Finger Painting 101

The day arrived when I felt brave enough to introduce finger painting to the little artist.  I put one of my aprons on him that I had from my teaching days.  Okay, so the apron was more to satisfy my desire for cuteness than my concern for his clothing.  

We actually survived with minimal damage, and he only tried to eat it once.  

He quickly caught on to the whole "use your index finger as a paint brush" technique.  

Hmmm...looks like painting the table could be fun too.

This just opened up a whole new world of gift options for Daddy and the grandparents.  

What a masterpiece!

A-F-R-I-C-A

 Our news that I left you hanging with yesterday  two days ago is that we're going to Africa this summer!  It's a long story, and we've had the chance to share it with many of you, but this is the first blog post about it.  We are planning to spend four weeks in Mozambique this summer volunteering with some folks who have been there many years.  Our hope is that we will get a feel while we're there if this is a good fit for us on a more long term basis.  The opportunity to go to Africa opened up to us several months ago, but the idea of going overseas was born in both of our hearts many years ago.  I suspect the idea has been in God's heart even longer.  Tyson has his story of how this type of calling was planted in him and I have mine.  Since our paths first crossed almost five years ago this was always a common thread.  Now we're so excited that the time has come for us to embark on this adventure together as a couple and as a family.  

My "More than Miniblinds" explanation alludes to the fact that our hearts have been restless - longing for more.   I do want to say that I'm in no way down playing or minimizing the importance or value of making a difference right where you are on a daily basis.  Too me, that can be more difficult than heading off to a distant land.  Just wanted to share my thoughts on that before going any further.  

Back to how this all came about - We began wrestling with our restlessness and praying for direction.  We had a few of our own ideas but they quickly fizzled out.  Finally we began to rest in the fact that at the right time we would just know, and there need not be any striving or fretting.

That's when we were delightedly blindsided with an invitation to come to Africa and check it out.   The peace we had when praying about this was clearly that "peace that passes understanding."   It's what I have to hold on to on the days when I think we must be out of our minds!  Proverbs 3:5-6 comes in handy too: "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight."  

 What will we be doing in Africa?  Good question.   We hope to simply get to know the other workers and serve them wherever needed to begin with.  Four weeks is a short time in the scheme of things, but we feel it will be enough to get a confirmation one way or the other if we are supposed to go back or not.  There is already lots of great work going on there that we will get a glimpse of.  There is a feeding clinic for babies that is feeding around 700 babies weekly.   They provide powdered milk to care givers, weight checks for the babies, and other care.  I'm not exactly sure to be honest.  With my background in working with special needs babies this could be an opportunity to identify babies who need extra help and encourage their caregivers.   We also know a preschool has been pioneered and it's thriving.  I've been in frequent contact with the woman who started it and I'm excited to serve where need there too.  I believe the opportunities will be endless for Tyson as well through the avenues of sports, prison outreach, ESL...Honestly, we won't know until we get there.  I almost feel presumptuous mentioning what we will be doing because I'm sure Africa will change us more than we will change Africa.  We can have our little ideas, but God is writing our story and He's all about the journey.   I heard the quote once, "The journey is the destination."   So true!   We heard. We're trusting.  We're going.  We're on the journey!

Sooo...The plan is that Samuel, Tyson, and I will be leaving on a jet plane sometime mid-July.  Passports - check!  Shots - check!   Many other preparations are coming along as well.  We will keep you posted as things progress.  If you would like more information or feel led to partner with us financially please contact us via email:  www.ginaandtyson(at)gmail(dot)com and we will be more than happy to share more with you and let you know how you can make a tax deductable contribution.   Even more so, we would welcome your prayers for us as we take this plunge into deeper waters of faith and trust.

   

Life Around Here

I thought I'd write a post about the general happenings of our life lately (in no particular order).
We are glad to say that Samuel is feeling MUCH better after almost a month of continued illness.  Little did I now when I wrote this post what was in store for a few more weeks.  It all started with a minor cold. No big deal.  The next thing we know an ugly stomach bug shows up.  This was a brand new and not fun at all experience for us.  The kid threw up all night long non-stop and then throughout the day.  I got so fearful about dehydration I was beside myself.  After a couple of days the vomiting subsided.  Then the poor guy started having issues from the other end for a good week.  Not to mention, Tyson and I also got the bug - just not as severe as Samuel.  Okay, so we see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's looking like the worst is over.  No sooner did he begin to look and act well did he come down with a high fever topping 104+ degrees.  This was also a first.  At this point, I'm beginning to get a little paranoid as to why he's getting one virus after the other.  My doctor assured me he was fine but that his immune system was already low, and he probably just picked up something else from who knows where.  The fever saga went on for another good week that included abnormally low body temps. as well.   I guess we've been over all the illness for going on a couple of weeks now and boy am I thankful.   This was a real growing experience for me.  I can so quickly jump to panic mode in situations like these and become very anxious fearing the worst.  Not good!  I don't want to be this way and this was an opportunity to really seek the Lord and ask for His truth in the situation.
He is answering that prayer and I am so thankful.  I am choosing to believe and know that I can trust Him in any and all situations.  A trusted friend shared this website with me
(www.thefathersbusiness.com) and some incredibly encouraging prayers of blessing that are really transforming this area of my life.  Sometimes, I think God uses our circumstance to expose what is already in our hearts because He wants us to find truth and freedom in those areas where we need it.  Tyson and I joke that we thought we were perfect and had no issues until we got married.  Ha!!  We've done a great job at helping each other realize just how needy we really are!

We're also wrapping up a bathroom remodel project.  We had to completely gut our master bathroom last fall after we had a plumbing problem and found black mold everywhere.  We gutted down to the studs and started over.  I'm waiting until we're completely finished to post some before and after pics.  This has been a looong project, but we can see the finish line!  Can't wait to show you guys.

We had a great weekend with our NC family a couple of weeks ago.  We spent time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.   Now we're anticipating a visit from our Texas grandparents in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait!

We've got another bit of news to share, so stop back by tomorrow or read our "about" page down to the bottom if you want to know what it is....  You think I'm pregnant don't you? :)