Wednesday, November 29, 2006

tis the season.....

i love the holiday season, thanksgiving to christmas is one of my favorite times of year. our time with our family over thanksgiving was fabulous. two of stephen's brothers were in town and my pregnant sister and her husband are still here because the weather between here and colorado is so bad, for once i'm glad about poor road conditions. we were so busy "relaxing with family" that i almost feel like i didn't get a break. we were constantly back and forth between my parents house and the compston's house. don't get me wrong, it was wonderful to see our family, i'm just still tired. autum and josiah, my sister and brother-in-law, came to our apartment tonight to bring us coffee while we did homework and to say bye, even though i think the weather will keep them here another day. they are great, we are so blessed to have a family that really love and support us.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

and we're off......




today we bought our tickets to india. it was such a great feeling to see that page come up that said stephen and i would leave LA on december 11, and return on january 11. we weren't planning on being gone that long but today we realized that the flights we were going to take are booked and the others were filling up fast. so we went ahead and bought them. i get butterflies every time i think about sharing the things from india that i love with my husband.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

oh happy (tues)day!

first of all, does anyone actually read my blog? i was moved to action after a moving post by gennie about genuine blogging and now i find that i get no feedback and i wonder....did i abandon my pitiful little blog for so long that now there is no one left to read it?
second, and much more important, let me tell you about an exciting 36 hours of my life starting with last tuesday.
3:30pm: i was on campus after my last class and stephen and i were talking about how stressed i was. i have had more homework this semester than ever have before, and on top of that we're trying to raise money and plan this trip to bangladesh and india. stephen was ever hopeful and encouraged me that we will survive this semester and God is big enough to take care of our trip. so i walk home wondering if God really wants us to go or if we've mistaken our excitement for God's voice.
4:38pm: oprah is not very entertaining and i can't stop thinking about how little time i have to devote to fundraising and how soon we need the money to go.
4:41pm: i remember that i ordered a few bumper stickers online since i've decided that i want to become a crazy bumper sticker lady and i go down to check the mail to see if they've come. i return to our apartment and start going through the mail. junk mail, junk mail, then, three strange hand written letters. i open the first one, it's an encouraging note from someone we hardly know and a check for $40. praise Jesus. i open the second one, it's a note from a friend saying that she and her parents were really encouraged by what we are doing and wanted to help, a check for $400. praise Jesus! at this point i start to cry and call stephen, who is in class and leave him a weepy message to call me back. i sit in my floor and crying a praying, thanking God for his faithfulness. i finally dry up enough to open the third note, from my grandma, inside there is just a post-it that says "hope this helps" and a check for $400. PRAISE JESUS! the crying resumes and stephen comes home.
9:46pm wednesday: i've had a wonderful day thinking about how great the God i serve is, and i'm exhausted as usual. a few friends call stephen and tell him they have something they need to tell him. we figure it is girl problems and they are coming to the married man for advise. they get to out apartment and tell us that they have a little money and feel like they are supposed to give it to us, they hand it over and leave. we count it and low and behold it is a few dollars shy of $600! can i get a praise Jesus!

i don't even know how to express the thankfulness that we have for all that God has provided. we don't have all the money that we need, but we have reason to believe that God wants us to go and he's pretty faithful to provide.