Progress of the dog house

Jason has worked on the new doghouse for awhile now. I've pushed a bit on the completion since we'll be at the beach next week (yeah!). We usually let the dogs sleep in our sunroom, but when someone else takes care of them, we just leave them outside.

Today is the first day we've been able to let them get in the new doghouse! So far, so good!

Content

It's been a better week for us. Jason's been busy moving classrooms at the high school for the abestos removal, but after 2 weeks of that, he says they may be done for awhile! It's been very exhausting for him.

I'm training a new employee while continuing to do my own work, which is a bit of a challenge. I can do things so quickly on my own, but must slow down to show someone else and that is hard for me to do.

We had life group last night at a 115 year old farm house our friends have in Mountain View. It's about 7 acres of land and I know Jason drooled when we first "toured" the house. Afterwards, we discussed it a bit and I asked if he is unhappy with our current house. I think he does wish to have a farm-like plot of land, but only God knows if we could ever afford it. We did both say that would be nice, but decided we are happy with our house too. We do have lots of yard space, enough for Jason's flower and vegetable garden; we also like that we have woods in the back, so it's more private there too. Plus, our street is very quiet!

I find it so easy for me to be discontented, whether in work, play, or home. Even though I've been on three international mission trips and seem terrible slums, I still find myself thinking I need a bigger house, etc, etc. I hope that God will continue to remind me that I do have enough, and if I start to get caught up in wanting more, I'll never have enough, and then won't be happy. It's better to just be thankful for what I have, considering that compared to most people in this world, I have so much!

Life group: Issac & Rebekha

I'm excited about starting a blog!

Life group last night was on one of my favorite stories in Genesis: Isaac & Rebekha. How cool that the servant's prayer was answered even before he finished praying! And really, even answered before he asked since she was on her way to the well before he started praying!

I shared an experience I had in July 2005, where the week before my second Brazil mission trip, my grandmother died unexpectantly, on her 87th birthday, July 14th. This completely broke my heart. I took her death harder than I expected and wasn't eating well in those next days, and really struggled with grief & depression. I felt all my excitement over going to Brazil vanish and that made me mad. Her death felt like it came at the wrong time. At her funeral, we sang "Onward Christian Soliders", which is a song I never really paid much attention to, but is very comforting at funerals. My dad and aunt chose it because they also sang it at my grandfather's funeral, back in 1984.

That next Thursday, a week after she died, I got on a plane to go to Brazil. I struggled with my attitude, since I did not want to think about other people and their needs at the time. I just wanted to stay in my own grief and not give it to God. I knew he was with my in this, but my feelings overwhelmed me still.

In Brazil, we stayed in a school and when I walked into the classroom, at the right hand corner, there was a poster that had a "people" carrying a cross on their shoulders saying: "Soldadmhols de Jesus" (obviously, Portugeuse for Soliders of Jesus.)

Obviously, this got my attention. What I find interesting is to think that that poster had probably been put up months before my grandmother died. And I also wonder if I would have even noticed it if we had not sang that song at my grandmother's funeral.

That poster was the beginning of giving my grief to God that week. I realized later that I could choose to be miserable and have an awful trip; or I could ask God for help and let Him heal me. I decided my grandmother, who loved the Lord, would not want me to use her death as an excuse to have a bad attitude during my mission trip. Thankfully, I chose to give my feelings to God and such amazing things happened that trip! God is so good!