We have truly been humbled by how fast God has opened these doors. One, after another, after another..
We are so very blessed. One of the first doors we walked through was moving here to AZ and obtaining a great job. The American Dream! But it wasn't meant to be for our satisfaction. As with any other move of God, it's only for His glory. So what does the "American Dream" have to do with His glory?? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You are blessed ONLY so that you can be a blessing to others. He doesn't take pride in seeing how much "stuff" we have when our fellow humans have nothing. I'm guilty, believe me.
We've learned a lot this year in AZ. Stepping back from our "normal" lives in TX has caused us to take a good look around. How much of this "stuff" do we really need? We do not know people in AZ, and have no friends to come by to "show off" our beautiful home to. We have been working hard this past couple months to sell off what we have and get ready for our move. We cannot take most of it to Honduras with us, and neither do these people care what kind of furniture we currently have, if I have stainless steel appliances, if we have a 60" flat screen, if we wear the latest style, or if I have a brand name purse.
Christmas was definitely different this year. It was a Christmas with the least amount of gifts exchanged in our personal history, but I believe it was the happiest. When you're selling everything you have, what do you "need" to buy? It presented quite a fun "problem". Really, think about it!!! What would you buy if you were selling everything and moving to a poor third world country?? We began to realize we are happier than we've ever been and don't need as much as we think! What a freeing state to be in!
I've seen beautiful posts about new Coach purses; I just sold my first and only one I've ever had, gifted to me two Christmases ago. I've seen posts about brand new tv's; we sold ours and downgraded. I've seen posts about bicycles; we sold the ones we just bought earlier this year. I've even seen posts about new cars; we sold my car a few months back and have been down to only one, on purpose. AND I'M TOTALLY FINE!! I couldn't be happier! What a great feeling to be free of the "stuff" and headed into God's perfect plan for our family. It just put us into kind of a different Christmas mood than we expected. For the first time ever, I couldn't think of a single thing I wanted!! I can no longer imagine spending hundreds of dollars on one single item, when that amount of money would literally save a starving baby for an entire year. I feel bad when I think of what it would be like to bring one of those sweet Honduran children to our home to give them the "tour". We have four bedrooms and two living rooms, two of those bedrooms and an extra living room that we never even used!! Things just feel different now. We were able to spend a little more time focusing on what the true meaning of Christmas is for us, celebrating Jesus and what he has in store for us this next year.
Of course, this route isn't for everyone. We can't all be over in Honduras. That's silly. But we are so very happy to be part of this venture. We have learned so much about what it means to truly love people. What it truly means to be humbled and vulnerable. We've seen so many around us who need help, right here in America.
So as we head into 2013, here's what it looks like for us... We are currently sleeping on a couch hide-a-bed mattress and air beds. We were given a decent couch that we are using to sit on during our last month here, then we will give it away again when we move. Kasey has just notified his office that we will be moving into missions, and he is making his final preparations there. Other than that, I have joined a couple local facebook buy/sell pages and have been selling off little things here and there to dwindle down everything we will take back to TX in order to be able to fit it into a 6x12 trailer and the back of our truck. Believe me, that's not much room for ANYTHING.
We will be in TX by the 1st of February 2013 and will be moving to "Hondy" in April.
We can't wait to see all of our friends and family again! We will spend as much time with everyone as possible before we head out into our new home deep in the rainforest. Can't wait to see where we will be at the end of 2013!
Love to all!
