SPRING CLEANING?

We were very fortunate to host a good friend from Romania this past week. We met Evodia in 2002 when we lived for 2 months in a flat above her family.

Our lives were never the same after that trip. We learned a lot about serving God and others. Both Jared and I have been back to Romania a couple of times and each has brought great times of reflection when we return home. For a while, our fairly often trips were supernaturally timed. Just when my newly gained spiritual focus would begin to wear, it would be time to start planning another trip. However, since having kids I haven't been back. After Jared started working with BTB he's been doing world traveling instead as an ambassador for the integration of abled and disabled people. Needless to say, those great reminders of living simply and keeping my priorities straight had been forgotten for a while.

It all began coming back to me though when we heard Evodia would be coming to California. We just HAD to see her. It worked out great and we picked her up in Pleasanton to stay with us for a few days.

My new ambitions are no doubt the working of the Holy Spirit. I began to realize that as a mom I am focusing way too much on our kids. I am going to try to find the balance between our commands from God as mothers and as believers. If I am a believer first and foremost then my main goal should be to point/bring others toward Christ. As a mother the first goal is to point/bring our kids to Christ. However, being a mommy I sort of subconsciously used that as a reason to not be as passionate about my first command. Of course, it is immensely important to bring my children to a knowledge of Christ and the desire of a relationship. But it seems they will learn more about this with my combined efforts of teaching them AND others (not to mention they'll soon realize it's NOT all about them!).

Also, I've been doing a little cleaning! Visiting certain countries brings living simply to the forefront of my mind. I've just been feeling like we have so much STUFF, including too many kids things. So, I've already sold three items on ebay and two and almost a third on craigslist. I never wanted our family to be so flooded with toys/material things. Somehow it just happened.

So the kids and I have been spending a lot of time outside and have plowed up a large area in our yard. We plan on growing lots of food there and some flowers. Hannah and I are very excited. Hudson just gets excited about playing in the dirt!

We'll update you on our crops as they start coming up.