Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Shifting...


It has been some time since I have blogged. I've missed it. It's kind of like missing a weekly appointment with your therapist...assuming you have a therapist. My blog is my therapist. Aren't there times in life when we all wish we had a therapist? :P


Life hasn't seemed to slow down much lately. It has been one thing after another. I told Tim that I wished the world would just stop for about 3 or 4 days and let me catch up. I know that won't happen but I can dream.

I have watched as the seasons have shifted from summer to fall. I love the fall. I love the cooling temperatures, the changing colors. Even the tired foliage holds surprising beauty. Our recent trip to Minnesota even gave us a taste of winter with a few inches of beautiful snow that spilled from the clouds just for us.











Like the shifting seasons our life is shifting too.
We are preparing to send our third oldest son off to Brazil for 2 years where he will serve as a missionary there. He will serve in the Belo Horizonte Mission and speak Portuguese.
Someone asked me the other day if sending off a second son was easier than sending the first one (our oldest son, Tim, served a mission to the Canada Montreal Mission and spoke French). I thought for a moment about that question and then answered no, it was not easier the second time. The only thing that is easier is perhaps the preparations as we are a bit more familiar with the process. But the tug at our hearts is the very same the second time as it was the first. It is never easy to have your child leave the security of your home and send them off for two years. There are always the worries of wondering if you prepared them well enough for the awaiting world, especially when they are so far away from home. There are the worries of how they will cope with the pangs of home sickness that will surely come. There are the worries of how *I* will cope with those same pangs of missing him being at home.
But with all the worries come the reassurances that I also know are there. He will not be left alone in Brazil -- physically or spiritually. I know that he will be blessed with many things beyond his own capacity as he serves. I know the same is true for our family. As a family we have seen so many blessings over the last months that we do not and cannot doubt the existence of a loving Heavenly Father and Savior who watch over us no matter where we are -- whether we are in the throes of cancer or in another country speaking a language other than our own. He has said:
"...Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee."
(Gen. 33:12)

It doesn't matter where the journey takes us, only that He is with us and He is before us. And so it is as we again place a son into his tender care.

So Jordan leaves tomorrow to take his journey with the best traveling companion there is. He will learn a new dependence upon Him that perhaps he has never known before, a dependence that will change his vision, his desires, his heart and his life.

This is Jordan only a week ago (with a snowflake on his chin) in Minnesota. :)

4 comments:

Patty said...

AMEN

Debbi said...

I look at life as if it were a beach..or should I say the sand on the beach. With each splash of the water the sands position changes. Much like life, with each step we take our lives change. You and your families life has seen many "splashes of water" this past year.
Look at how much stronger your family is because of those "splashes". Jordan will be able to experience so much, this is a blessing from above. I know you will miss him and he you, but think of the amazing adult he will become because of this!

Dahly Mama said...

Amen, Amen and Amen. Soon to be one more Amen!

Cretta said...

Smiles,tears and a Big Thank You!
Cretta