High, Low and Medium
Did you miss me? I missed you.
It is impossible for me to write something to capture the essence of our last few weeks. I’ll let pictures do most of the talking.
We had a Love Party on Valentine’s Day with our community group. We celebrated God’s love for us, and Lifa won the Valentine Minute-to-Win-It competition. The grand prize “that you never knew you wanted”: Heart suspenders! He’s the only teenage boy who can make those things look equally manly and adorable. ❤️
Lifa’s first day of HIGH SCHOOL! (Grade 8) Can you believe this big man towering over me!?! He is loving every bit of it. Benjamin is still not fully on board.
Benjamin has spent the majority of his little life on lockdown with his brother. We had an intense week of separation anxiety and roller-coaster emotions when high school started amongst other major changes. We are practicing bravery at play school a couple mornings a week, but he still hasn’t let me leave him there alone. Sleep went out the window, so we stop for coffee for the teacher and I on the way to school! The pic on his bike is a joy-ride through Lifa’s high school campus until security kicked us out.
In the middle of it all, WE GOT A MIRACLE! Thank you to those who joined us for years in prayer. A church member went to the Department of Home Affairs at 5am to wait in line for us, so Benjamin and I could jump in his place after dropping Lifa off at school. We had a doozy of a morning, but we left with his birth certificate!!!! 🙌🙌 Even our lawyer couldn’t believe it!
And then… Benjamin got sick. (Do you SEE why I disappeared for a little bit!) We had another week without sleep, but this one was for long, long nights of managing high fevers. We have great medical care, and he has fully recovered!
Still… there was a group of mamas from different countries, cultures and walks of life that gathered in our living room to worship, take communion, share testimonies and dream on how to bring other moms to the Lord. This was an amazing evening - I’ll tell you more soon!
We are finally getting back to some normal life stuff too. Our happy mediums. Bike rides. Dog walks. Watching Dad preach in our pj’s. And no-pants-necessary play dates.
We’ve had major highs, breakthroughs, wins and worship in the last few weeks - at the same time as debilitating exhaustion, strain and pain. And there’s been some plain old medium stuff.
We cut back on things we didn’t have space for - like blog writing, cooking big dinners, and some late night international meetings. We learned new things - like how to high school, the maximum physical capacities of our people, and how to find God’s sweetness in the medium things. Activities pulled us further apart, but intentionality brought us closer than ever.
I did not have a single waking second to myself for two weeks, and my brain is only functioning at about 12% of its usual level due to sleep deprivation. I didn’t read my Bible or the devotions that give me so much joy. But I feel closer to God.
Holy hands hold me and my boys as the prayers we’ve prayed for years are answered. The same hands hold me up night after night while I tend to a feverish child. Holy hands have helped my hands reach for the right places, right people and the right times - even when I was unsure what was right or wrong.
I think our natural human tendency is to classify ourselves and our lives. “I’m doing good.” “I’m not in a good place.” etc, etc…
I couldn’t choose an adjective to tell you how life is right now. It’s everything. But I can tell you Who God is. And He is so so good.