Monday, July 23, 2007

Playing the Game and Finishing Well!




It's been awhile ... where have we been? ... baseball games! Josiah just finished up the season yesterday in the near 100 degree weather! If that weren't enough ... it took 7 innings, rather than their usual 4 for someone to even score! (that's how close it was!!!) They came away placing second and represented their team very well. We spent much time watching teams and coaches interact this summer. We came away feeling extremely blessed to have such a wonderful coach instilling so many great lessons of life and character into these kids. He created such a strong sense of "team" in these young boys. They learned to depend on each other, encourage one another and work together. We have really enjoyed getting to know Josiah's coach and hope to continue to have a great relationship with him, as he's only 2 blocks away.

There have been many parallels between Josiah's ballgames and our lives. If you regularly read our blog, you'll notice I often compare our journey to a race. Sometimes it feels though like last night's game .... inning after inning, no budging to get forward. There are times we feel "struck out" ... as in the case of the "great paper war" with a doctor this last week. Sometimes we feel dehydrated, like in that 90+++ degree weather this last 3 game tournament. Sometimes we lose perspective of the big picture ... and it's the chatter of friends that keep us going. Just like Josiah's teammates and how their encouragement matters so much for each player to do well .... we need our teammates so very much. So often we hear from a special "teammate" at the perfect timing .... we see that as no coincidence. :)

We're working hard to finish compiling every piece of paper needed to go to the person helping us with authentication of our dossier. We are waiting to get our FBI clearance packets, CIS approval and passports yet. Those will all be added to the dossier. We'd love to see our dossier in the hands of the Ethiopian government by the end of August.

Sunday we head out on a very LONG adventure to the mountains of Tennessee. Months ago when someone so graciously offered their place to us, we had no idea how much we'd need it right now. It's time to step away and regroup ... both in our family and our ministry. We are looking forward to time to just reconnect and build some wonderful memories together. We are also on the hunt for a larger vehicle as we pass through big cities. We are upsizing to a full-size van. I personally would like to get something inbetween, but for the money, this is a far better option.

As we near the end of the paperwork process, we will need to pick up the pace of the Stamp a Child Home project. While we've made great strides towards our goal ... we have far to go. We are trusting God to work out every detail.

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