The Bestest Friends

We have such awesome people looking out for us and I just wanted to make a whole post bragging on them! Thank you, we are blown away!!

Some dear friends gave the girls Rosepetal Cottage and just about everything you could dream of to go with it! They are loving it and are pretty much inseparable from it. I have another picture of our entire living room full of all the bags of stuff you guys gave us for the new little guy too. We can't believe how generous you are.

Pajama Cottage Snacktime

Our amazing community group friends put this together as a surprise for us! Totally unexpected! You guys really know Gina, she's a sucker for all that lotion and sweet-smelling pampering stuff. Plus, STARBUCKS!! YUMM!!

Thank you everyone, you are a major encouragement in an uncertain time. You've helped us understand God's great love for us just a little bit more.

Picture post!

I was just looking through some older pictures and found some that i had forgotten to post :)

Laying in bed with tears soaking into my pillow I realized ... "I'm a 27 year old mother who is currently throwing a temper tantrum because I think my way is best. I really need a time-out." then I realized I had closed myself in my room and was laying in bed... I was in time-out. 

We've had our "plan" as to how this summer was going work out as far as employment. We had NO doubt in our mind that this was the way it was going to happen. Then one afternoon Ben found out that since our semester ended a bit later than a lot of schools his boss had to give the job to someone else. Just that morning I had a smile on my face as I told Ben, "whether our finances come from your job, our savings, a gift, or out of nowhere it's God who's giving it to us - so why worry?" Well, that attitude was much easier for me to keep when I "knew" he had a job. Was I actually putting my faith in God? Or was I placing my faith in myself and Ben? 

This change in plans forced me to realize that I knew the right attitude to have, but I hadn't let it get to my heart. The next day this article was posted on the New Tribes Mission website. Read it. She puts it so much better than I can. 

“I was an inexperienced tightrope walker who the Lord asked to, by faith, walk out with Him on the tightrope. And the clinic was my safety net.”

The clinic was Nikki's safety net, and Ben's job was mine. God's desire is that we trust Him and that we open up our sweaty, white knuckled fists and let Him take over every area of our lives. Right now He's asking that I trust Him with our finances, and I'm trusting that He has a plan. What areas will He ask me to give over to Him in the future? or maybe a better question - What areas am I clinging onto the reigns with all my might? He is worthy of our faith. He's the real safety net.

Romans 8:6-8 (NLT) - So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 

Just the right amount

Something awesome happened to us last week as we were getting ready to pack up for the end of the semester! It's baby-related and needs a little bit of backstory to communicate the full awesomeness so here goes:

For summer, we'll be living in the Springfield area, about an hour and a half from the New Tribes campus. A problem we've been debating is whether or not Gina should switch baby doctors. To switch to a Springfield doctor would mean paperwork, and uncertainty about which doctor we could get. To keep our current doctor would mean almost 2 hour drives for the checkup appointments.

One of the reasons we considered keeping the current doctor was that we could stay in our campus house for a while after he's born. Gina has already "nested" the house and it really has come to feel like home, and we really could enjoy some tranquil moments with just us and the new guy without other distractions there. The main problem with doing that is that it has felt like a "splurge" in a time when we don't feel like we can make unnecessary purchases.

Here's the really neat part - Gina had just hung up the phone, having called about the cost of rent for the week. It was going to be about $115-130. I went to straighten up the girls' room and found a suitcase on the floor that they had played with. Some of the contents had spilled out so as I was cleaning it up I realized that there were some envelopes from our Florida trip in January. I opened one envelope up and there were several cards from family and friends, with cash totaling $130!

We feel like this is a cool answer to prayer - being able to be in a place that feels totally "ours" is going to be really sweet for those first few days, when the little guy's brand new. Thanks for reading, I hope it's encouraging for you to read that God really does work in our lives every day. I know we personally need that reminder often!