In a nut shell: we moved, Kylie turned 1, I turned 31, Matt turned 27, I weaned Kylie, we were blessed with the opportunity to go to San Diego to be with our family for Thanksgiving, Kylie took her first steps, came back to Oradea, been enjoying time with my good friend Beth, we had a women's BBQ in Sabolciu, and today we are enjoying the first snow of the winter season!
It's been a very emotional and exciting time for the Loroña family to be sure!
My little baby girl is quickly becoming a toddler, which is crazy and exciting...next thing on the list is getting rid of the binkie and eventually potty training! Eeek! I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up. We were so blessed to be able to be home with our amazing family for Thanksgiving. It was a prayer of ours and Nana's that Kylie would take her first steps while we were there so Nana could see it. Not only did Nana see it, she got it on film!
We have so many things to be thankful for this holiday season...most of all I am truly thankful for the grace and love from my Father in heaven. It's no secret that it has been a very hard season for me, being in Romania. As someone who really enjoys structure and continuity moving 3 times (one being to the other side of the world) and living in 4 different places AND learning how to be a mom, I've had a hard time seeing God's goodness and blessings.
Ever since we moved into the house we are currently living in the Lord has been really opening my eyes to the reality of His goodness. He began showing me how Romania is my promised land, and how if I wasn't careful just as the Israelites didn't enter their promised land because of unbelief, neither would I enter into the promised land He had for me. He began to show me how like the waves are driven by the wind, I was also driven by the wind of my emotions (which has kept me from truly being firmly planted in my relationship with Him) and how I had allowed them to become giants in my promised land. Also I began to see how I have a hard time believing that He WILL do good things and that it's okay to expect Him to do good things. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm sort of a negative nancy. I tend to be a glass half empty person. I'm good at hiding it most of the time, but it's there and it's been there for a very long time. Well I guess the Lord had had enough of my negative attitude, so He also began to show me how I do not trust Him...how I protect myself by not expecting good things to happen, that way I don't get my hopes up which keeps me from being dissapointed...
ugh
It was sort of alot all at once really...realizing I'm a debbie downer who is fickle and has a shallow relationship with the Lord. BUT these revelations opened my eyes to the reality of His goodness which I had been missing all along.
So right as I began to realize these things and I started to begin to expect good things, suddenly a surprise trip to San Diego pops up. It was a HUGE blessing and totally unexpected! But that my friends is how my God works :) Being able to rest and spend time with family really helped me to realize a few things:
- San Diego isn't really that far away. I mean it is, but it isn't at the same time. Even though we are far away, friends and family are still their. It was hard initially because everyone felt so incredibly far away. Before we left my sister in law Ashley encouraged me more than words could ever express. She told me that just because we were gonna be far away didn't mean that we weren't still family or that they wouldn't still be there for us when we needed. Going back home just really helped me to see the reality of that truth. Our friends and family were in fact still there and they were still supporting us! Imagine that ha ha!
- San Diego isn't home any more, Romania is. I was concerned that going back would make it harder to come back to Romania, but the fact is it just further confirmed in my heart that Romania is our home now. That doesn't mean that we will never go back to San Diego or that we will be in Romania for forever...but it does mean that we are right where we are supposed to be, and that is what makes Romania home.
Thank you ALL SO MUCH for all your prayer support! We feel your prayers and need them so please keep them coming!!!!
Some things to keep on your prayer radar over the next few weeks are:
- We have 2 new men joing the team in January/Febuary so please be praying for them, for finances and provision and protection from discouragement!
- Christmas! It's hard to be away so my prayer is that our team would really come together as a family so that we would be lacking nothing this holiday season!
- Sabolciu! We are planning a Christmas eve dinner/service. We want to make it a big deal and are planning to invite some of the women who regularly come to church to help us decorate and invite everyone in the village to come celebrate the birth of Christ. This could get a little crazy so pray that there would unity in the village. They easily divide themselves and then feel like one side is getting more favor than the other. So please pray for peace!
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