Today we went on a bike ride in the forest preserve and I was reminded of our prayer requests when we left for Indonesia the first time. We asked so many people to pray for me because I do not do well in heat. I got sick on the bike ride and praise God that JM decided to come with us because I think I would have had some serious issues. I have serious problems with heat and on our bike ride, my body went into hyper hot mode and I felt sick. We probably stopped a couple few times for me to take a breather in the shade, dry heave/throw up or to pour water over myself to help cool down. It was kind of crazy, but as I was sick through this, I told JM how the whole time we were in Indonesia, I never had these heat issues. The Lord listened to everyone's prayers of me staying healthy from the heat while I was over there.
One thing that I'm really enjoying about being back in the states is the longer sun hours. In Indonesia we got the sun almost exactly 12 hours, 6am - 6pm. Tonight as I drove home I couldn't believe how bright and sunny it was. I told A that when we got home she had to go to bed and she said, "but it's not night time yet." ha ha... The sun makes me happy although too much of it makes me sick. :)
I know a lot of you out there are still wondering what I'm doing back or what my plans are and how we are going to survive, so I thought I would answer some of those questions tonight before I go to bed.
The Lord has been tugging at my heart toward counseling for a while now and I feel now is a great time for me to dive in and start what the Lord has planted in my heart and feel called at this particular time for this next chapter. As I have gone through counseling and still do go to counseling, I find such freedom in who I am in Christ and freedom from all the chains that satan tries to tie me up in. So my heart longs to be a part of people's process in becoming free from bondage, lies and hurts that are too deep to want to dive into.
Some have asked if I left because it was too hard there... That is not the sole purpose of me coming back, but I can't say that it did not have some pull into the decision. I have a lot of support here. My support was limited there. I do desire to find what the Lord has for ERP, not what E and P had. If the Lord leads me back to the work later, then I know that He's calling me and I'm not going to complete a certain task. I will be going to do God's will not finishing what P started... ERP needs to find herself in a sense.
I will be starting summer school June 13th. I have a class I need to take, I may even have to take two, so we'll see what happens. I pray that we will be able to move into our condo this weekend if not mid week next week. God has sent me a great family of believers that care deeply for me and have been helping me with this place. I pray and please pray with me that God will bless them all 100 fold...
My goal for the next years while I'm in school doing classes and internships is to be a student and a mom. I really want to work with what I have to be at home with A as much as I can. That may mean that we don't do a lot of what we used to do (like traveling and eating out) and cut some costs here and there, but I feel me being at home is so much more important than all those things that it's okay to live minimally if need be. I remember a friend from FL who helped with life insurance stuff e-mailing me and reminding me what P said as we were setting up the life insurance... "I want you to be taken care of if anything happens to me." And that's what he's doing... P's taking care of us even though he is not here.
It's been an adjustment coming back to the states and it will continue to be... I still catch myself looking for the gear to the car on the wrong side... I catch myself speaking the wrong language to people... it's kind of crazy and those are just the little things... Please continue to pray for us as we adjust and reconnect with people... We need to find our niche and A and E now...
We really appreciate everyone's love and prayers and continue to covet them in the weeks, months and years ahead of us.
