Both grandmothers are much relieved that Mark & I are both taking some extra classes to be more medically prepared in our rural setting. I spent 8 hours Saturday listening to Marty tell me how to help save people's lives through CPR, choking, etc. I now have 7 certificates from the American Red Cross & feel like a better mom! Though I was completely exhausted & rather brain dead afterwards, I do feel better prepared & probably should have taken that course about 7 1/2 years ago. We're lucky to not have had any critical emergencies in our house yet...especially with the number of legos I pull out of Katherine's mouth on a daily basis. I did have to chuckle a little, however, that with every scenario given, the first thing I learned to do was say to someone, "Call 911, we have an emergency!" Not so useful in Guatemala, but will be good to remember when we come home. I decided down there I'll shout, "Go find Daddy!! We have an emergency!" because...
Daddy is taking a weekend course this weekend at REI in Atlanta which will cover Wilderness Medicine. So, for our rural setting, I'll be triage & he'll be the hospital :-). In all seriousness, we're glad to be getting a few tools in our back pocket that we can use in case of emergencies, but we are certainly prayerful that we won't have to use many of those tools (and you can pray the same).
Several of you have been asking me how our support raising is coming. Well, we're up to $52,000 of our $75,000 goal. We feel incredibly blessed to have so many people standing with us on this journey. If you're reading this, you're one of those people. Thank you so much!!
We are still praying for the sale or rent of our house. That's definitely forefront on our minds right now & the cause of most of our stress, so we would appreciate your prayers about that.
We're getting more excited with each passing day. I spent most of my day yesterday researching apartments/houses in Antigua and studying up on language schools. So...it's all coming together!
The letting go process is really hard and I really don't like it very much, if I'm honest. Last night we gave our sweet lady chickens to a dear friend. It may sound silly that we were so attached to birds...but we were. I've really missed them today everytime that I've looked out my back window. We know they will be in great care and well loved and do their chicken thing really well. But it's just the beginning of a month that will be filled with lots of letting go. As our little man said last night, "We are losing so much right now". He is right on one hand and for a seven year old (and this thirty-three year old sometimes), it's hard to see past the losing and the letting go. We are very confident that we are following what we are being led to do. God has made it abundantly clear that he wants us to move to Guatemala: providing for every detail, every step of the way. Even the fact that our sweet friends wanted our chickens is one of those details. But that does not change the fact that the letting go is very difficult. Little Man and I have cried a lot lately and talked about how it is okay to cry. The hard thing for me to communicate with him is this: just because something is hard or sad, does not mean we aren't supposed to obey. Such an important life lesson and one that I need to repeat to myself daily. We know that we are going to gain a lot in the next year, but it's hard to explain that. He is really struggling with the unknown and wants "life to just be normal again". It is hard for this momma to watch him struggle and know that he is hurting. I want to fix it, but I also know that the hurting is good for him and he is being shaped and it is bringing us into awesome conversation and we will not be the same at the end of this journey. We would covet your prayers for all of us as we are letting go-- but especially for the kids as they each process in their own way....thanks friends.
