It's been an interesting few weeks. I must admit, not at all like I thought they would be. We are still waiting on Owen to make his appearance, much to my frustration at times. I am reminded in my heart though, and even by my doctor, that God's timing is best. I suppose since Jack came so early I truly thought Owen would as well, but this little guy is making sure we know he's not his big brother! I have had contractions off and on the last few weeks but nothing seems to pan out. Jack also passed me his cold this weekend and so now I'm thinking I'd like to get over it before going into labor. I'm so fickle! Do you ever find yourself wavering like me? I sure hope I'm not alone in that!
Joel has been making great progress here at mom's house in the rhelm of cleaning out! He has dubbed himself the "clean sweep" host of the Stroud house! Mom has graciously agreed to go along with him and we are now seeing the basement once again! I think we might actually have it usable by the time we leave to go back to Indonesia. We plan to install the windows and fence in early May and with those projects done, mom will be able to see some long time goals accomplished! We are also making headway with getting her stable and organized financially and are seeing God provide for her in some amazing ways – this year she loves the IRS!!
Joel and I aren't so in love with Uncle Sam this year. We just found out that contrary to what we thought, we won't qualify for overseas exemption for last year as we missed the qualifying number of days out of country by about 30. We are now praying God will show us how He is going to provide in spite of our mistake. We are details-oriented people but we really missed it on this one! God has already shown us His ability to provide for our every need just in the past 2 weeks. With medical bills mounting (baby bills and Joel to see an allergist), we weren't sure how they would get paid but just the other day, God used a current supporter and friend and his generous heart to meet a very specific need. You want to know the truly humbling part, this frined is currently going through a very difficult personal struggle but still, in spite of what could overwhelm him he was looking to the Lord still to know how he could be a blessing to us! Isn't the body of Christ amazing. We truly are never alone.
We have now met with our language helper 3 times (2 of which we spoke only Indonesian) and we are so encouraged with how God met that need. She is a wonderful gal who has blessed us by giving of her time to help us. I was nervous as to how I would do but have seemingly slipped into speaking Indonesian with only a few gliches. We have covered so many amazing topics which each stretch our vocabulary and use of grammer. She is from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and there they have their own way of speaking that is very different that where we were living in Central Java but even so, we have been able to understand her and are even picking up new things from her. Our language training was in very formal Indonesian and so it's been good to loosen up a bit!
Well that's all from this home front. Lord willing our next update will be an ANNOUNCEMENT! Till then…
Bethany
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