So what have we been up to these last few months... to start we decided to take our first family vacation!!! OBX and Virginia Beach were our 2 main destinations. Driving 11 1/2 hours in a van with 4 children ages 6 and under some would say is CRAZY, I would completely agree! We started our trip at 3am in the morning just so the children would likely sleep half of it only to have 3 out of 4 sleeping with our oldest getting car sick 3 times, thankfully God helped me plan ahead and I remembered a bucket for this purpose just in case. Overall traveling with the children wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. We were able to visit the ocean, swim, see the sand dunes, visit the Aquariums in OBX and VB and just have a great time. I think deciding where we would have dinner was one of the hardest parts! It was also such a blessing to be able to stay with Matt's Aunt Jenni and Uncle Dave and their girls in VB. What fun we all had sharing stories and going to the beach with the children. It was so relaxing and welcoming staying at their home, we are very thankful for such great hosts. Love you guys! Driving home we decided to make it a little easier on ourselves so instead of driving straight through we ended up splitting up the trip some by staying near Washington DC for a night, we were able to do some sight seeing there and visit the air and space museum. The boys loved it and what an awesome addition to our trip!
It's funny though how a vacation like Matt's says "makes you even more thankful for where you live." We had a great time but it was great to be home, sleeping in our own beds and just getting back into our own life.
Shortly after getting home we kept busy planning and preparing for our huge yard sale for Down Syndrome Awareness. Again it is amazing to see how God worked things out for the better,by putting it all in His Hands He turned it into a huge success. We are so thankful for all of the donations that were poured on us they were such a blessing and meant alot to us. To have support from friends and family that believe raising awareness for Down Syndrome is important was great! We actually were planning on having a yard sale for 2 days and an auction the 3rd day to get rid of the rest of the stuff, but God had different plans. I put tons of effort and time into advertising and planning, making signs and sharing the details. Even to the point of calling radio stations and TV stations only to have it all change in the end. The yard sale did great the first 2 days Saturday came along though and we set out the food tables and put up the AUCTION signs, prayed that God would do something amazing and waited until 1pm when the auction was to start. 12:30 came and went with noone here for an auction 1pm came and went with noone here by 1:30pm there was only 2 families signed up for an auction and dad said it was a no go. My heart hurt my eyes welled up with tears and I felt like such a failure. If I only would have advertised more or done this or that it would have worked out. Just a little earlier at 12:45 I went in my room, closed the door and prayed... I had tears running down my face as I held my pillow and prayed Lord PLEASE let this work out I have worked so hard for this cause, it's all for Your honor and glory, let Your Will be done. We planned for around 200 people only to have about 6 here at the time of the auction but as soon as we changed the signs back to yard sale the people came flooding in. We ended up selling more than if we would have had the auction plus we were able to donate the unsold baby items to the pregnancy center. Altogether we raised as total for $1200.20! God is good and even when I felt like such a fool and a let down God picked me up and worked things out and made it even better than I ever expected. Why did I ever think anything different,.. Pastor Rod preached one Sunday and say something that has really stuck with me he said "our will would be God's Will if we knew all the facts." How true is that!
This past weekend we also had a chance to take a trip to Niagara Falls and the Buffalo Zoo. How awesome that was to see more of God's powerful creation. Looking at the falls during our walk on the cave of the winds I couldn't help but think of the power of these waterfalls but how it doesn't compare to God's overall power. What a reminder of how He is the Almighty one.
Now as I write this our oldest 2 boys are at VBS at our church having tons of fun learning even more about our Lord. Next week Logan will also get a chance to go to a Kamp 4 Kids where he will be surrounded by even more children and adults praising the Lord. We may be busy this summer but what we are busying ourselves with is so worth the time. We are investing in our children, our family, our community, and our future home in heaven. Sharing God's love and greatness and being thankful for each day He gives us!
No comments:
Post a Comment