boiled-down blessings

I missed you!

I feel like I have a month worth of pictures and thoughts and truths and blessings to share.  

A non-blessing (or at least a blessing in disguise) is that my laptop we'd been limping along with seems to be finished.  Having a really hard time sharing them!!  Trying to hold on to the joy of the last few days in the face of extreme frustration!

Here's the boiled down biggest blessings, for now...

1)  Every time away should include counselors (especially ones you love!).   It's always good to have a friend to talk to or time with the Lord...but having Godly, professional, well-trained counsel available to all of us for three days was fantastic.  Life-changing.  More later.  THANK YOU Craig, Deb and Elisa Torell, of Fountain Gate Counseling Center, for selflessly and sacrificially sharing your gifts and talents with us all this weekend!

2)  All of heaven and earth truly do proclaim Him.   The work of His hands...His power, His great love.  His message.  One small stretch of beach and sky for three days painted so much of His presence and drew out so much of His praise!

3)  Time with friends is so sweet.  I feel SO blessed to have had a few days with so many friends...from our EBS team, from our OMS team and from my college days!  God has surrounded us with so many thoughtful, gifted and dear people, and having so many of them together at one time was a gift!  Even our girls having time with their friends was SUCH a joy to all four of us!

4)  Time with family is so sweet.  The four of us simply do NOT get much time together in daily life (without lots of other people) and while that was also true for retreat, the sweet moments I did get with Lily and Sofie and Matt are precious memories.  

5)  I don't care WHAT it is...if someone else cooked it, I AM HAPPY.  Somebody else cleans it up?  Blissful.

6)  There are few things in life (at least for me) happier than when friends let you love on them...even in small ways.

7)   Sitting on the sidelines and watching is NOT a requirement of motherhood.  This weekend reminded me that getting in there is fabulous...and that I don't do it enough.

8)  Everything is not my job.  Even on vacation, this is a struggle to accept.  Letting others be responsible for their own happiness, and letting God be the one faithful to them (letting GOD be God) is a seed planted these past few days that I've got more to dwell on.

9)  It is all by His grace.  Three whole days away...a beautiful place...the blessings of community and refelection...searching Him...allowing myself.  All of it, by His grace.  I'm so thankful.

10)  Coming home is sweet, too. As nice as it was to be away and to be at the beach, the moment we crossed the border, we were all blessed to be home.  God has truly made Haiti our country, Saccanville our community...and we are blessed to be safely home and in our own beds among much family tonight, jumping back in with them tomorrow.