NOT a summer of lasts

Sometimes I can be tempted to think of this summer as a "summer of lasts".  But I know I can't go down that road, because:

#1: It isn't true!

#2: It just makes me sad and discontent.

#3: Thinking in that way prevents me from being thankful!

I don't know if you remember, but at the beginning of this year I did a blogpost called "Starting a Year Filled with Lasts".  And while it is kind of true, I received some wise advice from a missionary friend of mine who served overseas for many years.  She told me (regarding the time when she first went overseas): "maybe it would have been best to just be thankful for each and every day whether it was a "last" in America, or a "first" in [the country they served in]. I think I spent way too much time in mourning, so much so that I overlooked many blessings."

I appreciated my friend's advice SO MUCH.  She really spoke wisdom to me that day, and I know that God will be so faithful in this journey, no matter what country we are in!  Every day He showers us with grace, and I do not want to miss that.

So then.  This summer is not a summer of lasts.  It is a summer of thankfulness, and I am choosing to be so thankful for these sweet memories that God is giving us!

Thankful for time as a family in our "villa"...

(homemade bubbles!) 

Thankful for the time we have with grandparents and family...

Thankful for time with our friends...

(We were so thankful to get together with Jon and Amy, as they also serve overseas and we know these times will be scarce!  Love you Amy, and we will continue praying for your sweet family!)

I am also thankful for some amazing family vacations, but I will save that for another blogpost.  We are blessed!

book recommendation.

I just finished a book on marriage that I would HIGHLY recommend.

You and Me Forever, by Francis and Lisa Chan.  

It. is. so. good.

I read it by myself, but I think it would be such a great book for couples to read together!  I would love to read it again with Nathan sometime.  And something really cool is, Francis and Lisa made some videos to go along with the reading, found at www.youandmeforever.org.  The videos are fun to watch, too (if you have ever heard Francis Chan speak, he is really fun to listen to!)

I underlined so much of this book.  I seriously loved it.  The subtitle is "Marriage in Light of Eternity"--and that's what the book is--an eternal perspective on marriage.  So good!  (thanks for recommending it to me, Emily!)

And I love this guy!  So thankful to do life with him.

And now...I need to start packing for our trip to Florida with my family!  We are so excited--family vacations are the best.  But we leave at 6 pm and I havn't packed a thing yet :)  So...have a great day!

our trip to the west, part two: California!

After our visit in Las Vegas with Brent and Amy, we headed to California!  (In Brent and Amy's car--seriously, those guys blessed our socks off!)

Most of you probably know that we are planning to partner (in our future tribal ministry) with a family we met in training--their names are David and Emily.  They are such an awesome, fun, dedicated, hard-working and Jesus-loving couple!  We are thankful for them!  And they are getting ready to leave for Papua New Guinea very soon--less than a month now!  (Yep, they are heading over to PNG six months ahead of our family).

So anyway, Nathan and I wanted to visit them before they leave!  We really wanted to get to know some of their family, and see where they live, and go to their church, etc.  And we are so thankful that we were able to do that.  We loved our visit with them--and we never ran out of things to talk about, that's for sure!

David and Emily have told us all about In-N-Out, so that seemed like the perfect place to start our visit!  First we went to Emily's parents' house and had our reunion :) ...and then we headed to this place!

(David was super excited for us to try it!)

I love this little boy!  Calvin is a sweetie who is good friends with our kids.  When they lived next door to us in MO, the kids played together all the time.  We all miss him! 

They were some big burgers!  The verdict?  We loved it!!

We hung out at Emily's parents' house the rest of that day and that night.  And David's parents came for supper too, so that was so awesome that we could meet his parents too.

I loved catching up with this girl!  

Looks like they are discussing some important matters :)  I think David is waving a fork at Nathan--haha!

Some bonding time with sweet Louise--she is seriously so adorable:)  

The next morning, Dave and Em took us to get their favorite donuts (they had warned us to bring stretchy pants because of all the food they were going to feed us!!)  We got our donuts and then we drove 2.5 hours to their favorite beach called Avila Beach.  

We stopped at an awesome produce "stand" (really it was so much more than that!)  California has some great produce even though it's so dry out there!

We spent the day at the beach...it was so much fun!

(see the jellyfish-thing flying through the air at us?--haha!)

Loved being with this guy :)

On Sunday morning, we went to David and Emily's sending church.  It was really great to be there, and meet their pastor, and their friends--it is obvious that everyone there just loves David and Emily, and that everyone is so excited about missions.  What a blessing that we could go there and meet everyone!

And then we said goodbye.  Which was sad, but not unbearably sad because we will be seeing them in a few short months!  The next time we see them will be in Papua New Guinea.  And I know time will fly until then.

 Please pray for this sweet family.  They are going to be saying some very difficult goodbyes in the next few weeks, and then they will have a big transition as they move to PNG.  Please join us in praying for them!

After we said our goodbyes, we headed back to Las Vegas (because we needed to fly out from the Vegas airport early the next morning).  We got a killer deal on a hotel room, so we decided to do that.  It was a fun time for Nathan and me to hang out just the two of us!  Although Las Vegas wouldn't be my first choice on where to spend time!  (There are sooo many people.  When we were checking into our hotel, there were probably 300 other people/families checking in!  The line was snaked through the massive lobby!  It was crazy.)

We stayed at an Egyption themed hotel--it was so huge and so nice!

And we went over to New York-New York for supper.  Those hotels are just unreal!

Haha!  We ate at an authentic Italian restaurant, and we ordered a salad--and this is what they brought us!  I guess it must be really authentic!  But Nathan and I aren't very cultured, so this is how we looked when they brought it to us :)  I'm sure the waiter was impressed.

We had such a fun time out West!  But it was also really good to be home with our kids.  We missed them!

David and Emily, thank you so much for taking time out of your crazy schedule to show us around California!  We are so thankful we could visit you and see your lives in CA.  We love you and we will be praying!