A Full House, a Second Chance, and a Trip Home
Life is busier than ever with ministry, parenting, outreach, and homeschool, but this season brings new hope as we welcome our daughter back, prepare for more help in the mission.
Evangeleen and our first batch of kids
Seems like Everytime I write it has been a long time! It also seems like everytime I write I just get busier and busier! There is just so much going on that requires my attention! When you have 6 teen/pre-teen girls and 2 teenage boys any spare second is quickly confiscated by someone needing attention. Not to mention the 30 other kids who text, show up or call for someone to cry to. It seems that 20 somethings only call when things are bad and when things are good just disappear. I can relate though, that’s how I was too! Only showing up to eat, calling to complain or disappearing into the night, leaving my mom to wonder if I was dead or alive half the time.
I have to say though as my kids get older they do get more fun. We are able to do so much more because they are so much more capable than they were just a few years ago! Playing basketball with them is just starting to get interesting, paintball they killed me, they can lead outreach, more responsible in house chores, taking up responsibilities in church, taking care of the younger kids, running together and working out is just so much better now!
Kids with some great Longboards they won.
But with outreach, youth group, church, taxes, blogs, social media posting, coaching, school events, basketball and homeschooling, time just doesn’t exist for me anymore! It feels like I am always being pulled one way or the other and my wife and I are barely able to find time for each other! But the great thing is that we always get to spend time with people we love! Now we can do everything we used to do alone, with our kids! They aren’t always the best or the brightest but, boy are they willing!
Speaking of Taxes check out our financials!
All that to say our hardest daughter is coming back! When she moved out at 19 she was a K-pop addict, obsessed with boys, couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it, a kleptomaniac and as lazy as they come! Don’ get me wrong we still loved her and most of our kids come with an assortment of the same problems, but she could just never kick the bad habits. She failed out of school, too lazy for homeschool and too boy crazy to complete her GED program. Finally we decided that the real world needed to slap her in the face! We let her go.
Lamentations 3:22-23: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
She moved back to her hometown staying with her grandma and off and on with her mom. Every month it seemed, she had a new facebook account, a new name and new phone number after a year we lost contact as we grew tired of trying to keep up with her and just continued praying for her. Every now and then for the last 5 years we would get random message from a random FB account and it would be her asking for money and/or prayer. That was the pattern!
Paintball with the boys!
Then about a year ago she seemed to have settled down with a job selling water filters, the calls were coming, but from the same account and no money was asked for. She was in school completing her GED. She was living with her mom again and seemed to be going okay for the first time in a long time. I don’t want to get into her boy situation because it wasn’t ideal, but it seemed she was making steps towards growth! We weren’t happy with all of her decisions but it seemed she was growing and we were proud of that!
In the last three months those good calls turned to tears! Always fighting with her mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Living in a house that is just one small open room and being the third wheel to a newly formed couple, doesn’t sound like a recipe for fun times.
So, we offered her a way out. We gave her 2 options:
Come and visit us. Be our daughter come and stay with us for 1 month with no expectations or bills, look for work and get on your feet and move into place with some friends.
Come and stay with us, with expectations. Come and work; cook, clean and teach! Attend church and family worships, draw nearer to God and hopefully fully develop a relationship with Him.
She chse option 2.
So, at the end of this month our hardest and most complicated daughter will be coming back at 25 yrs old to help us in our mission! Everybody deserves a second chance, even Jonah got one! We are excited see her again! We love her dearly but are afraid her commitment to God and growth, aren’t that serious but we are hoping for the best! We made a deal with her that if she is able to work with us for a year we will help her go to school. She has always wanted to make clothes and she found a program that will help her do that. The program is 2yrs and is $300 a semester.
The school she wants to attend.
At the beginning of June she will be moving back and looking to start work! We are desperate for the help and are praying that she will be the help we are looking for!
Our hope is that coming home she will solidify herself in the Lord. That she will realize how much better her life is when she follows God and gives Him control of her life.
Proverbs 22:6: "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Also, We are coming back to the states! September 11th - November 17th, we have 8 weekends we need to fill with Thai cooking classes. If anyone knows somewhere we can do cooking classes, please let me know!
Prayer Requests:
Nadi is in the hospital again and not doing very well.
Nadi in the hospital with the meds we sent her
2. Pii Knee has stage 4 breast cancer and is doing better.(she is the one in the skirt thing)
3. Our trip to the US and our fundraising.
4. Our daughter coming to work with us.
5. Our children’s hearts