Mommy, Pee Pee...

I thought I'd bring you along on our trip to the pediatric opthamologist.  This has nothing to do with a concern for Samuel's eyes.  He's just fine.  Apparently, he didn't give it his best shot on the muscle balance portion of the screening at his three year check up, so off we went to make sure everything was okay.  Thankfully, his eyes are okay, but by the time we left my reputation was taking a beating.  ;)  We walk in and the place is bustling.  In the front they have a waiting room with all the bells and whistles for kids - germs galore, I mean puzzles, cartoons, play kitchen, race cars all with about five years worth of grime caked on.  Around the corner was another wait area that was more "blah" - magazines, low lighting, GMA on the the TV.... I sign us in and quickly choose the "blah" room before Samuel can look over his shoulder to see the germ infested circus room behind us.  Try to imagine, the "blah" room is also full but quiet except for the morning news up on the televesion until Samuel pipes up and says, "Mommy, is that an "adult movie" there on the TV?" "No, I mean yes, I mean no, I mean yes,  honey that's a show that grown ups watch."    Great.   After a few minutes I can now see that I'm going to have to face the germ laiden circus room b/c he's crawling all over this room hiding under the chairs anyway, not to mention all these parents think I watch adult films.  Sure, lets go touch everything play in the other room down the hall.  We're now in the happy room and Samuel's in the playhouse having the time of his life with another kid when I hear, "Mommy, pee pee," look over, and he's drenched in a puddle of his own pee.  Wow, this is going great.  I let the ladies know up front and they acted like it was a crime scene!  The woman clears everyone out of the entire room, for one little puddle over in the corner.  I don't know what happened after that because we're now in the restroom changing into dry clothes.  I walk out, and now everyone is piled high in the "blah" room since the kid's play area has been evacuated.  Right when we start to squeeze ourselves in there as I do my best not to make eye contact with anyone, the lady gives the "all clear" for kiddie land up at the front.  Wonderful.  Samuel's now begging me to take us back to the "playroom."  Thanks to my kid peeing on the floor it's probably cleaner now than it has been in months.  Anyway, that about summarizes the experience.  We play some more, see the doctor, do a few vision exercises, and he checked out fine.  Just another humbling day in toddlerville... :)

He Knows

Matthew 6:8 “…For your father knows your need before you ask him.”

I have not been encouraged like this in a long time.  We talk about God knowing our needs and being able to meet them, but then at least for me - my actions most of the time reveal something different.  I usually take the “just in case you missed this one God, I’m going to take care of it myself” approach.  However, this time He clearly had me stumped!  As we’ve shared along the way, we’ve been on this path to moving our family full time to Mozambique.  We were invited to come check it out, we went about 18 months ago, and strongly felt the Lord wanted us to return.  One big encouragement when we were there was watching Samuel and how much he loved it.  He loved everyone on the team, loved the atmosphere, loved the Africans, loved it all!  Albeit, he was only 21 months old, he was still remarkably adaptable and happy.  As a parent, this was a huge relief.   If God was calling us there full time, my heart’s desire would be for it to be a good place for our child (and now children).  One of the strongest confirmations we had about going back was how naturally we all clicked with everyone.  The team is diverse with folks from several countries (England, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, America) some single, some married with children.  Which by the way I love the mixture.  I’ve never been a fan of huddling with people my exact same age or in the exact same stage of life. Boring!  There was just one gaping hole I felt…Another similar aged pal for our kid.  All of the other children were wonderful, but they were significantly older.  Considering the fact that if Samuel were to take a personality test for three year olds he would score 100% extrovert and 0% introvert. This has been weighing heavy on my heart which brought me to some even bigger questions that have rolled around in my head: “Do I only obey you, Lord when what you ask me to do meets all my so called “needs/desires?”  How do we move our child extreme extrovert across the world and plop him down with no peers?  Is he going to resent us for this later?  I know he will make friends with the African children.  It’s not that. I’m just talking about someone who shares his home culture, heart language, etc.   How far do we take this whole obedience thing??  As far as I can tell there’s no other family on the radar who’s considering coming.  I don’t understand you, God.  Really don’t.  I’m a bottom line person, and the bottom line came to either I trust you, Lord or I don’t.  Either you can meet our needs how you choose, or you can’t.  I don’t have to know how you choose to do that.   Thank you, Hebrews 11 for clarifying this. :)

DRUM ROLL....................

Right after Thanksgiving, we called our friend Tracy who is the founder of iReachAfrica (the organization we’re teaming up with) to ask her a medical question since she is a PA.  After she answered our question, she says “Hey, I’ve got some good news.”  “There’s another family who has decided to join us in Moz.”  “I think their kids are the same age as yours.”  What?!?!!!   Then she proceeds to tell me about them and later gets us connected through email.  To make matters more exciting, yes this couple has decided to come.  Yes, they have two little kids, and yes their oldest is a boy who is just one month younger than Samuel.  Their baby girl is slightly older than Luke.  Since then, we’ve connected with video chat and email.  We’ve already hit it off.   We’re all encouraged that we’ll have another family there in the same stage of life and our little ones will have each other to play with.   You might be bored to tears reading this by now (if you’ve made it this far), but I can hardly describe the clouds I was walking on for days since hearing this news.  It wasn’t while I was struggling with this, but later after we found out about this family that I came across the verse Matthew 6:8 that says …”For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”   Basically, it’s totally within God’s character to lead us forward without answering all of our questions first.  He will ask us to leave it up to Him to decide how He’ll meet our needs.  He’ll ask us to let go of what we’re holding onto before we can fully grasp what’s ahead.  Just so you know, He’ll also gladly surprise the HECK out of us with His goodness far beyond what we can come up with ourselves.  Just so you know.   

Cuddle Pals

This is how I found Samuel taking his nap earlier.  He calls these his "Cuddle Pals."  I guess he got them all into place before he fell asleep.  The orange gorilla looks like he's had enough!   Lord, help me cherish these days of pb&j's, potty chairs, Blues Clues, pacifiers, sippy cups, and the precious hearts that you've put into my care.  Oh yeah, and naps too!! :)