Life Update

What are we looking forward to these days?

VACATION!

I will be taking a little blogging break for a week and a half or so because we are going to be prepping for vacation and also enjoying family time together while on vacation. We are SO excited. It is a family tradition that we are continuing and we get to enjoy a place that we have gone to a couple years in a row now.

We are also looking forward to our high school mission trip, where we will be heading back to Benton Harbor, Michigan! Because of the short amount of time that we had to plan a mission trip, we both thought that this might be the best way to go and we are really eager to go! We think it will be a good experience for the youth group kids and mission trips are something we always look so forward to.

This past week we have enjoyed some time with our high school youth group kids Monday night and last night Dan went on a bike ride with them to Dairy Queen. We always love summer when it comes to youth group because it offers more time to just hang out with the kids and get to know them on a more personal basis. They are such a joy in our life!

Unfortunately I could not go on the bike ride because I had a lovely colonoscopy yesterday. What joy, right? If you remember a few weeks ago, I had to go on a no-dairy diet. Well, that is not what was causing my intestinal issues, so they wanted to make sure that I didn’t have anything more serious, hence the colonoscopy. It has been rather hilarious – any doctor or nurse that has seen me and read in the notes that that was why I was there, looked at me and asked “why are YOU having one?” I felt a little out of place, but tried to just make light of the situation and joke about it. Thankfully the doctor did not find anything wrong. So now it’s just about watching my eating habits more intensely for now. I am continually amazed at the inner workings of the human body. Honestly, it often directs me straight to God because when one little thing goes wrong, it can mess up a whole system. God has uniquely designed our bodies to do incredible things and how all the parts work together for the good of the body (remember the Biblical analogy?). Typically when I have a health issue (I’ve had enough of them), I realize how blessed I am to have health and strength. The ability to walk. The ability to talk. The ability to EVERYDAY, get up out of bed and function as we choose. Not everyone has that ability. That is why being thankful in the most frustrating of times, (though so hard to do), is of utmost importance.

On a much lighter subject, our garden is growing! I think almost everything is coming up (not sure about the onions yet). I must say everything is looking GREAT! We even planted strawberry plants and they are producing strawberries! Everything is growing so well, so we will see if it stays like that.

Where are we at with kids? God is continuing to bring contentment. We still struggle (and we know we will for awhile) about thinking of summer events without our two little ones. For instance, family vacation. Last year our minds kept thinking about what it would be like with two little babies in our arms, where this year, they are empty. But honestly, we are okay. If we think about it long enough, that’s when it’s hard. But we have the joy of hanging out with our nieces for a week and we can love on them with the love that was built up for our own. Nothing will ever replace the love we have our own, but love is something we can always give. God is bringing contentment and it is such a calming place to be. Even though He is not leading us to anything “new” with kids, we know that that is His will and we are so okay with that. We know that this time in our life is for healing and for continuing down the path HE has for us. And we are finding true contentment.

First day of summer my friends! Here in Minnesota it is a little warm, so it is definitely starting to feel like summer! I am lovin’ every minute of it. Hope you all have a great first day of summer!