It has been a couple of weeks since we were blessed with enough money to go Haiti for 3 months, but we just needed enough money for the three extra plane tickets there and back for the extra 2 kids and parent. Our whole Haiti experience for the last 6 months has been a roller coaster of just trusting the Lord and seeing what he brings with each new day.
We first started our Haiti quest hoping to leave by last September. Then Tadd's brother got engaged and set a date for the end of November. We decided to stay for that and leave in Mid-December.
By end of December we did not have enough money to go and no one to rent our house. After a couple of weeks of waiting to see if we would be blessed with the funds to go, we decided no new funds had come in and so we needed to make a decision. We decided that since we had not seen the Lord's provision in the last couple of weeks, we would start making a move to stay hear and seek employment again. The next day our missionary friends we would be renting an apartment from in Haiti, called and said some missionary friends of theirs were taking a year off and wanted to store their furniture and let us rent it very cheaply. This cut a lot of the costs of moving to Haiti, so we thought maybe the Lord was telling us we needed to hold on a little longer and see what He would do, since He had helped us with this big break through.
A couple more weeks went by and no new funds came in and still we had no one to rent our house. We had thought that the furniture thing may have just been a coinsidence and maybe the Lord was telling us to move away from the idea of missions in Haiti. The next day someone told us they wanted to rent the house. So we felt maybe the Lord was telling us we gave up too soon and He possibly just wanted us to wait on him a litte longer and He would provide the money now that we had a renter. We waited another 2 or 3 weeks and still nothing. No more funds had come, so we decided to start getting used to the idea of staying here. The next day we had a huge financial blessing from some wonderful friends came in and that gave us enough money to secure a 3 month stay. We were back in the waiting, and figuring the Lord must have again, been trying to tell us to stay patient, He had provided the money to live there and He was definantly capable of providing the plane fare.
We waited another few weeks and in those weeks the Lord brought this Ellensburg opportunity to us and last Friday the Pastor that is helping the Ellensburg group out, called and said the group really enjoyed Tadd's teaching and enjoyed getting to know us better at the Pot Luck. They invited him back to teach on March 5th. They wanted Tony, (the pastor helping them out) to meet us, since he was in Israel when we went last time. The next day (of course) Tadd and I were talking and decided that the Lord must be taking us out of the direction of Haiti, as we have not gotten any further toward purchasing our plane tickets and He had possibly brought another opportunity in Ellensburg. Wouldn't you know it,Sunday evening some very Godly people blessed us with 1/2 of the money for our plane tickets to Haiti. God is amazingly good at providing for us and building our faith by showing us, we need to stop thinking and keep trusting.
Needless to say we are taking everything day by day and trusting that even though we don't know what lies ahead for us. The Lord does and as long as we hang with him, we will be where He is and that is the only place we want to be. I feel bad for Tadd and the kids as I am the one in our family who has always been so scheduled and such a planner. I need to know the plan and schedule what ever is coming up next. So I am so thankful to the Lord that he has used this whole experience to loosen my control on what I think I need to know and to build my trust in His provision and plan. I am just sorry Tadd and the kids had to go through my teaching time.
We will keep you updated as to what the Lord is doing, but know that if you feel left out of the loop, it is usually because we have no idea what the future holds either and the Lord has been faithful to help us be OK with that. Just last night I was driving home thinking if the Lord had allowed us to go to Haiti in September, like we had origianally planned or even December. For the origianl 6 months we had planned. We would have been coming home this month or in April. We would have had to leave with out our kids. It would have broken all of our hearts to have had them live with us like a family in Haiti for 6 months and then put them back in the orphanage and head home. I love how the Lord shows me these kinds of things, as if to say, "See I do know what I am doing, my plans are not your plans and mine are always better. I am so blessed to have such a great God who cares so much for me, there is no end to how many times a day he shows me.
Tadd though it would be a good idea to go a little old school with the pictures this time and show you our babies, as babies, for those of you who have not had the pleasure. I thought it was a great idea! Love you all! Enjoy!
Isaiah was mad at us (in the one below) for taking away his sunglasses to take a picture.
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