This morning I got a precious email from a lady who lives in GA. I don’t know here. I have never met her and will probably never meet her. We have no connections that I know of or mutual friends.
She is praying through the list of MTW missionaries with her 5 year old daughter and they just wrote me today to let me know that they had prayed for me.
It was such an unexpected blessing :) And I’m so thankful for them!
When I was 6 years old Laura and my sister hid my “fool’s gold” rock from my rock collection in the ground somewhere. We never found it (although they swear they marked it with crossed sticks, but do you know how many crossed sticks there were in our backyard?). But regardless, Laura turned out to be my best friend for the next 12 years! This is how my childhood was… I had best friends and they didn’t change. My friends were my best friends ‘till I went to college.
We had, and have, a pseudo family of 6ish families that did almost everything together… church, birthdays, roller hockey, school, softball, etc. No one ever moved, we just all stayed friends and did life together for years. And they are all still there in Cary. When I go home I get to see all my “moms” all together in the same place. The kids have moved, but we all come home for Christmas.
Needless to say, I never really learned how to do change.
So now the Lord has me right smack dab in the middle of a very transient life. I’m here for a year, there for two, traveling, seeing people, saying hello, saying goodbye, and still not really loving change.
This past week my dear friend Megan has been home from England visiting. She is serving with MTW for a year in England and I haven’t seen her since last June! Praise the Lord for skype because I got to pretend that I was there for a little while sitting with her family and my siblings in the Hodge’s family room (one of my favorite places in the world). But it also made my heart hurt b/c I wish I could just be there with them pretending that things are exactly how they used to be before we lived oceans away from each other.
But then I think of all the joy that change has brought. Little Jack and little Annie, Erin and Andrew entering the pseudo family, all my friends here in Costa Rica, college educations, new memories, travels, new lessons from the Lord. And I realize that change isn’t all bad. Its just hard.
So… I’m trying to learn what it looks like to “do change well”. To rejoice in the past, enjoy the present, and look forward to the future while thanking the Lord for each step of the way. I’ve been a whiner about change. I’m not saying that is going to be different, but I would like to learn how to embrace it instead of complaining about it.
Last night I stayed with the Messick boys so Kristy and Matt could get a night away. It was so fun! We played memory, went to the park, watched Emperor’s New Groove (which is my favorite all-time kids movie), ate pizza, made crafts, just had a good time! But I also pulled out my camera, so I wanted to share some favorite pictures from the weekend! This is such a special family to me! Too bad Taylah missed out on picture time…
3 little monkeys!
Little Elijah. I love this little guy. He loves helping, especially with cooking, he always says yerz instead of your, and he always wears his pants backwards (as you can see from picture 1 :) ). I feel like I speak Spanish exactly the way he speaks English. Sometimes he starts a train of thought and can’t finish it, so he switches mid-sentence to say it a completely different way. I totally do that!
Micah is a constant leaner. I love that about him. He loves to try out his new Spanish words these days and is constantly asking what things mean in Spanish and English. He doesn’t miss anything! He is a rule-follower to the core, but always wants to know why. He makes me laugh with his simple matter-of-fact statements.
And this is Jonah, the leader of the pack! Today he sang with me while reading along in Spanish! I could not believe it. The kid is still learning to read in English and is rapidly surpassing me in his Spanish skills. He loves playing “kick” (aka soccer) and just being a monkey in general.
Tonight I’m watching the Messick kids and we took time to take a fun trip to Pizza Hut. While we were there conversation revolved around the rocket ship on TV, how much coke they were allowed to drink, and my love life, of course.
M: Miss Shannon, are you a teenager?
J: No, she’s an adult!
M: Then why don’t you have any kids?
Me: Because I haven’t found a good man to marry yet.
J: Miss Shannon… are you even looking?
Thank you six year old for sounding exasperated with me for not being married. You help my self-esteem… :)
This afternoon I was trying to accomplish homework while sharing the hammock with a 4 year old… needless to say the homework didn’t get done. We were singing silly songs and just talking and Micah was kind of smooshed up instead of lying stretched out. All the sudden, out of the middle of nowhere, he says in an exasperated voice…
“Miss Shannon, God did not make me to be comfortable all squished up like this!”
Love it!
Thanks to the McCann family I have a car waiting for me in Honduras. They are leaving to go back to the states and already sold their van. So now they are driving the car that I am currently raising money to purchase. The Lord is so good to provide. It is far better that Sean and John picked out my car than me. My only request was that it not be yellow… and that doesn’t really pick out a reliable car:)
I loved this picture that Lindsey shared on their blog! If there was any question as to how useful a car will be, I think this answers it…
This is a picture of a Friday afternoon trip from the soccer court to the river with kids from Armenia. Looks like fun! Makes me excited to get there :)
I am praying that the Lord will provide $4000 for the car by May 1st when I arrive in La Ceiba. Thank you so much to those who have given, I have about $500!!! Please let me know if you are interested in giving towards my car fund. You can read about it a couple posts down, or email me at ssinnes@gmail.com.
