Struggles For Faith

Some of you may remember these previous posts...

Monday, March 24, 2008
Well I have been debating about writing about this but all your prayers will help. A couple nights ago I was praying about the adoptions and I told God I knew he could do it in the blink of an eye and if he can do it in the blink of an eye then he could do it in 35 days (Aaron and Katie's wedding reception) which is like millions and billions of blinks of the eye, then it just like came to me Hope, Abagail's middle name is Hope!!!  It felt so good to know that God was listening and he does care and that we will be able to go as a family to the states now. There are a few reasons why I am telling you these things, 1 is for prayer that it might go through, 2 is that I feel like if I write this then it is like saying "God I do not doubt what you have said and I stand strong in it". So I ask you all to continually pray that these adoptions would go through before 35 days is up. I definitely believe it will happen or else I would not be writing this, all prayers help. Thanks Rachel,
 
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Thanks you guys for all the support and prayers (and comments), it means a lot. I am really confused and feel like a complete idiot and of course I'm extremely embarrassed that it didn't happen. I have no idea why the adoption is not done yet but I think maybe it is a test and like all the others, I hope I ace it. It's hard, because I am still sure he gave me that word, maybe I was just wrong about the timing, I don't know. I am really sorry to get your hopes up and then completely let you guys down....

At the time I was really confused and upset, and I sort of felt let down. And now I realize that it wasn't really about the adoptions getting done, it was about the lesson I would learn later. Faith isn't just believing that He can, but knowing that He will. And continuing to have faith, through the rough times, even when it's not His will to do something, it doesn't mean you give up. You accept it, you keep going in your faith. You have faith in Him with something else, and each time it's not His will, it gets harder for the next time, but you continue to have faith no matter what and it gets stronger. You grow. When it isn't His will you feel betrayed but sometimes it's not about the present problem, it's a test to help you grow stronger in your faith. Stronger for the next time when something harder comes along. It's hard to have faith, especially when you know there is a strong possibility that it's not His will. But you do, you believe, and things happen.

"...I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
                                  -Matthew 17:20

LIFE 2010

Well I just got back from the trip about a week ago! I went to Pennsylvania to spend 2 weeks with Adrienne and go to a youth conference with her church. It was amazing. I got there on the 1st and spent the first couple of days with Adrienne. We got ready and packed and got all we needed for the trip. Then on Monday morning everyone in the youth group (about 60 of us) got together and after praying over the trip, we all loaded up into the coach bus and started off for Kentucky. We stopped a couple of times along the way and went through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio then Kentucky. We spent the night in a church and then the next day we drove to the Creation museum (creationmuseum.com). The museum was really cool. Then at 1 we all headed to Louisville, to our hotel, out to eat and then to the Kentucky Exposition Center where LIFE was held. So there were seminars and sessions. The sessions everyone had to go to, and there were a lot of different seminars you could choose from. So the basic schedule was breakfast, session, seminar, lunch, seminar, supper, session. And you had some time in between each of those and that's when you could go to the activities hall. It was 4 full days. It was really really good. There were 6500-7500 teenagers depending on the day. The conference was for Alliance churches and missionaries. The worship was amazing and there were some really good sessions and seminars. It was a really good experience for me. I got to meet some new friends but it was so cool to be in one room with 6500 other kids my age, at one time, singing the same song, worshiping the same God!! So after the conference was over we drove through the night and got back to PA in the morning. I spent the rest of the week hanging out and doing fun stuff with Adrienne then we packed up and came home on the 16th. For some reason I can't get the pictures to upload...

Storm Agatha

Many of you have probably heard about Storm Agatha. It didn't affect us very much in our area but there are many bridges around the country out and some areas are islands. Here are some before and after pictures of the Rio Grande. Amazingly even though the water went up over the bridge it's still standing.

                                                                            Before

                                                                             After

                                                            
                                                                           Before

                                                                            After

 
                                                                            Before

                                                                              After

                                                                           Before

                                                                            After

Adoptions!

Ryan and Katie are here! It is so nice to have them here! They came on the 10th of April and have been settling in pretty nicely check out their blog, it's fickerfamusa.blogspot.com.

You probably heard already but Hannah is getting married! She is getting married to Matt Brouwer and they are planning on getting married in Houston on August 29th! We are super excited for her and planning the wedding!

And today we got Abi's birth certificate!!!! Grace and Abi are finally adopted!!! We have been a working on it for 4 1/2 years and it has been a struggle but it's done!! The adoptions are actually done! So now all we have to get are their passports and visas and we will be all set to go to the US!! We are pretty excited!

Enduro Race

The boys have been setting up the track for the Enduro Race for a couple of weeks. They set it up for Holy Week and just raced it last Saturday. It was fun and thankfully everyone is alive!! David won again and Joseph helped everyone on the mountain. There was no clinic for Holy Week so the girls got to see it this time too! Cali and I took pictures and she set up these collages of David and Joseph. David is in the first picture and Joe's is in the second.

A fellow missionary couple has become good friends with us. His wife was pregnant and was only 26 weeks along when they had their baby last night. Their baby girl weighed only 2 pounds. Dad and Mom flew her into the city to an intensive care unit but she did not make it. The Mom has lost a lot of blood, but is stable in the hospital in Quiche. Please pray for them and for her safety and health.

Time to update...

A lot has happened lately...

English class is going good. I am getting to know them and they are getting comfortable. They just finished their bimester (their semesters are every 2 months here) and passed. So now I know a little better what and how to teach them at their level. So that's good.

The Allisons came back down! They were a huge help! Don helped Mom in clinics and Lori caught up on all the financial stuff! Their kids are as sweet as ever and were a little sad to go. It was fun having them here again! They got here on the 18th of February and stayed for about a month.

Katie's parents came down and stayed with them for almost 2 weeks. They came to see their first granddaughter! They had fun and were sad to leave her. Then on the 15th Becca (Katie's sister) and Charissa (Katie's sister-in-law) came down! They were a lot of fun and really nice! The day they came in they gave the boys the movie they have been waiting for. Craig ordered the Romaniacs 2008 movie! They were so excited! It's been really hot lately so they decided to use the projector and use the side of the Pete (Peter-Built truck) as the screen! So they set it up and invited all of their motorcycle friends from town over. It was good actually, one of the only motorcycle races that I think is pretty cool.
So for 2 Wednesdays we went to the Rio Grande. To get there there are 2 ways you can go, the long way in a car or you can go on this path with motorcycles and 4-wheelers. It is really pretty and the first time we all went on the path. The first day it was really really hot so it was really nice, we swam a lot and the water was cool. The second time we had a picnic again and the weather was a lot cooler and a little clouded over so we didn't swim much. The river is big (hence the name) and pretty deep in some spots. So in the rainy season the river gets really high, and before there was a bridge they used this basket thing. It's just a cable strung across the bridge and it has a basket on it and you can pull yourself along easily. The basket was stuck in the middle so we tied a rock to a rope and threw it up to hook it on then pulled it to the side. Then of course all the boys took turns and rode across and back. So that was fun!

We are planning on postponing Easter until after Ryan and Katie come!! We can't wait!! They are coming on the 10th of April!! It will be so awesome to have them here! We are all really excited!