enough

Oh, blog friends!

I’m sorry!  One of the things we miss about home is our beautiful schedule—the one that keeps us all eating balanced meals at the same time every day, on time for work, the girls down for naps before the fussiness sets in, and regular blogging!

Let me catch you up on these last few awesome days!

The girls had their appointments with “MD Lee”, and they’re both looking good and healthy (though Sofie’s on the small side and we’re working to beef her up!) and they got all the vaccines they need for another year in Haiti!  Thank you, Lee, for getting us in, for caring for our girls, and for being our friend!

We then had a fun few days with Grammy and Pop Pop, Uncle Casey and Aunt Laura and Cousin Nico, spending lots of time playing at home, riding bikes, swimming and catching up with Grandmom and Mom-Mom. 

Lily has been loving trips to the store with Grammy, playing with Nico, and having 8 other family members in the house to love on her! 

Last night we spent the evening with Doug and Julie and got ready for this morning’s service.  Sharptown is such a special church to us both, and its’ people continue to play such an influential role in our lives.  It was Doug that married us, sent us OMS’ way, and Sharptown that commissioned and sent us to Haiti, promising to hold our ropes.

Throughout the years coming to Sharptown has always been like coming home, and even when we’re simply worshipping there, the memories of times God has met us in that sanctuary and of sweet friendships touch us deeply.

Lily was baptized at Sharptown by Doug when she was 6 months old, and this morning we were blessed again to have Doug baptize Sofia before our Sharptown family.  Uncle Don and Aunt Brenda became her godparents, and Aunt Lisa, Grammy and Pop-Pop,  and Grandpa were there as well!

Sofie was Sofie, wriggling like a monkey to get out of Mommy’s arms and diving irreverently for the electric guitars the moment I put her down.  Just wouldn’t have been Sofie’s baptism otherwise J  What a gift we’ve been given in the moment-by-moment opportunity to give her to God. 

Then Matt and Doug team taught, Matt and Jerry team taught at the Sharptown North service, and he and Doug team taught again for the last service, which also included a wedding in the service!  Man, it was some morning.

I wish I could capture the overwhelming feeling of being deeply blessed simply by His presence this morning.  While Sharptown and Doug and Julie and many others have played huge roles in these spiritually significant times in our lives, it’s always Just and Only Christ who has changed, renewed and restored our hearts. 

I’m not a crier—and we’ve seen and lived through a lot that has greatly toughened my emotional side these past years—but to stand in a place that has been holy, among so many people who have been His vessels, with gifts of Lily and Sofie and family and friends around us, to hear Matt pray in Creole and to be so rather miraculously homesick, to lift our voices in passionate praise and to feel it entirely too small—to deeply offer Him again in this familiar place our girls, our marriage, our families, our gifts, our best and every one of our days and to feel so totally overwhelmed with how insufficient all of that is before a God who from the start has been so much more than Enough…

I’m pretty sure I got in my quota of tears.

What a very blessed day.

Then we got to spend the whole day with our families, Uncle Don and Aunt Brenda, Doug and Julie, Aunt Lori and Uncle Teri, Phil and Emily, Ethan, Hailey, Joe, Janice, Sami, MD Lee and Heidi, swimming and eating BBQ…well, I’m just overwhelmed.

We left their house around 6:30, and the girls slept while we drove the three hours to the Poconos, where we now are staying with my Aunt and cousins and spending tomorrow with all kinds of family we haven’t seen in far too long.  Those three precious hours with my sister were the perfect ending to a fantastic day. 

cousins

and second cousins!

Don’t get me wrong…everything’s not perfect.  I bet not where you’re sitting either!  There’s a lot that’s not how He intended it to be.  A lot we wish we could change or fix.  A lot that keeps us up stewing at night if we let it.  A lot of awful in the world and a lot of pain in the day to day, a lot of unanswered wonderings.

But if the only faithfulness we’d ever experienced was His faithfulness just found in the Word, it would be enough.  If the only gift we’ve ever been given was His gift of forgiveness, salvation and new life, it would be enough.  If the only hope, confidence and joy we have and will ever have is only in Him, it’s enough. 

Sunday was fantastic because He’s enough…and tomorrow will be, too.