Just a thought...

Have you ever REALLY thought about where you came from, and have you seen where God was molding you to be where you are today?
Eddie & I were talking about that this evening. Eddie has such a great testimony about his past & how God saved him even after all that was in his past. He says I 'saved' him but he knows it was only by Jesus' blood that he was saved. Our life as a couple hasn't been easy in different ways but the Lord has made our hearts strong. Once we married after about 2 years of living together, we could feel an immediate Peace about our relationship. We had fixed what was wrong & became a marriage of 3 instead of 2. Our hearts, dreams, and goals have changed periodically over these last (almost) 7 years.
Have you ever thought about places you've been/lived, encounters you've had, people you've met, things you've done for others or yourself, even if it wasn't pleasant? Do you think any of it helped you get to where you are in life or atleast prepared you for things to come? We both can see times in our lives where God was guiding us thru even when we weren't where we should be with our Christian walk. So even then, He was with us, helping us get to where He had our full attention. It's amazing to us how God could love "even" us in all the things of our past & still "want" to use US to glorify Him.
As a nurse, I've had patients thank me for being NICE to them!! Isn't that absurd?? Aren't nurses & any other medical staff, imparticularly, SUPPOSE to be "nice"?? Can you imagine being at someone else's mercy when you have no control of a situation or are completely dependent on someone else for your everyday needs? What if the type of care you receive is depending what kind of mood someone was in?? Do we 'live', work & play where others can see Jesus in us? When we do, we're helping others! I know we don't all have perfect days but we can all try...

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At this point in our lives, we feel like "something's coming". After all the molding God has been doing to our hearts & lives, we know He's still working on us. We've heard the call to be foster parents...maybe the 2 placements we had were all we're meant to do as foster parents...maybe the kids we had were to help US know how to deal with certain people or situations in our future...Now, that calling has been put on the back burner, really much to our amazement since it's only been a few months.
We found a church home that we all love. We'd talked about wanting to go on a "Missions Trip" & just toyed with the idea of being ready to jump on the next trip planned. Everytime we stepped foot in the door, we were spoken to in one way or another, especially about missions...THEN my dear friend, who is now in Paraguay, had posted on her Myspace about having a blog about their missions future. I just "happened" to go check my Myspace page...I think we know "who" guided me to do that...As I read her blog, I had a feeling I'd never felt before. I can't really explain it but I told Eddie about it. He asked if I was worried about them going or if maybe I was jealous. I told him I didn't feel worried but didn't know if it was so much jealousy. I'd never really entertained the idea of leaving the country to go be a missionary. I just know the feeling I felt was so overwhelmingly 'heavy'. We "teased" about going to South America because it seemed so far fetched for 'us'. We still don't know what the Lord has planned for us but we're now seriously willing.
One of the next changes in our life has been the realization that my dear grandma might "need" us. This made us realize that we aren't deeply rooted where we are right now. We started thinking maybe we needed to start downsizing & preparing. Maybe this realization was God wanting us to be ready, not necessarily 'for' grandma but helping us prepare to do His work...
So here again, "our plans" have changed from dreaming of a little "farm" to call our own to not knowing where we'll be. We feel the experiences we've been thru in our past are going to help us in what's to come. Whether it is interacting with people of another race/culture or helping others learn to raise farm animals as their way of survival...Maybe we're supposed to take our talents to another country & help win others over for God. That's huge!!!
I know this is a long one but I have one more thing. As we're down-sizing & simplifying, we're facing a very possible job lay-off for Eddie, needing to save money, get bills paid off & considering moving out of our home, even if it means living in our camper for a few months. We don't know if this is the next step in leaving for missions or just a restart in saving money to buy a mobile home to call our own, eventually getting some land to build a farm...So our future can go either way. Would you please pray for us as we face the unknown? ONLY God knows what is next & we're 'game' for the ride ahead of us!