"Even though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10
In my world, in the last few days and weeks, it feels like the mountains actually have departed and all the hills have been shaken. No, scratch that simple shaking business: they've been removed. As if the earth has melted right out from underneath my feet. That could sound incredibly frightening, or to my Dutch husband, that sounds a tad bit mellow-dramatic, but regardless of how it sounds, it's actually true! Yet the peace and joy and laughter that overflows from our hearts in the midst of this overwhelming storm tells of a God who is orchestrating every single detail around us...
So what exactly is going on over here? Well first off, I apologize for the radio silence lately. I hardly knew what to say while we were in the eye of the storm. Let me tell you about a few major updates we really want our dear friends and family to be aware of...
1. Edgar's job at Natural Composites ended.
Yes, it's true. For the last 17 months Edgar has been employed at Natural Composites, but as of May 1 that was no longer the case. Natural Composites had to change its strategy and this required a down-size. Edgar was one of the people they had to let go. Simple as that, from one day to the next, he didn't have a job anymore. When we accepted this job offer 17 months ago, it was a calculated risk we were willing to take to join a start-up company, but we counted the cost and don't regret it for one second.
2. The babies home we are adopting from in Uganda is pausing all international adoptions.
Within a couple days of finding out about Edgar's job, we received this little piece of information from our adoption agency. Talk about crushing, near-devastating news to my heart! It is a slightly complicated situation but this decision is in the best interest of the precious children there. The hope is that when they begin referring babies for international adoptions again (atleast 6 months from now), the situation will be even better for everyone involved. We just don't quite know when that will be... At the moment we FINALLY finished absolutely everything we need to do on our end, and as of May 9 we got put on the waiting list of families! We are currently at the veeeerrrrrrryyyy bottom, but atleast the only place we can move forward from here is up. This is me seeing the cup half full. :-)
3. We are selling our home, and we are moving...we just don't quite know where yet.
I know. I can hardly believe it either. But when 1+1=2, it is hard to deny the facts. College Station is a very small town in Texas, and there just isn't much of a future for Edgar's career here. After looking high and low in this town, we felt a clear direction from the Lord that the next job He has for Edgar will not be here. The only thing is, we just aren't quite sure where at this point it will be. But when Jesus says "Get out of the boat and come dance on this water with Me!" it's hard to stay sitting...
We put our house on the market May 14 and the first showing was less than 6 hours after it hit the market - woah! There were 7 showings in the first 4 days, and we got an offer on May 17. After negotiating just a tad with them over the weekend, we agreed on the home and signed the contract YESTERDAY (May 20 for those in other times zones). Somehow I can hardly believe it... Our closing date is scheduled for June 27. We are looking for new jobs in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin and Houston.
One month ago today, we had no idea any of these changes were about to transpire. Not even an inkling. In the early days of this month, there were so many moments when I had to calm my heart because everything around me was changing so rapidly. Down in the trenches of the moment, it almost seemed as though our world was crumbling to pieces...but when I lifted my head up and steadied my heart on the King of all Kings, it became so comfortingly clear that He was perfectly orchestrating every single detail in our lives. He continued to remind me that I need only eat from the Tree of Life and not focus on eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There were and still are SO many questions and pieces of knowledge I wanted to know: what in the world is going on around us and how is all this going to work out and where is "home" and Lord are you sure you know what you're doing? But beautifully, gloriously, as we literally just sit here and soak in His presence and find our delight in Him, He is unfolding His plan day by day in PERFECT timing.
I promise I will update again much sooner this time as things continue to progress! We covet your prayers in the days to come...
