not really home. Home isn’t a place. It’s the feeling I have when I’m with my husband and children. That’s home. We like to make our houses our home. That’s good. They should be. But home to me is more than just a house. It’s my family. When I’m with them then I am home no matter where I am physically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is way past time to write on here again. If I would have written every time I’ve wanted to there’d be numerous posts between now and the last one. I guess it’s obvious that our twins are here – No time for other things. 😉 So, since there may be a few of you that haven’t “met” them yet let me introduce to you our two big little rays of joy.

Aryana Daylia was born two minutes before her sister. She weighed 5 lb. 15 oz. at birth. Aryana is our introverted happiest-if-left-alone baby. She likes to be held for short amounts of time but is happiest when she can be lying on our bed kicking her feet. Often we hear her laughing to herself like she is sharing a private joke.

Alegria Dawn was born last. She weighed 6 lb. 1 oz at birth. Alegria is her English name as well (some people have asked) and it means supremely happy in Spanish. She wears her name well. She is just that – supremely happy most of the time. She’s our extraverted baby – charms people with her smile and enthusiasm to see them. She’s very bubbly but fusses quickly if it’s her turn to lie on our bed by herself.

It really is intriguing to see their two very distinct personalities. I didn’t want identical personalities when I found out I was having twins. My biggest fear was that they’d be like one person. Well, definitely don’t worry about that anymore! 😊 They don’t appear or look to be sisters much less twins!

Thankfully both babies were born very healthy. Aryana was born with club feet. We are grateful that we have the resources here to correct her feet. She’s been in casts for four months now and has had one surgery. It’s taking longer then the doctor expected to turn her feet. They seem quite stubborn – like the little person they belong to. Since we’ve also discovered a few more little problems with Aryana. Her soft spot on her head is going closed. Not a good thing for her age. Her head is really small because of it. We have been seeing different neurosurgeons to see what needs to be done. We had to get a CT scan done. If you’ve never had your five-month-old baby get a CT scan done you will not even be able to comprehend how difficult it was. Let’s just say it’s pretty much impossible to get your little baby to not move at all for the ten minutes it takes to complete the test. We spent hours at that place. We were completely exhausted by the time we finally got it done. We had a super patient technician. And God helped us in a big way to get the seemingly impossible done. Praise the Lord that her soft spot is not all the way closed – that would call for a very intensive surgery! We do need to keep monitoring it for the next two years. I imagine that means more CT scans done ☹ and frequent visits with the neurosurgeons. In the meantime, we pray and pray that God would help her brain to grow avoiding the brain surgery. Poor little girl is also delayed in her motor skills. We’ve started therapy with her. Thankfully we were able to find a therapist that comes to our house. Most of them only do it through ZOOM because of the pandemic. We have only been doing it for three weeks but we can tell a lot of improvement already. Aryana is defiantly our little trooper. She hates going out as she’s a homebody and yet she’s the one that needs to see countless doctors. She puts up a fuss sometimes but as long as her daddy carries her in the sling she bravely faces everything. Oh, and for the record Alegria is our super healthy – above average baby. We’re thankful for that!

It is hard to believe that our little girls are six months old already! It is also still hard to believe that we have twins. Many times we look at them and still can’t grasp that we have TWO babies. It’s a ton of work and sleepless nights but we couldn’t imagine life without our little girls. They bring so much joy to our lives.

Alex adores his two sisters. When they were first born he didn’t like having two babies in the house. He said the made too much noise. But now that they are older and can interact with him more he’s loves them. It’s fun to see the way especially Alegria just adores him too.

This morning my soul is swelling with the goodness of the Lord. Truly the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. I want to give to the Lord the glory due His name. He has been so so good to us. How clearly we see it sometimes and how easily we forget it other times. Today I easily see it. He has been a good, good Father to us.

One big thing as I sit here and meditate on the Lord’s goodness are the movements that I feel kicking and moving around inside my belly. I’m 31 weeks now and it feels like my pregnancy is whizzing by. In a few weeks we’ll be meeting our little babies, Lord willing. This whole pregnancy has been nothing short of a God thing and I don’t want to ever forget that. Life is such a miracle. God has had His hand on every aspect of this pregnancy and I know we would never have made it this far without His hand over us. So far everything is looking good and going well. We bless the Lord!

We have really been enjoying this time of rest since we’ve moved into the city. It feels like it was exactly what we needed. The last four years have been so hard in so many ways. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We were so weary of fighting. So what a haven this season in life right now has been to us. We have no huge responsibilities weighing on our shoulders. We have no relationships that we’re struggling to work through and maintain. And we have more of a social life than we’ve had in a long time. We have luxuries that we have not had since we live in Bolivia – hot water, AC, a bath tub, tiled floors, a closed-in house, real windows, a microwave, a living room with a sofa. Life is easier right now and we are soaking it up. This time right now has given us what we need to prepare for the next phase of our lives – babies.

Grass to mow is another new thing that Anthony is enjoying.

This apartment that we are renting is at a mission compound. It’s a guest house and has rooms for missionaries to rent when they come into the city to do business. We’ve stayed here many times years ago when we came into the city. But two years ago it was closed because the host and hostess moved back to the States. So when we were thinking about moving here to the city we messaged the mission asking if we could rent the one apartment since it’s been empty. They messaged back thrilled that we wanted to do that asking us if we would consider being the host and hostess also so they could open the guesthouse back up. We were delighted. It had been a dream of ours for a while to run a place like this where missionaries could come for a little break from their lives and where we could make a nice relaxing place for them. So that’s how we landed this apartment and how we became host and hostess for this mission guest house. It’s been fun to meet missionaries from all over Bolivia and also a few from other countries as well that have come to visit. It’s been fun to bless the people who come. Most of them have stayed here over the years back before it was closed and are so grateful that we’re here so they can say here again. It’s refreshing for us to be able to do this. So that’s our new ministry. And that’s part of why we have such a social life now.

The other reason we have a real social life is because three of the older girls from the Children’s Home moved here into the city about the same time we did. They moved in to go to college. They live about 45 minutes away traveling on the city bus line but we see them just about every day. Yamile and Nelida have their school within walking distance of our house. Tania’s current job isn’t very close but she often comes here to unwind after work. Her new job that she’ll be starting in about a week or two is only a block from our house. So, there’s often one girl or two or all three here. We’re so grateful that they are here and they are so grateful that we are here. God has us here for each other right now and what a blessing that is. They always come in asking me if they can make lunch or supper. You can know I never turn that offer down! They are always very helpful when they come and like to make sure I’m not doing too much. Such blessings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony teaches English online. He loves it and has met people from at least 30 countries. It is the perfect job for him right now because he can schedule his own hours to work and he can teach from right here at home! Two things that will be especially handy once the babies are born.

Alex and I are getting as much school in as we can now as well. It feels like he finally is starting to advance a little in Math. School is such a challenge for him and we just take it at his pace so he’s still only halfway through first grade in Math and not even there yet in Reading. But I do feel like he is finally beginning to understand the concept of Math at least so that’s encouraging.

Unfortunately we were not able to finish Alex’s adoption before we moved here to the city. Our case is still open back in Conce, our old town. So if the judge ever decides to continue it (and hopefully he will soon) we’ll need to go back to Conce for the hearing. Please keep praying that things can progress with that.

Some of you are probably also wondering about the school and how that all turned out. Two teachers were found and school started the middle of February. Since Anthony is still co-director he went back for the first day of school. I think that meant a lot to the teachers but probably even more to the students.

With the birth only a few weeks away I ask that you pray for us as you think of it. In some ways having our babies at one of the hospitals here looks big. We’re hoping for a natural birth but most doctors push for c-sections, especially when they hear we’re having twins. Thankfully we have a very good American midwife who is extremely helpful and has a lot of connections with good doctors here. She errors on the side of caution and even though sometimes we feel like she’s overly cautious we’d rather have her that way than not cautious enough. Please pray that everything will go smoothly and that we’ll be able to have a natural birth and good, understanding doctors.

Blessings to each one! And don’t forget to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His mercy endures forever.

“A good life is when you can smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are for what you have.”