As summer is coming to an end I am thinking back on how much we’ve accomplished in the last few months, how much we’ve learned and how much we have to look forward to. I am so thankful for all of the people who have poured into us and for the many answered prayers.
I met with my counselor this week, one that I had sought out a couple of months ago because life was really heavy and I wasn’t sure what else to do, in my last meeting with him he said he noticed a change, that I was laughing with him and smiling, when in our first meeting I could barely hold back tears. Things had been feeling heavy for a while even before I sought him out, and I was honestly just at a point where I wasn’t sure I was supposed to be here. What if I had misunderstood God’s calling on my life? But if I’m not here, what else am I supposed to be doing? I knew I wasn’t any happier at my old job, or where I was before coming here, and things had started to finally feel like I was getting the hang of things, like I was starting to feel like I belonged, and then all of a sudden I didn’t. A lot of things from back home came crashing down and I can’t talk about all the details but it was hard, and my mental health was struggling a bit. So for the next several weeks I was meeting with my counselor. It seemed like things were getting worse, and it wouldn’t end, and then finally, I felt peace. My most recent update to my counselor was full of way more blessings than hardships. I shared that we got to spend time with family, go on vacation, we got an air conditioner, I got time to just rest and I got my beloved sea salt caramel chocolates (man’s greatest invention) and a lot more good things. When my counselor noticed the change in spirit, he reminded me that God did all of that, I did not, I don’t have the means of providing all that for myself, all these blessings and many more came from God placing my needs on the hearts of others before I even mentioned them myself. With these luxuries came answered prayers for actual needs as well, I started sleeping better, getting some of my energy back, and physically feeling better than I have in a while. Sure, some of this is due to medicine and figuring out some of the physical problems I’d been having, but even that was an answer from the Lord. All this to say that this summer I have been reminded of how good the Lord is, and that when we go through hard seasons, the Lord is still good, and he does see my struggle. The Lord is not just good because of the physical blessings he has provided, he would still be good today even if I was still in the thick of it, but I am reminded that I am his child and he cares about me, he’s not so far away that my problems don’t matter, he understands my pain. This wasn’t the first tough season in my life and it won’t be the last, but throughout every hard season, I can look back and see that the Lord was there and He is good. I think the greatest blessing wasn’t the nice things that all came in as the storm calmed, but the people who cared for me and demonstrated the joy and peace of the Lord when I was going through the hard days, whether through praying for me, talking with me, being present, or letting me hangout with their kids and soak up all the childlike joy and giddiness that comes from them. Not every problem has been solved, and my life is far from perfect, there are still things I’m trying to figure out, things I still wish were different, health problems I still am unsure, but rather then dwell on these things, I will continue to be faithful to the Lord and trust in his goodness, I know that his plans are good and I am where I am supposed to be, I can be confident in his will over my life.
Other updates for the month of August:
- To no one’s surprise I’m sure, we have been hanging out with the kiddos, they never fail to make me laugh.
- We got to celebrate Kate’s birthday! All of us girls went to dinner together to celebrate while Christian and Alejandro took care of the team that night.
- I was having an absolutely insatiable craving for Sander’s chocolate sea salt Caremels one night and could not find anything remotely similar that I could buy. And if you’ve been around me you know that I enjoy a sweet treat just as much as the next person from time to time, but I’m not big on ice cream or dessert after dinner or anything like that, and I don’t normally crave it like this. All this to try and express how serious this craving one and to brag about my amazing and talented husband who made them for me and surprised me with them when I got back from a nail appointment, that was one of the best moments of this month, they were so good.
- We finally saw Spiderman Brand New Day, as a very big fan of Spiderman I’d been wanting to see this movie for a while and had to wait a few weeks after it came out to actually be to go, but it was so worth it, we enjoyed the movie a lot and got to make a fun date out of it by getting our favorite smoothies and going to Applebee’s for dinner.
- We spent a week in La Romana with Christian’s mom and grandparents, it was fun to see them experience a bit of the country for their first time here and just spend some time together. Our air bnb had a pool so we spent a good amount of time there on the rooftop overlooking the city, it also had a BBQ grill so Christian used that to make us dinner one night which was treat for sure, we also spend a few days at some beaches, went snorkeling, visited the colonial zone in Santo Domingo, had a couple of movie nights and had a rainy day where we stayed in, got massages, cooked pasta and slept a lot. Overall I think it was the perfect mix of fun and relaxing as any good vacation should be.
- After we dropped the family off at the airport we did some shopping in Santo Domingo, stopping at Ikea for some items for our new room!
- We officially moved out of our old room into the Guesthouse Host room, where Kate previously lived and just moved out of. Kate, Hannah and Alejandro moved a lot of our things for us while we were on vacation, so it was a huge blessing to not have to move the heavy things ourselves, and to be surprised with much of our things already there when we got back from traveling. We both have been having a lot of fun picking out things and giving the space some of our personality. I’ve never really fully decorated a space before, I usually just didn’t see a need for it, but for some reason this space feels different and it makes me excited. I can’t wait until it’s done, I have been brainstorming plans for hosting people and making it a nice space to continue building friendships. I really love hosting people and having cozy spaces for hanging out.
