We are sorry for the lack of an update since Christmas time.
All of us have been busy! We now have two kids/siblings that have moved out. Matthew moved out in January, giving Michael and Kiffer their own rooms and Abby and myself (Dara) now hold ownership of the master bedroom upstairs. It's hard to adjust to sitting down to a family dinner and only setting 7 (or sometimes less) plates out instead of 8 or 9! Though the rest of the clan loves the room arrangement, we all miss Cliff and Matthew!!!
Minnie (aka: Mimi) has been doing well. She started therapy back this past week. She has new orthopedic boots that will help stretch her feet out and she'll gain more strength in her legs. We are confident that she'll be walking again. We've been reminding her that the joy of the Lord is her strength and that she is more than a conquerer through Christ... And she is quick to remind us that she's been reading those verses before any of us were born!
Patience: What a word. It is an ability, a quality. We've found out that it truly lives up to its own name in that it takes time to learn such a skill. It reminds me of Superman. He had the ability to fly, but it took him some time to figure out how to use it. We're great at being patient in some places, but others, the Lord is really working on with us. This is definitely a season of life where we are all having to learn this.
We are eager to move to Alabama, but we have to be patient for our house to rent. We would love for it to rent right about now... But we are waiting for God to bring the perfect people to live in this place we call home.
We want Mimi to walk again, but we have to be patient for God's timing.
I hate saying we "have to wait"... It makes us sound, well, impatient... But we ARE! That's why God is working with us :) The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control... Unfortunately, there's no "Moving to Alabama 101" section in the Bible. We've got the Lord and we're practicing the fruits of the Spirit in every way we know how. We're getting prepared for some crazy journey, that's all I know.
Saying that reminds me of the scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the Pevensie kids are going across the frozen river, but almost fall through the ice. When the beaver steps in and beats the ice with his tail to make sure it's safe, the kids follow in his footsteps. Well, the Lord is just telling us to be patient and carefully follow in His footsteps. I don't mean to compare God to a talking beaver, but it was a good analogy.
I kind of saw this picture of God juggling our house situation, Mimi's whole situation, and pretty much our lives. I'm glad God has a steady hand and won't drop anything in this juggling act. I'm sure if we tried all of this on our own, it would fall through the cracks faster than you can say failure. Trusting Him is all we can do for now! He's got the blueprints for our lives and knows the next step to building this path for us. Isn't the Lord good? He has been consistently faithful, not just in the past year, since Mimi's accident, but through our whole lives. Putting us together as a family, and the events that led up to the marriage of my parents. All of it. He was there and He's still with us.
I'm reminded of something that Cliff said when he was teaching one day at Joy Outreach Fellowship. He said that God challenges us. He's with us, but He doesn't mind putting his kids up to a challenge. Cliff said it's kind of like a father that is teaching their child to walk. They say "come on! You've got this! Keep going!!" then when the child takes that step, the father takes another step backwards. It challenges his child to walk one more step to get into their father's arms. Another thing Cliff said during that teaching was that we're not made to sit down and buckle up. If we want to experience the full joy of the roller coaster, we've got to throw our hands in the air and have fun. (is anyone besides me singing Taio Cruz's song Dynamite here??)
This entire experience with Mimi has put us in an almost organized chaos. I'm not sure what's next, but I think I can speak for all of us that are going to be in Alabama, all we want is to be down there. We're sick of being "part-time" Alabamans... We want the full time job of living in the South!
Thanks for reading this! Please continue to pray for us in our move, for Mimi and us, or, if you don't know what to pray... Then pray until you know what to pray about! :)
We love all of you very, very much!
-Dara
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