Back to School is upon us...

School starts in a little over a week, and we need to get ready.

Tomorrow we hit their next school year prep books with a strict schedule just like a school week. Play time is a reward for successful learning time. Video games or tv are a timed activity that can’t happen in the same day. We don’t have access to some of their learning websites, but books and review of last year’s homework will do perfectly.

They are all so excited about going back to school that this week of school prep was exciting for them. They are a little bummed that going back to school means less pool time, and less video games, but they really miss school. Yay! We parents are so thrilled to hear that!!!!!

So back to school is more than school shopping for this family. Its time to hit the homework and new grade work books so that their brains are not only mush when the teachers try to get them thinking again.

I know my brain was mush after I finished my summer class, its like a switch that says thinking can turn off and on. I wonder if we are hard wired to take ‘the path of least resistance’ when school breaks means that other people or systems can think for us?

Anyway, it’s back to getting those gear moving, and expanding intelligence horizons for this international family.

Hoping your summer was AMAZING!!, and I would love to hear some fun stuff you did.

We spent days in the mountains, splashed in pools and rode slides in a Water park. Now we got the sillies out, and are ready to get back to full time learning.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Unto the Lord Overcomes Doubt

So yeah….preachy as it may be, it’s the truth.

Doing everything as unto the Lord is a perfect tool for overcoming doubt.

I was totally stumped a week ago while trying to do something that I do every day. I write. I write well enough that I barely have to edit my school papers, and I still get an A. I write to our staff and its natural and easy, not perfect but not difficult. It’s usually very easy for me to fill up a page with words and letters.

But last week I was totally stumped. I was an emotional train wreck crying, missing my husband who was hard at work in Africa, and loosing sleep. I had to try to pull myself together, or admit that I wasn’t able to get that letter done properly at the time that I wanted to get it done.

It was basically due right away. I learned that I needed to write a letter and send it asap. I didn’t do well. Usually, I do fine under pressure, but that was pretty bad. So, today as I took a few minutes here and there to work between a family hang out day (special 'during the week' family fun day because our meemaw was in town yesterday and today - and she needs to see her great-grankids!) we still had work to get done though. In between my sister doing haircuts, and my mom and meemaw playing with the baby and boys, my hubby and I snuck away to our computer and phone to connect with our team on the ground in Chimoio. Lots of talking, lots of chatting, and lots of laughing! We love our team! It’s great to have amazing people connecting with us and sharing our vision for the kids at the center, and for our hearts to love the lost and share Jesus.

Well, everything was crossed off my list – except one thing. I really needed to try again on that letter. I hate turning in things late – homework, office work, ministry work, you name it. Turning in something late is uncomfortable. How can we know what the response will be? I don’t. I sent in my first draft maybe ‘on time-ish’ but it was stinky. This was going to be better. I could feel it. My hubby is home, so I have stopped crying….I was crying just because I missed him. Seriously, I love him. Love being with him, ministering with him, raising our kids with him, having team meetings with him, having team conference calls with him, love discussing things with him and ....well you get the picture. It’s my preference that we do life, ministry and fun together.

Even though my hubby was near by, I still felt a bit unsure of how to try again. So I started my Word document with an unappealing attempt that got cut up and deleted . I stopped and typed my prayer. I have always loved writing or typing prayers, but this was a little different than asking for help.

I just wrote:

Dear Jesus,

If I was writing this letter to you, I would know exactly what to write.

Then I wrote the letter. When I was done, I changed the ‘who to’ and took out that first line.

Here's why it worked to overcome my doubt about a response from the person receiving the letter:

When I’m talking to someone or writing to someone who I know is thrilled to read my letter because they are absolutely, passionately in love with me then there is no doubt showing up in my letter. My words come across clear and concise – sometimes concise, I am pretty wordy. I’m less rambley writing to Jesus because I know that he knows. I don't have to try to explain. He already knows. I am more confident because I’m not trying to sell my abilities, skills or vision, I am telling him that I agree with his heart of the matter. His love makes my abilities shine, his love refines my skills. His Holy Spirit gives me vision! It’s not a matter of explaining who I am and what I'm doing, but that I understand why I am doing what I'm doing.

I am not explaining anything to Jesus that he doesn’t already know, I’m telling him that I am excited about his dream for my life. I am happy to tell him what I can see on the path that he put in front of my feet. It’s not about me getting things right and shiny and perfect. It's about me thanking him for being with me as I go forward. It’s changes what I'm doing to be Jesus focused, not me focused. It's ultimately me loving Jesus in other people that overcomes doubt. I don’t have to worry what people will think of me. Those who love Jesus will bear witness with my heart for them and our beautiful savior. Those who don’t yet know Jesus will be drawn closer to him.

Its simple! Loving Jesus helps us love people – all people.  When in doubt, fix your eyes on Jesus. It doesn’t have to take hours and hours, it can take a simple line in a letter that redirects your attention to the lover of your soul. It can take an instant to change a dreaded task into a triumphant victory – no matter the present outcome. By fixing our eyes on Jesus we successfully love the people around us. That is the greatest outcome! Its an eternal one.

Our God is practical! Never wasting a moment. Never losing ground. He is always loving each one of us. He is always gently drawing us closer to him. If we look for Him in every little detail of our lives,  we will always find him. That’s a promise.

Just think - Doing life for Jesus and to Jesus removes doubt that can muddle up normal thinking and processing. It really will change everything in our lives that needs changing. One detail at a time, one thought, prayer, letter, or deed turned towards Jesus is transformed into a loving, kind reflection of Christ to the world around us. As we love Jesus more and more people will keep falling deeper in love with Jesus and his beautiful bride. Lets be that beautiful bride. That’s the whole point! We all want to be desperately and totally loved!

We want to hear Song of Songs poetry written to us about being ravished by our beloved. We want to be lost in the one who calls us his dove. We want to be his favorite.

We are.

No doubt about it! We are totally, completely and perfectly loved! That’s good news worth sharing!

Lots and lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Sundays are family Fun days

Sundays are for family, but I didn’t know how it was going to work out for us to get together. Our plans got thrown out the window when my middle son woke up with a fever for the second day in a row. We had to cancel driving up to church, and driving down to Arvada for our family get together at my sister and brother-in-law’s apartment.

We did end up hanging out though. They decided it was better for them to come over to gramma and grampa’s house. That worked out nicely since that’s where we are staying too. Gramma and Grampa’s massive house (we think its big) is split nicely between the floors as if it is apartments. We have a lovely space upstairs that is about the same size as a comfy apartment. They don’t use that bit of the house either. So that’s perfect.

Anyway, our family fun time did happen! My middle guy was able to rest while his cousins and two brothers played together outside. We spent hours in the shade of our big trees in the backyard, and he spent hours resting with inter-mitten hang time with his cousins.

My sister and I sat with our mom at a pretty little iron table under a tall cotton wood (it’s cottonless – thankfully) Gramma asked us if we wanted to start over at a new house with no trees. We all laughed. They did try selling this house for a long time in 2013 and 2014. It was on the market off and on for a few months at a time but it didn’t sell. They felt like it was better not to sell after we told them that we were going to have an extended furlough in the US. They offered the upstairs floor of their home to us rent free for a year. That was an amazing offer. We thought we were going to spend about a year or 18 months in Colorado. We were super happy to stay with my parents.

Then, to our delight (sarcastic delight, but ended up being delightful) we found out that the Green Card process for my hubby was going to take a LOT longer than that. It all seemed kinda difficult to understand. We knew Jesus had directed us to spend some time in the US. We felt like he didn’t give us a solid time frame, but the Green Card was supposed to take a max of 18 months for us since we are missionaries. That changed. Our blessed friends who were able to get a Green Card in under 18 months started the process before the Immigration laws changed in 2014. We started his process about 2 weeks too late for the expedited process. Our family has been here just over 18 months, minus our trip to Europe last summer, and Mozambique just now.

We don’t know exactly how long we are going to be here, but we are blessed to have a tiny rent with our parents, and a good school for our kids while we go through this process of waiting and changing. We knew that God was speaking to us about me finishing my Bachelors degree while we are spending time in the Us to get my hubby a Green Card. Our spiritual parents and pastors gave us similar prophetic words and advice. We’ve been married for what seems like forever, but never lived in the US -  until now. That looked weird to the immigration officers. They asked if my hubby likes the US. We told them we live in Africa. They let us know it was important for us to go ahead and get a Green Card, and after he has it we can live where ever we want again. We had previously stayed in the US for less than six months at a time . My hubby had a visitor visa that allowed him to stay for six months. We did a bunch of interviews with immigration officers and learned that that would not work anymore. They said that protocol would only allow him to renew a visitor visa so many times. The Green Card was the next step. He needs a Green Card – not to start a career here or to relocate permanently here, but in order to have good standing with the US immigration office. We scratched our heads, did research, and wondered why? We knew it was going to be a change of lifestyle, but were informed that after about 3 years he should have a Green Card and not be restricted to living the majority of the year in the US.

In the meantime, God spoke to us a lot about our sons’ education, and furthering mine and my husband’s education.  We’ve both done different ministry classes online. I’m furthering my formal education. I have had to add a few classes into my degree plan, so I’m not finished with my 

Bachelors, but I am already looking into Masters programs. I wanted to get into a Master’s program after I finish my BA, but I didn’t imagine that we could spend the time it requires in the US. Well, our time frame has changed. It looks like I can finish my BA and more. My hubby can get a Green Card and we can travel to Mozambique as needed now that he has ‘advance parole’. He even has a social security number.

Our plans got thrown out the window. They were very flexible anyway. But we have seen how God works out all the details to be a major blessing! We’re so so blessed to have such an amazing growing team on the ground in Mozambique. We hear from our team and have leadership meetings via Skype or other social media every week. We have great people on the ground loving our kiddos and leading important projects. We are finding out that we need more time in the US as little things, like a Green Card, and BA and MA Degrees require more time than we initially thought. We are settling into a life here in Colorado, and continuing to lead the Iris Chimoio ministry base at the same time. Its working. Its different from other ministry bases, but it’s working. The stories we have to tell. I better save that for tomorrow. The plans that God has are working out so much better than ours!

Just like today’s plans got thrown out the window, but everything worked out better than we thought it could. We did end up getting to hang out with family and have our fun day. The ladies manned the grill, while the men worked on a car. The kids kept the fun level to a high, and we all ate to our hearts content. My middle guy joined us for our meal, and then they all watched important gaming videos on you tube together. My sister and I even got to sing our favorite duet together, and in worship to our good God who loves to bless us with family time, fun, and fellowship; here is our duet:

We love how God sees the big picture. We were stretched today in little details, like sorting out the fire on our dad’s grill. But it worked out fine. Sometimes it’s better to lay down our plans and ask God for a better one. He has a perfect plan. He loves to walk with us on the path. He loves to surprise us with fun times, and answered prayers.

I was praying for a special time to sing with my sister. Most of the time when we are together, the hours are full of cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids and a little humming together. Today we got to sing our hearts out. Hope you enjoy. The song is saying how wonderful our Lord is, and how we adore him.

Lots of love and Blessings,

Missionary Momma Mia

Blurgin'

Random unimportant silliness....purposeful mistakes

Thinking on paper? not really in Word...that's why it is better to blurg in moments like these.

It’s better to blurg sometimes. Then it can be some silly list, or two half sentences spaced really far apart. It can also be random nonsense that is basically practicing using a keyboard and using proper grammatical structure.

In blurging there are no concerns about being redundant or boring, because it can be four words. Its just so much easier to edit a blurg. So many times when I am writing a serious blog, I get bogged down by my own wordiness. Next thing I know, I have to write nothing or next to nothing.

But in the sport of keeping a daily blog, I will post a blurg that talks about nothing. So here it is, Nada, and by the way I’m totally following this with a list!

*I’m excited that my husband is coming back to Colorado soon. Hope that all works out really well.

*He has so much to do, so I hope and pray that he can see what is urgent and ignore the other stuff so that he can breath in yummy African air.

*I’m thrilled that my oldest son had a blast at Adventure camp.

*I’m super happy that I’m finally catching up on spending time with my lil sister and her kiddos, but then I want to spend more time with them. Time to plan a weekend in the mountains or something cool. Movie. Hike, camp out….hum

*my other sister is coming here soon too! but I miss the whole bunch. Must video call more

*what else? What goes on this list. I could probably make a list about other things like FASFA, University appointments, and homework, also can’t leave out reports and stuff.

*we need to get these missionary kids to Water World or Six flags. I was Jonathan’s age the first time I remember going to Six flags over Texas. I went before, but 11 was epic!

That’s enough words for a blurg. I know I need to get back into the habit of writing and editing, but not tonight. I will go back and fix things later. 

Hugs and Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia 

Suitcases are finally Unpacked

Well it’s personal news, and it’s not riveting. It is a small victory for me. I finished unpacking two suitcases. I put the clean clothes on hangers or in drawers. Then I put the small suitcase inside the medium suitcase, zipped them shut, and put them in the bottom of the linen closet.

My room is a lot closer to organized, and I’m a happy camper. I don't always have suitcases on the floor of my bedroom.

The boys room is nice and clean. It was a productive mommy day. I didn’t get all the ministry work done that I had on my list, but I did get lots of ministry work closer to done along side mommy work. Then there are meals that we all need to prepare and eat. So, in between cleaning bedrooms and a little bathroom scrubbing, we ate yumminess that gramma baked, and yumminess that the boys and I made all together for lunch and dinner.

It’s a pretty good day. Productive in the house keeping way. Not my favorite department in life, but I am very satisfied with neat organized bedrooms, and very proud of our kiddos. We are proud of our kids at the center when their rooms are clean and neat. Lots of people think that they have to clean up for their children. Not us. With soooo many kiddos (3+ all our Iris Chimoio kiddos) we understand we can’t clean up for them, but we do clean up with them. The kids at the center, along with my awesome hubby and staff had the center spick and span for an inspection from the social services. It was wonderful! The inspection team was so proud of our kids and staff that they took pictures! They loved it! That was my hubby's best day in Mozambique without me so far.

It’s funny that I said this house keeping isn’t my favorite life department, but it is actually one of the things I really enjoy, just not my favorite. I love the mommy stuff, the cleaning is a HUGE part of that. I like to pretend that it doesn’t take as much housework so I can feel more like a career woman, but I am a missionary momma. That’s basically what my job is. I run a household budget and a bigger household budget. My hubby organizes logistics and inventory for our family and for our much bigger Mozambican family. Its more than number crunching, shopping, praying, crying , making sure kids are healthy and in school. We love bragging on our children, we do our share of worrying and handing our worries over to Papa God. We do our share of praying over them, teaching, playing, and correcting. We also get lots of giggles, hugs, yummy meals together, dances, achievements, and victories. Sometimes I need to celebrate small victories.

Today my small victory is unpacking suitcases. The other stuff was normal daily life for a missionary momma, and although a few people have asked me if I was a professional traveler, I don't consider myself a pro.  Unpacking is not a part of my normal daily, weekly or monthly routine. For some missionaries it is, I’m more of the home body than the adventurer.  There is an adventurer in here too, and an artist (I even played the keyboard tonight while worshiping with Mom and Dad), but I’m first a wife and mommy. Maybe there will be more time for adventure and music in this season of our lives, but it will look like climbing a mountain with my kids and getting them more exposure to music. Whatever gives me those precious moments in classical music, or the exhilaration of being a mountain hiker (probably not climbing anytime soon) that is the Joy of parenthood – sharing the things that are important to me with  the beautiful kiddos that Papa God has put in our care. 

Jesus knows just how to love us, and we get to love them! It’s wild to think about it sometimes, but having kids and caring for kids is the greatest adventure in my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Overfull to Overflowing

Today started with a fun church service at Iris Chimoio River of God Children’s Center. We danced and laughed and sang in so many dialects that I only understood half of the songs. The mamas, grandmas, and girls were dancing in the center of the room. The guys played instruments and danced in a line behind the girls. All the voices were loud and clear. We worshipped and prayed together then listened as one of our older sons shared a message about being salt and light. He also talked about forgiveness and brought tears to my eyes. My hubby and I love this young man so much…. We are so proud of him and our other kiddos!!!! Then they surrounded me and prayed over me as I said goodbye. Oh my goodness, they are precious… Their hugs are priceless. Their prayers are powerful and full of faith. 

“Surround Mae with angels on her journey. Protect her and bring her back safely….” They continued for a while, all praying at the same time. Then our pastor prayed over me and our family as we are in this huge transition that God will bless us in our Goodbyes and keep us connected in spirit. My heart was just smushed….Its an incredible people we get to spend time with! They are a huge blessing in our lives. How can we say goodbye one more time? But we are a family stretched across the globe with our own three sons in the US. We miss them so much. It’s time for me to get back to them.   

But I’m not sure if I can say goodbye one more time today. My hubby so kindly reminded me that I need to say goodbye to our Mozambican son Ngenie. I’m pretty sure he’s heading to bed already though. And I’m not sure if I can get through more hugs. I’m over full, but I’m not sure if I’ve made it to overflowing. I’m full like a sack that is about to burst.

I need to take a deep breath and allow God to pour through me, then I can go hug my son….

Ok…hug time before he goes to bed, and then heads to school early in the morning.

Now I’m overflowing…..I got a hug and a big surprise!

I went to hug Ngenie goodbye, and he barely could hug me. Then he asked me if it was ok for him to come with us to Beira tomorrow. He told me that he doesn’t have class tomorrow or Tuesday. I told him that of course he can come. We will work out the details in the morning. I told him that it’s perfect that I don’t have to say goodbye tonight because I can’t handle one more goodbye today. Ngenie couldn’t handle another goodbye either, he was swallowing back the tears. I totally understand the emotion.

Now I’m just to overfull and overflowing with real soppy gratitude to Papa God. He just knows me so perfectly and understands what I can and cannot handle right now. I just needed to be able to wait to say goodbye.

I’m so amazed! We serve an awesome God feels like an understatement!!!! Can you fathom how perfect that detail is for me right now? It’s just so much more than any kindness I’ve experienced from a person in my life.  Papa God is by far the kindest person I know.

I’m literally crying now, and it’s because of amazement. How he loves us!!!! There is no other God who wants to show us his power by arranging a perfect ending to a perfect evening setting up the details that will best bless me!

I feel so loved and so blessed to be right here right now with hubby beside me. Yesterday and today we celebrated our 12^th wedding anniversary with wonderful meals out with friends, and a tremendously sweet lunch date with our beautiful Mozambican daughters! We all got dressed up in fancy dress clothes to celebrate!

We’ve said goodbye to many dear friends here, and we can’t wait to stay connected via various forms social media. Thank you to everyone who has blessed us on our special day!!!!!

We are over full and stuffed with love and friendship, we are overflowing with such tender JOY for being sons and daughters of the best, kindest and perfect Papa God!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Floating down de Nile

I’m feeling like I would rather be in denial than actually plan things before this trip, but I can’t afford to think that way for more than today. Part of today was spent cleaning, doing homework with kids, and prepping food in the kitchen, but other than that it was a day for me and hubby to chill while the kids were at school.

My ‘sabbath’ from writing was anything but a Sabbath. When that happens we give ourselves a time for chilling, resting and refreshing. When our lives become over busy from different responsibilities we pick what day will be our next ‘off’ day and then we can better focus on what needs to be finished before we take a day off, and what can wait until after.

Some might say that we are in denial, but I love to just not talk about things that we will talk about tomorrow and to not even have to think about details that can afford to wait one more day.

For most of this morning I was floating down the Nile…..deNile…..and lOVEing it!

I feel much more rested and refreshed. I got to celebrate a finished semester for one more day, and I can buy books for next semester (that starts while I’m in Africa) tomorrow. Kinda nice to just breath, and then play a video game with our three boys.

Bing tv, video games, an extra day for rest tagged onto a busy weekend, and these things are very important for fun family living!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Missionary Momma Mia

Finish what you started

Ok, time to face tomorrow with a clear head. How I face today and tomorrow will affect my future.

Tomorrow is the last day of one of my classes this semester. I’m so happy to be closing this chapter. Well almost. I still need to get into my final class/or classes for the fall. Then, I can really close the BA student chapter in my life. My little brother is graduating May 14^th and I’m super proud of him. We registered for the spring 2016 semester together –with the plan of graduating together. I had to take a step back and be real about my responsibilities as a wife, mommy, children’s center co-director, and University student.  

All of the time that each aspect of my life requires had to be considered. I couldn’t jump ahead of myself. I had to rethink what my week would really look like if I had one more day on campus starting bright and early on Monday and going to school through Thursday. It’s about a 45 minute drive each way. With all that in mind, and a few other details, I withdrew from one of the most important classes for my degree this spring, because they do offer the class in the spring and fall semesters. Well, I’m not going to graduate with my baby brother.  And now not only do I have to think about my final exams and final week of class (that is half way over!), I have to register for the same class that I withdrew from this spring. It doesn’t promise to be as easy as it was last semester. That’s ok. I’ll have to figure out what I need to do, and get it done. Thankfully there are professional counselors to help me with this!

I have very little idea of what I have to do next...This spring I was able to register for the class without a hitch, but I guess there are some glitches after I drop a class and try to register again the next semester. I need to talk with the dean of the department - and get approval. That might take more time than filling out a form online.

Now I need to meet with a professor from my past. I haven’t been his student for over a decade. Should be interesting. I wonder if the light-bulb will flicker on and he will remembers me. That might help me get back into the class, might not....Who knows?

My degree plan is individualized, so its not like I am the typical student at my Uni. I’m not going to the dean of my department asking him to help me get past a computer glitch. I have to convince him that this class is important for my entire degree. Maybe I should try talking with him after I finish my finals, but I gotta register right away….sweet Jesus, I need a whole bunch of wisdom.

Its about time that I face one of my professors that I still haven’t seen since I walked away just before finals week in spring 2004, to go get married to my handsome Brazilian husband. People do kinda make fun of people going to school to find Mr. right, but I didn't meet my husband at Uni. I met him on the mission field. I totally digress....Its late here. 

I have no idea how he will respond if he realizes or if he remembers, who I am as a returning student. I might have really disappointed this professor when I didn’t finish classes over ten years ago. I might have proven to be one of those students who didn’t know what they wanted. I’m not sure what he thinks. Maybe I need to ask him? Whatever he thinks or doesn’t think about me, I need to have a conversation with the dean of one of my departments.

Well, it’s time for me to finish what I started, and it isn’t about the end goal. It’s about people, and honoring the investment that people put into my dreams. There was a time when that dean was very determined to help me finish my IDP degree. No matter what happens, I do kinda owe him an apology for just splitting when all my professors worked so hard to help me graduate. I know that my kids teachers celebrate their success. I never really thought of that before today. Irregardless of what he thinks. I need to do the honorable thing.

Maybe I will sort this tomorrow or Thursday and get somewhere with what really should be my final semester at this Uni as a BA student.

Oh the thoughts to think.... and maybe I will get a better perspective in my dreams! I love to tell my boys to dream with Jesus.

lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

  

Spontaneously Perfect Perfect Timing

We had such a lovely time away from the house. It was silly. At first we started with shopping for the boys’ spring sandals. It was interesting to say the least. We got cheered on by some of the staff who understood the joys and challenges of shopping with three boys. 

We really had no other plan that to get some shopping done, but while in line to check out I told my husband that I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day at home either. It looked so lovely outside. So we went to get some food and drink for a spur-of-the-moment picnic somewhere outside and closer to the mountains than the shop.  

We took our newly purchased sandals and sandwiches to a windy park in Longmont. It was so windy that we left before we spent an hour there.  Funny thing was that we got out of our car at 12:34. We let the kids play for a few minutes before standing near a lake trying to hide from the whipping wind. We ate our sandwiches and drank raspberry lemonade with a goose standing nearby.  Then the boys threw pine cones into the water from the dock.

When we were nearly chilled to the bone, we got back into the car at 1:23. I just thought it was too funny not to note that all the numbers were in numerical order when I looked at my car clock…

Not really special but it was 12.34 when I left the car, and 1.23 when I got back into the car…. I thought how nice our disorganized little adventure was going, even though we had gotten pretty chilly in the wind, the sun was still shining down on this side of Colorado and our boys were thrilled with the idea of a mountain drive. Instead of heading back home, we decided to get closer to the Rocky Mountains.

We took back-country winding roads through farms and ranch neighborhoods before we got to Lyons. We went a little deeper into mountain country without getting all the way to Estes Park. We stopped in a slow vehicle pull off on the side of the road like my parents did so many times when we were young. There were some perfect rocks for climbing, and surprisingly, less wind to chill us to the bone. It was glorious to see my little guys challenge their fears. Our middle son was cheering on his little brother as they climbed higher up the rocks. They had thought that heights were kinda scary, but being up on top of the rocks was AMAZING! That is their simultaneous words, not mine.

They loved it. It was perfect for the boys, but it only wet their appetite for more rock climbing. We thought about heading back, but the boys were loving their first spring drive up into the mountains this year. We drove a little while longer until we found another amazing spot to let the boys run around and climb.

We fell in love with the spot and hope to be able to call it our family mountain ‘spot’. It was our family mountain spot for today.

Driving back home my husband and I listened to the boys talk about their favorite part of today. They were all happy to have rock climbed on a mountain! We won’t tell them that it wasn’t the real thing because they didn’t have ropes and anchors – well they didn’t need them. The rocks they climbed up were less than a story high, but a kid’s perspective is great. They were on top of the world and their view from up top was spectacular!!!!

I wish I could have a kid’s perspective in life more often. After we put the boys to bed I realized this week is going to be a doozy- that’s southern for complicated and busy! I was just trying to breathe through my double-booked schedule for the up-coming week. I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. But, I will go to the highest place that I can climb too and look at the scenery from there.

It’s that place where I’m certain that the beauty around me will inspire me to look for God’s perfect order and trust Holy Spirit is with me in each moment, helping everything to come into his perfect order in his Perfect Timing.

And now it’s 11:23…It’s so funny to look at the clock and notice weird minutes - order, multiples, count downs.

Wow, childish right? That doesn’t have to mean a thing, But it can. It can be a simple reminder to trust in Papa God that your day has been blessed with many beautiful moments that shined on you today! Even if it doesn’t feel that way, you might want to crawl up in Papa God’s lap and ask if you can see from his perspective. Papa God has an awesome vantage point, and he is the perfect Father. If you ask for a minute in his lap, all of heaven will be still to prefer you. No one is worried about time with Papa God. Those who see him know that he is always willing to have a cuddle or wipe a tear. For me tonight, he helped me breath. It’s all going to be ok.

It’s all going to be just fine. Breath, have a cuddle and a giggle with Papa God. The view from here is GREAT!  Trust Jesus to order your steps, I have no idea how we found our family spot today there was no GPS! Holy Spirit lit our path today. We did a double take, hooked a u-turn where it might have been illegal and found the best tall and safe rock to let the kids climb on. God is so practical, and he cares about the details!  

You are full of precious details! There is no one like you!

Lots of love and Joy,

Missionary Momma Mia