Sorry that we haven't blogged in months. It's been a whirlwind! Let's catch up....
April:
It was a busy month for us. We had Holy Week, 2 teams where all 5 of us were able to tag along, we were covered in bug bites, witnessed a team member get baptized, saw a sloth, helped on a cabin, played in the river and also did a border run to Panama.
May:
As we were coming back to Costa Rica we were given 30 days to stay in country. Not cool! We had 3 options; 1) apply for a work visa. 2) Go to the states and reapply for the papers ourselves. 3) Renew our visas by going to Nicaragua and pray that we would be granted 90 days all while asking family to do the paperwork for us. We had no clue on what to do.
One morning I sent out an email asking for prayer because I was overcome with fear all while still speaking truth and just praying for peace and wisdom. Within an hour after I sent out the email I had peace. It was amazing! And 48 hours later we had plane tickets back to Florida. Definitely not what I was thinking God had planned. Ha! It all worked out well.
It was great to be in Florida and see family and friends! We went fishing, played on the beach, saw beautiful sunsets, hung out with good friends, listened to music in English, ate blueberries, and boys even got to hang out with cousins.
It was an incredibly refreshing time!
June:
We were still waiting on paperwork from Florida and California. Josh called the Florida office, a week before we were to return home, and asked if they had received our birth certificates. The person responded that they were backed up and that she didn't see our name in the system. We would be driving through Tallahassee later that afternoon and josh was told that if we had the birth certs that we could get them apostilled within 5 minutes. Oh but they closed at 5pm. After driving around the huge parking lot we pulled up to the building at 4:52. I stayed in the car with the boys and prayed that we found the right building. A couple minutes later josh ran through the pouring rain and exciting proclaimed, "We did it! They are doing it right now!" How good is our Lord?! The boys stayed cheering but had a confused look on their faces. We explained, "God got us here in His perfect timing and we have exactly what we need from Florida!" "Yay! Thank you God!"
We just needed California to mail us back the documents. And God had those in the mailbox the day before we left. Amazing!!
And it has been so good being back. All of us are happy to be home! And like a normal life here we jumped right back into everything. Josh ran around getting stuff for the house and picking up people from the airport, he pulled a dead possum from underneath the house, had help fixing our washer, and I swept up at least 30 June bugs the next morning.
Looking back at the past 2.5 months, Josh and I keep repeating, Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
Last month I heard this song, "I am not alone", http://youtu.be/I2oel0_Xa54 and the last part gets me every time. Listen to it when you can.
You amaze me
Redeem me
You call me as Your own
You're my strength
You're my defender
You're my refuge in the storm
Through these trials
You've always been faithful
You bring healing to my soul
May you find strength in Him alone!
Blessed to blessing.
Blessed to blessing.
