WE'RE ALMOST THERE!!
Is this real life!? Thank you, thank you, thank you for your gifts and support!!! I cannot believe there are only three digits up there. This is insane. You guys are ridiculous and God is so, so good.
On top of that incredible news, Travel Approval (TA) could literally come any day now. I feel like it's waiting for your water to break... you know it's coming but you don't know when.
While we wait, I have been doing two things:
1) Purging the house like a possessed Roomba vacuum, systematically covering every square inch of the house like a machine.
- I may have gone a little overboard... as in, I created a map on how I would methodically go about doing said purge on half a piece of posterboard... and (cough, cough) may or may not have been giving myself gold stars as I complete each checkpoint (I think I have a problem). This is what nesting looks like when you don't have an 8-month pregnant belly in the way to slow you down.
- Right now, the packing list looks like a Jackson Pollock painting but on an Excel spreadsheet; tips, suggestions, and must-haves literally thrown and splattered from A1 down to row 64 and all the way over to column W (who ever gets all the way over to column W??? Don't answer that, accountant friends). There is a method to my madness, however, because I plan to purge that list down to the essentials after all the research is finished.
I continue to rollercoaster through feelings of excitement and fear, but the Lord has been so kind to me through His Word in the mornings. I just started Exodus today and was in awe at Moses' mother's bravery, placing him in the very river that Pharoah had condemned all other baby boys to die in, only to have him float down to the arms of the daughter of the man who originally issued that terrible decree. (Exodus, chapters 1 and 2). Her faith amazes me and is also what included her (and her husband) in the list of "greats" in Hebrews 11.
Sometimes God asks us to do what we're most afraid of, what seems most illogical, to both carry out His plan and prove to us His faithfulness.
God changed the entire course of history for the Hebrews through Moses and freed them from centuries of slavery and bondage... what would have happened if Moses' mother didn't have the courage to walk up to the river that represented death at that time and willingly place her little boy in it?
What would have happened if Abraham hadn't willingly placed Isaac on the altar?
What would have happened if God himself, hadn't willingly placed Jesus on the cross?
To be honest, what we're doing doesn't feel anywhere near as sacrificial as the examples above but God has been pointing out to me that I don't know His plan - for me, or my family, or for Benjamin - but He does. And this is part of it. And obedience (even if it's fearful obedience) is what He asks of me to flesh out that plan.
As scary as that may be, I am in awe that the perfect God of the universe with powers beyond my imagination allows imperfect me to be part of His master story, not because He has to but because He loves me that much to include me in it.
God reveals Himself to us when we surrender ourselves to Him because it's only in those moments that we realize God is God and we are not.
And, ironically, it's in those moments that we also realize not that God is mean, unreasonable, or unloving, but that God is good. Even in the midst of pain or fear, we finally see Him as a Father, a kind and loving and merciful Father. And that He has always been worthy of being followed.
One step at a time.
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If you're interested in helping us close the $834 gap left in our fundraising efforts, 1) I want to give you the biggest bear hug ever and 2) you can go here to do that! 💛💛💛
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