Tears, Stress and Blessings

Over the past four weeks my days have been filled with many different emotions all wrapped up inside of me.  I have expericed that wonderful emotion of stress as we packed up our house hoping that it would all fit back into the trailer again.  Which I am happy to report that it did all fit and every thing arrived safe and sound without breaking anything.  I will admit that for some reason this step was very stressful and I found myself torn between packing and wanting to sit down and play with the children. My Isaac shares the same view with me as I sat down to tuck him in last night and he shared with me that life would sure be a whole lot easier if we could just skip the packing and unpacking stage.  A huge thank you goes out to my parents as they took the children for those last few days so I could focus on packing without having to be a parent at the same time. And to our church in Michigan as they came and helped us load the trailer in the rain.  Along with the stress came many tears as we said good-bye to my family and our all wonderful new friends that we made in Michigan.  Even know as I sit and write this blog the tears have started to flow again when I think about our past year and how God just blessed us not only with physical things but with many spiritual blessings for both Greg and I.  As a wife I had the most amazing year of witnessing my husband open his heart and allow God to work in his life and lead him through a year of growth that has completely changed how he shares his faith, his passion for serving with MAF, and how he leads his family.  Man can our God work when we are willing to let Him move within us!! For myself God blessed me with really teaching me that this is truly His work we are doing and that I am just His hands and feet.  This is another part where I shed many tears over as I would become so overwhelmed with this whole process (especially during VBS) as I had to just come to the point that I would tell God that I could not possible do this and then watch as He would step in and truly begin His work and I was only a bystander.  Now we have arrived here in Nampa and of course more stress with unpacking but first came the tears as God provided a place for our family to live in.  Just picture me walking through a house that was completely furnished (remember we came with no furniture) with everything that we could have asked for.  Like desk for all the children as we are home schooling the children, to a kitchen completely setup already, and all the beds were made ready for a family to use them.  Now to a woman who has just packed up, said goodbye to friends and family, traveled to Canada for a week of intense visiting, and had be trying to entertain the children through many hours in a truck I was just unprepared for how God provided within two days!!  Then to top it all off I started Franklin's first day of school (we are waiting for Isaac's and Jaclynn's books to arrive) today as we are having him repeat grade four because of how far behind he still is with his reading and writing.  This year we want Franklin to be able to do most of the reading by himself as I did most of the reading for him last year.  Today I sat down with him and he was able to do most of the reading by himself with me as we took turns reading paragraphs!! Yes, I am still crying but they are still tears of joy as most parents will agree it is very hard watch one of your children struggle with something for so long and to finally see answers to prayers begin to happen before you is amazing.  Thank you for all of your prayers for Franklin concerning this and please keep praying that he will not become overwhelmed with how hard he has to work at his schooling.  And thank you for all your prayers throughout out this very busy month.

Julie