Before I move on...

My plan is to begin working on the Africa pics maybe tonight but for sure sometime tomorrow. However, before I do there are a few things I want to share. I almost just said no, I don't have the energy for that and I am going to forget about it but there were a lot of things that I had to deal with while Aaron was gone and our God saw me through every single incident and out of it all came so many reasons for me to give Him praise and so that is why I share this.

The night before Aaron and Elleigh left we received a phone call from the guy whose mom owns the house we live in. His mom had died the night before. For those of you who do not know the story, the lady who owns the house was in the nursing home and had been for years and because all her money had run out they had to put her on Medicaid to keep her in the nursing home which meant they could not make a profit on the rental of this home. So, they were looking for someone to live here and keep things up, pay the insurance, and to pay the biggest expense which was the property taxes and they found us. It has been a tremendous blessing to us. The house is old and it does seem that there is constant small repairs but I am still in awe every time I think about this house literally falling into our laps. We were living in a less than 700 sq foot house on campus with 3 children and although I have wonderful memories of that house and most of all our neighbors we were literally busting out. One month after moving into this house we found out we were pregnant with Millie. This house is not huge but it is plenty large enough for all of us and we are just beyond thankful for it. Moving on, because she is now deceased Medicaid will make a claim on this house. Aaron has 9 months left in school so the thought of moving is not a great one and on top of that there is really nothing out there for us right now. With that said, we do know that the Lord will provide somewhere for us to live if it comes down to that. But I will admit I was pretty upset that he was about to leave the country and there was a lot of uncertainty about how long we had to get out of this house.

Fast forward to Tues. We were having a good day. I had decided we were just going to have fun and make the best of our time without A and Ell. We played outside until late that afternoon and when we came in I noticed that it felt a little warm in the house. I thought well we are just hot from being outside but I soon knew that was not the case. The compressor for the AC was not running at all. I remembered that had happened before so I checked all the breakers and nothing was tripped and I thought maybe it is just frozen up or whatever so I turn the unit off for a while thinking that it will start back running. Wrong! It was so stinkin' hot! Wed morning (my birthday no less!) I get up and am hoping it will work. Wrong! So, I begin looking for someone to come look at it. Because of the arrangement we have we take care of these type of issues unless it goes over a certain dollar amount. I was cautious because I didn't want just anyone knowing I was heree alone and I didn't want to be taken advantage of. So, I called around and finally got some help. I had some storage boxes in the closet with the AC unit so I go in there to clean that out so that they can get to the unit and I pull the cord that connects the internet and strip the end of it so that it will no longer fit into the outlet which means no computer access for whenver A and Ell finally could contact me. I just sat in the floor and cried and cried and cried! I finally thought of duct tape and it is true that it will fix anything! I then learn that the compressor is not getting enough voltage so I have to call an electrician. The electrian comes later that afternoon and replaces a breaker and gets the AC going. However, he found a much larger problem. On the back of the house where the electrical lines connect to the meter base a limb had fallen on the power line and broken all of that at the meter base and it was hanging on my a telephone cable. So, everything out there had to be replaced. Lots of money! We could not go into the backyard and I was told that when it did break we would lose all power and it would be dangerous because there would be live wires on the ground. GREAT! So much for spending our days in the kiddie pool! Was it going to fall in the middle of the night and catch on fire? Were we going to have to move immediately? Well, the biggest issue was that I knew that the guy whose mom owns the house was not going to want to pay to have that fixed when they were about to lose the house. Very long story, kinda short, he came out and I helped him until 11:15 pm to stabilize it so that hopefully it would not all come down on the ground. Of course, we were taking our chances by being out there doing this. He got a couple more estimates and insurance agreed to file it as weather related. So, everything was finally fixed yesterday. We were without electricity most all day but it was worth the peace of knowing it was fixed and the girls being able to go back outside. The deductible was very high so I was still thinking he was not going to want to do this but we came to an agreement of splitting the cost 50/50. How long do we have to live here? We have no idea. Are we wasting our money by paying for that? Maybe, but we had to have a place to live and for now that was our only option. We feel like right now that it will take a long time (from what he has been told) to get everything done and then they have to sell the house and give the money to Medicaid so our prayer is that none of that will be completed before we have somewhere else to go and really preferably not before A finishes school.

It was just unreal to me that all this happened while A was out of the country and I am not sure how well I handled it all. I fell apart many times!!! I asked God, "why" many, many times! But, I did find strength and most of all I had to lean on the Lord because I couldn't lean on A. The Lord reminded me that I should always lean first on him. I also gained a whole new appreciation for single women.

Like I said there were so many things to be thankful for:

My friend Kim called me the day everything was unfolding and she called me back to say that she and her mom would like to take us to the "cool" (we were still without AC at the time) restaurant of my choice to celebrate my birthday. This was such a blessing to me!

Our Seminary family was very gracious to check on us and make sure that we were safe and to offer assistance.

Our friends and family called to check on us A LOT! This always means a lot. They listened to me cry A LOT! My sisters took the time to talk to me over and over and over! My friend Shannon called me one night in the midst of all this and we had a great time talking and it was a distraction for me.

I am so thankful that the guy whose mom owns the house was willing to come out and help me in any way possible. He did not have to do this and I am very thankful for his generousity.

Through all of this and just with A and Ell being gone in general we had tons of people and their churches praying for us. Though things did not go as I would have planned for them to God was there every step of the way for me.

There were times (especially when we were HOT) that I was on edge with the girls but I had more patience with them in the 2 weeks they were gone than I ever have and I know it was because of the many many prayers for us.

I know this was a very long post but as I have said before it helps me so much to look back on times like this and say, "yes, HE saw me through it as HE always does" so I wanted to document this. Also, when I start to freak out over whether we have somewhere to live or not I need to be reminded that it will all work out!

Africa pics coming really soon!

Home at last!

A and Ell made it to Red Springs Saturday morning around 1:30 am. I have never been so excited at that time of the morning!!!

They had a few snags but they made it. They only came back with one check bag because their other bag did not make it. The airline does have it though so hopefully they will deliver it today. The other team members did not get any of their luggage and 2 of them got bumped from the flight leaving Africa so...

Sat morning Elleigh woke up with a stomach ache and after throwing up she felt much better. She was really tired of course but she felt better. A began to get sick shortly after and he was pretty much in bed all day on Sat. He had chills, fever, aches, headache. Of course, my first thought was great, he has malaria! I was not sure how he would preach on Sunday. Well, I knew he would just do it but I prayed that he would be better and he was. He is still not full force but I am sure that will take a while.

I had said that there were 6 decisions for Christ in the last post but actually there were 7!!! Also, we had 2 decisions at GA camp (with Red Springs) and 3 from VBS so yesterday was a wonderful day of rejoicing in those decisions!!!

A and Ell have lots of stories to share and they took around 800 pics so I will have to have them help me on deciding what to put on here or stories they might want to share. We will get something up soon. I am a little scared to mess with those pictures because I put the memory card in that had VBS pics and somehow most of them have disappeared. Not the way to start my morning! I also took a great picture of Aaron and Elleigh yesterday and Ell had on her African jewelry and it is gone. I have no idea what happened. I can get a copy of the pics from VBS but they are not mine! So, all of that to say I would be beyond upset if I lost the Africa pics!

Wonderful things are happening!

I have been able to talk to A and Elleigh some. We have not been able to Skype very much because of the time difference and being able to catch each other but we have corresponded through e-mail. Praise God for Elleigh's ipod because that is what they are using to communicate with me!

The team was able to do a worship service yesterday and around 20-25 attended and 6 people prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour!!!

They meet today with the chief of the Mblantu people as well as the town council. The purpose of this is to talk through their plans and to make sure they do not do anything that would be unacceptable to them. It is very important that they have a good relationship with these people so that they continue to work there.

This all makes everything I could have possibly had to do on my own worth every minute! I have LOTS to tell but I just don't have it in me right now. I will share after A and Ell are home and I have about a full day to recap!!!

For our travelers

They are there

This was a comment posted on the blog early this morning from A. They are supposed to contact me through Skype but so far nothing so hopefully soon. I was so proud to see this so that I knew they were there.

His comment:
if you look close at the time i missed by about an hour. we had no internet when we first got here, but this morning we do. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL!! I hate i missed it yesterday. I tried several places. All is well here. 3 days of travel have left us tired, but Ostrich steak last night did seem to help. we currently have no power and Elleigh has not seen a blow dryer in a few days. we are here safe and starting out our day though we are not sure what time it is. i have gotten 3 different times from two different clocks and then a lady who works here, but my watch is still US time so i know what time it is there. well gotta go. love you all and i will try to find out when we will be able to contact you.Love A & Ell

I have to laugh at the hair dryer part. Elleigh's hair (and mine) is so wavy so if we allow it to air dry it is not pretty! But, I laughed because as Elleigh was packing I told her to wear this with with this, etc and she looked at me and said, "Mama, I am not going to Africa to look pretty!" So true but she knows she better be looking presentable no matter where she is! That reminds me. Last week at VBS they had crazy shirt night and she said, "do they know my mama, I don't have any crazy shirts!" I love that girl!!!

THE Day!

Just a normal Monday at DFW except for the fact that I dropped off my 12 year old and my man to fly to Africa! What was I thinking? HA!
Lizzie wanting to go inside the airport!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love these 2 people??? I have a feeling that I will love them even more when I see them in 2 weeks! They will be in flight for about 24 hours plus layovers so it will be a few days before they are actually on the field. Elleigh put her on some comfy clothes for the flight. She has to wear dresses once they are on the field.
Famous last words:

From Aaron: "I will pray for you, you pray for me."
From Elleigh: "Bye mama" (she was fighting back tears though!)
And from me: Nothing anyone could understand-just sobs

I am trying to be a big girl! Not sure that I am doing such a great job but I am trying!!!

We can never say thank you enough to everyone who made this possible for them. There are so many who have given in so many ways-financially, gifts of encouragement, your gifts of so many things that were needed for their travels, your prayers, and the list goes on and on. God has shown Himself over and over to us through this already and I know this is only the beginning. All the preparation is over, now it is time for them to do what God has called them to do!

Not sure what I am doing!

This will probably be my only post this week so I thought I would do a short post so you will know we are okay.

First, Sallie is back to 100%! Lots of stored up energy!!! So good to have her feeling well!

Elleigh is teaching 3rd grade at VBS this week so I am busy trying to help her with different things for her class. For instance she currently has me drawing rain drops. I can not draw! I can come up with ideas all day long but I am not an artist!

I am trying to get 2 people ready to be out of the country for 2 weeks as well as myself prepared for them to be out of the country! WHEW! We are going to a wedding this weekend in Oklahoma City so I have to have everything ready by Friday because we will go from OK City to Red Springs and then back here Sun nt for them to leave Monday. Speaking of Africa, Lizzie said this past weekend (all in one breath), "Daddy, I will miss you to Africa Ell Bell bring me a prize!" She is too much! Am I really going to let my baby go to another country without me? I still have not signed that form saying he can take her out of the country so... Just kidding. I am very excited for her. I know she will never be the same.

Have a great week!

NOT Coincidental

It has been a trying and tiring week! Sallie has of course been sick all week and it has just been one of those weeks when nothing seemed to go right and the other girls weren't getting enough of me because Sallie was occupying so much of my time and they were showing it and by today it had really caught up with me. We have not had good rest in a week and lots of stress and this morning I just felt like I could not go on. Sallie still showed no improvement and I was thinking we were going to have to take her back to the Dr. She was still in a lot of pain which breaks my heart. I think if a complete stranger had walked in and offered help I would have taken them up on it. Seriously! A bless his heart had to listen to me fall apart while he is trying to work. Of course the cry helped me some but later in the morning Millie brought me a little New Testament Bible and wanted me to read to her. I always just open it up and read wherever I open and this is what I read:

1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5

WOW! Am I still exhausted? Yes, but God amazes me over and over again. It was NOT COINCIDENTAL that this is what I read to Millie. The Lord knew just what I needed to be reminded of-HIS promises!

Sallie has begun to show some improvement this afternoon. Apparently because we went several days not knowing what was going on it got really bad and is taking some time to get it under control and because she was on antibiotics for 4 years straight it is often hard to get infections under control with her but she does not seem to be in as much pain. I could go on my tangent about the overuse of antibiotics but I will refrain! She is still running fever and uncomfortable but the intense pain does not seem to be as bad. She has shown no signs of a negative reaction to the medicine. Once again, PRAISE HIM! Please continue to pray that she will heal completely and that she will not have a reaction because often this will happen after they get a good bit of the meds in their system.

Sweet Sallie in the ER. She was SO sick. At least the pain meds had kicked in at this point and she was able to sit up which she was not able to do when she hurting. She literally was bent double and screaming. Not something even I would want a picture of!
Finally, a little smile this afternoon!!! I will take what I can get!

So much for the lazy days of summer on the deck!!! We haven't seen the sunshine this week! I know better than making "plans!" Maybe next week! I am fairly certain that we do hold a world record for the number of times we have watched High School Musical 3. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER! I am not sure I will ever get "The Boys are Back" out of my mind!

What time is it?

It is a little after 2 am and I am blogging! I am waiting for A and Sallie to come in from the ER so I thought I would take a minute to ask you to pray. So, we took Sallie to the Dr on Monday and since then she has not gotten any better. This afternoon she was crying really hard and bent double with pain. I gave her Motrin and got it under control. About 11:30 she was in lots of pain. A held her and prayed for her and after he got finished I just really felt that we needed to take her on the ER. I had suspected UTI at one point this afternoon but the pain did not seem to intesify when she would tee tee so I wasn't sure. I forget how scary the unknowns can be. I was reminded tonight. Each time I wonder if there is something we are about to discover that we didn't know before. I don't live in constant fear of that but when she gets sick and we are unsure I do struggle with that. I was revising my plan of action if I had to get to the hospital to be with them but thankfully I did not have to put that plan into action. They did some x-rays and urine culture and she does have an UTI (and also some constipation probably as a result of holding it because of the pain). She got a dose of bactrum in the ER and then we begin it at home tomorrow. Please pray that her body responds quickly to the bactrum and that she has no reaction to it. She has had an allergic reaction to bactrum years ago and then back a couple of years ago we had to try it again because the Dr couldn't get anything else to touch the UTI and we have to protect her one kidney. She has taken it one more time since then with no reaction. Please also pray that we do not get back in this cycle of her having frequent UTIs. THANKS!

You never know

You never know:
What kids will say next! I know I talk a lot about Lizzie and the funny things she says but she is just at that age and this is where I record those things I don't want to forget so now more from Lizzie!

Memorial Day we were headed back from Red Springs and she tells us she needs to potty. We stop and I take her and Sallie in. She gets in the bathroom and opens the stall and immediately starts saying (as she runs out the door), "I GOT TO GET OUT, I GOT TO GET OUT!" I can not stop laughing at her and she is running out into the store and I say, "Lizzie, come back" and her reply is (very loudly), "I don't like it! IT'S NASTY!" We are a little concerned at this point. I think we may have a Miss Monk on our hands. Her Aunt Rhonda is Mrs. Monk!

A couple of Sundays ago as we we were getting ready for church Lizzie comes to tell me that Mill Mill was dirty (her diaper). So, I tell her that we will change it in just a minute. Her response, "Lou (aka you) will change it, Daddy will preach!" I guess I got that! It was Sunday and Daddy would preach and only preach apparently!!!

Lizzie is very big on making sure she has everyone's gender correct. I am a woman, A is a man, the girls are all girls, oh and Millie is a girl baby (you know she is a whole year younger than Lizzie!). So, Saturday she tells A that he is a Man Baby! I thought that was pretty funny! We love our man baby!!!

Saturday we rode over to visit Millie (Millie's namesake) and after we left Lizzie said, "We saw Mrs. Mill Mill." It's all Mill Mill to her-no Millie!

Today she is going out the door on her bicycle and we tell her to come back in and she emphatically tells us that "she has to go to Old Navy!"

You never know:
What you might see on an afternoon country drive in Texas

Like CAMELS!

This one came right up to the fence and let A feed it some grass

Millie wanting to touch it but Lizzie scared it away screaming, "I don't like it!" I know you are all surprised!

Another oneYou never know:

Why your kids do this:

And again

You never know:

What you will get when you attempt a picture on Sunday morning while the girls are looking so cute and bright!

You never know:

If you should or shouldn't take your kids to the Dr! Sallie got sick on Friday night and it has been off and on all weekend but today she has been much worse. So today after A gets home she is burning up with fever and we couldn't get her to take Motrin which is very unusual for her. She loves medicine. She had pointed to her throat and head so I thought well maybe it is strep since she won't take her medicine. I am normally very much on the wait it out and see side because 9 times out of 10 it is a virus that just needs to run its course. But because of her not wanting to swallow I called and they said bring her on in. You guessed it-couldn't find a thing wrong with her. We assume viral! Bye bye $25! She was scheduled to be put to sleep tomorrow morning for some tests and we had to re-schedule because of the fever. You never know!

You never know:

Where the Lord may send you!

2 weeks from today I put my 2 oldest loves on a plane to Africa! PLEASE pray for the Mblantu people of Namibia. Pray that the team will be able to effectively minister to them and that they will be able to see Christ. Pray for the team-safety, focus, protection, health. Pray for those of us who are without our loved ones for that time. Most of all pray for lives will be changed through our Lord and Saviour!