Costa Rica update

 So, these are the walls. The walls that the powers that be at Hogar De Vida, the orphanage in Costa Rica that I'll be going to in February, have decided we should paint. Yeah, a little intimidating for sure!!

You know how you have thoughts in your head about how things should be? Well, this is nothing like anything that was in my head!!!

I do have to say that there will be a team coming in January from another church that will prime them for us, so they will be white. That I can visualize for sure. However, the enormity of their sheer size. My goodness!!! Each panel is at least

6ft x 6ft!!. The one really large one, they have opinions about what we should do on it. Oh boy, opinions equal expectations. God what have you gotten me into???

One thing is for sure, God is stretching me this season. I feel like this is a lesson is trusting Him. At this point, I feel like I truly have no other option. I do not know what to do with these walls. All I can do is trust that He will guide us. I have an amazing team and they all have creative minds and I have no doubt that they will have ideas I have not dreamed of and that God has had control of.

We have begun our meetings as a team, which just makes this all so real. This is really going to happen. I'm trying to really lean into the excitement of the other team members and just really glean and learn from each of them. Especially those that have been there before, that are already familiar with the wonder that is Hogar de Vida.

A little bit about this place we're going; Hogar de Vida means, Home of Light. It is located in Atenas Costa Rica.  There are roughly 30 children from infants to about 6th grade that call this place home. They've been taken from homes that were anything but light. Here at Hogar de Vida, they receive shelter, education, nutrition and most of all love. This is a place they encounter Christ and His love. I find it just amazing that there are people that are able and willing to take these children in. That seems like such a huge daunting task to me. My heart would shatter into a million pieces for each child every time. How do you work past that? I'm so grateful that God has put people like Tim and Dena in the position and the calling to do this and for all the people that work there day in and day out loving on these children.

I guess also, since I have your attention I should mention that this trip will cost about $1500.00. I fully trust that since this was God's idea He'll make sure that I raise that amount of money. However, I do have to do my part and ask for the support. I must stress though that it's not just the monetary support I so very much need but also the support of your prayers for myself and our whole team.

Anyways, if you do want to donate, you can always send a check to:

Lakeland Community Church
N3181 Hwy 67
Lake Geneva Wi 53147

Please just put "Costa Rica" in the memo of the check  but not my name anywhere on the check.

Or of course in this age of fabulous technology you can always donate online using THIS link, there will be a place to put my name in.

Of course all donations are tax deductible, just let me know and I'll be sure to get you a tax form if you let me know.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this leaning experience. I believe that in this, God is going to reveal Himself in little pieces, layer by layer and if I'm not trusting in Him and paying attention I might miss something. You can bet that I am hyper-focused on Him right now. I don't want to miss a thing!!

the little things

If you know me at all, you know I love my husband. There are not words in my vocabulary to accurately describe how much I love my husband.

There is just something so incredible about our marriage and if you would've talked to me about what I thought marriage would be like before I was married, our marriage is NOT what I would've described. This is totally not what I had in mind. I don't think my mind could've fathomed something quite so wonderful.

Just a little background on us; we met in school, begun dating in our senior year. I am not shy now, nor was I then. We hung out with the same group of friends but weren't exactly friends ourselves. However, one day I just plopped myself down on his lap. He didn't say so then, but I later learned he didn't really think that was okay. LOL. I'm so glad I did it!

We dated for a little over 5 years before getting married in May of 1991. It snowed on our wedding day. Thank you midwest weather for forever keeping us on our toes. It was lovely and full of residual effects from the 80's, big hair, poofy shoulders on my wedding dress, the whole 9 yards, well, minus any fluorescent colors thank goodness.

We have been married now about 23.5 years and it's been good. I let you in a little secret, we don't fight. We never have. So you may say, oh well that's not healthy, you need to do that. I think we would if we ever had anything to fight about but we don't. One thing we do really well is communication. We talk, we share and we compromise and we are respectful of one another.

I'd love to tell you our marriage is so awesome because we've always put God first. We haven't. We've always believed in God, but up until about 7 years ago He wasn't really part of our marriage. I can tell you though that since God has become the center of our lives, our marriage is even better, everything is better.

If I had one thing to share to other married couples it would be to do the little things. The little things that don't really seem like a big deal to you, but to your spouse can mean the world.

For example, Jerry always goes to bed way before I do, almost always asleep before I get into bed. However every night when I go to get into bed, he's fluffed my pillows for me. It's not really a big deal, I mean it takes nothing to fluff my own pillows. Yet he knows it's something I like to do before I get into bed so he does it for me. That little gesture just means so much and shows me that he loves me.

In our house we take medicine, some of us more than others, because of this we have those daily pill containers. I fill his up every time I fill my own. It's not really a big deal, but I know he appreciates it and I'm happy to do it because it makes him happy. It takes me literally 5 minutes to do it.

Something we've been intentionally doing lately is leaving each other little unexpected love notes. They're not long lengthy mushy gushy things, just a couple sentences here and there tucked in places you don't expect to find them. I LOVE this.

So what "little thing" can you do for your spouse today?