Sunday, July 10, 2011

Base Camp worship time (see below)

Austin

Hi everyone. It's been a few months since I last posted so I thought I'd try and give you all an update! Lily graduated from preschool in May and will be entering kindergarten in the fall! She also graduated from her "food class" and has been trying all kinds of new foods using the skills she was taught so that has been wonderful. She also got a chance to go to camp at church this summer and not only did she get to learn more about God, play games and have amazing worship, but the kids (K-6) got to make over 31,000 meals for orphans, give $1600 to help w/the meals, made 59 blankets for the homeless and packed 250 backpacks w/school supplies for the low income kiddos in the city! Who said that kids can't make a difference?!

We've also been enjoying our summer, playing outside, hitting the park and pool as often as we can. Both girls love going to the library so we continue to load up on books every couple of weeks and read them whenever we can. Jasmine's still into everything and seems to get faster every day. She and Lily love being together and playing together, although they do have some normal sister moments as well.

Our house guest moved out back in April right before my surgery, I think. She's found a job, a car and a little apartment and is doing well for the most part. It was really neat to see God provide for her and her little daughter.

I had my knee surgery mid-April and that turned out to be quite the miraculous experience. I feel blessed because I've seen a few miracles in the past couple of years and this was no exception. My MRI back in Jan. showed pretty extensive damage to my ACL, cartilage, tissue and some arthritis as well. Jim & I had been asking for prayer from our small group and the ministry teams at church for healing for my knee right up until the surgery. My surgeon told Jim that my knee looked great and that the cartilage was "healing itself." There was no sign of the arthritis or any other tissue damage....everything was in fantastic condition except for my ACL which they were able to repair with no issues. He said I would make a full recovery and that has been true. My knee has been doing great and I'm almost ready to be discharged from physical therapy. BTW, in case you didn't know, cartilage doesn't "heal itself." I wonder who did that?! ;-)

We also had the chance to go on a much needed vacation to Austin, TX back in May after school ended. Why, Austin? Funny you should ask! The purpose of our trip was two-fold. One, to get a much needed (but affordable) vacation and the second was to check out the city as we've been feeling like God might be moving us there. I've held off posting anything about this because we've been praying and feeling led for a while that God was leading us up to a big change but until a few months ago, we weren't really sure what or where that was. We are continuing to pray that through but thought that if we could get a little rest and affordable relaxation while checking things out, maybe we'd get some further insight as to where God was leading us. The best thing, for me, about our trip was seeing God in all of the details from providing financially for us to go, to the route we took and everything in between. I LOVE that God loves to be in the tiniest of details in our lives! How many times do we go throughout life and miss those little details and nuances that add layers of joy to whatever we're going through because we realize that God cares to the tiniest degree? People might think I'm nuts but I don't want to miss those details!!!

So our trip started out with us praying about God helping us to pay cash for a vacation and wouldn't you know it but within a few days, God had given us all kinds of ideas and reminded me to check some different hotel rewards cards for free nights. We ended up w/3 free nights of hotels and an all cash, driving vacation! Yea God! We spent time plotting a route through KS and OK through AAA and a few days before we left, a friend who's from Austin, gave us a different route to go. We decided to go for it and boy am I glad we did! It saved us 1 1/2 hours of driving time each way AND it kept us out of Oklahoma City which ended up having a huge tornado hit the day before we would have arrived. Once again, God provides!

The girls did great on the trip. We hit a few garage sales before the trip and bought some inexpensive little toys and books and things for them to do in the car. Between that, movies, books on tape and stops every 2 hours, they did amazingly well. Jim & I had some great conversations about his career and we continued to talk and pray about whether God is leading us to Austin or not. Once there, we had a great time checking out different neighborhoods, while finding some beautiful parks and pools to take the girls to. We also were able to go to a famous waterpark nearby called the Schlitterbahn as well as check out Sea World in San Antonio a few days later. Jim got a chance to talk w/one of the former pastors of our church that planted a church down in Austin last year and chat about his journey to Austin. I was able to chat w/a precious friend that recently moved back to TX about 1 1/2 hours from where we were. All in all it was a wonderful trip and we can't wait to see what and where God leads!

Since we've been home, we've seen God affirm us moving to Austin (in a variety of ways) but are waiting for Him to open some very large doors (i.e. job and renting &/or leasing our home) before we make any solid plans. We are trusting Him to blow open the doors if we're meant to go or else keep them solidly shut, if we're not. We just desire to be wherever He wants us because His plans are always way better than ours! We appreciate your prayers for us during this time. This is potentially a HUGE change for our family and we don't want to do anything that God doesn't want us to do. We love you all and hope to have more information for you soon!