just waiting

Have you ever felt like you were waiting on something in life? Well, these days I have a list of things we're waiting for! Here are a few of them:

1. A house- We have been living out of boxes and suitcases for 10 months! 10 MONTHS!!! We packed our bags in November to start our transition back to America for 6 months and all our stuff is still in boxes...I give myself pep talks that typically sound like this, "that stuff in boxes is just stuff" "You are hard-core, you don't need a home to be happy", "don't be materialistic, you don't REALLY NEED all that stuff"...and so far that has worked...but last week someone told us the house that we think we really want is about to be open so my hopes were up and then dashed when we were told it would be Sept. 15 before it would really be available...in that moment I decided it was time for me to have a bad day...Levi has a tendency to get bad days and I pamper and baby him because that is what a woman does...what does Lindsey get when she has a bad day? I get the "man up" speech....so, needless to say, I took the privilege of educating Levi on the importance of me being a girl and having a bad day  once in a while and how he needs to figure out how to find ways to respond to a woman since there is only one in this house right now, but she can pitch a pretty good fit if I really need to!
2. The rain to stop- oh rainy season! So great for the crops here, but so miserable for us! I am finding ways to redeem the time we are stuck in the house by letting wyatt cook with us, play in every kind of mess I can think to put in the bathroom (so I can clean it easier), marching, jumping, dancing around the house as we sing silly songs and laugh, and then taking walks in the couple of hours the rain stops. We have seen many vehicles going off the road these days as the fog is awful and people don't always drive the best around here. Just last week a bus had a blowout and over 40 people died, so many more were injured because people around here travel on top of buses too...rainy season can get depressing for more reasons than one.
3. I am waiting for the Lord to quit beating me up about the poverty in this country and where I fit in that. I feel like the Lord has given me a plan for the homeless and poor but I still don't feel like it is enough. I know Levi is tired of hearing it, but it always tends to come up in conversation. I am thankful for this, don't get me wrong....but man, brokenness for the poor in a country where most are poor is a hard cross to bear.
4. Tate is waiting on the skill to crawl. He is trying so hard these days! He gets on all fours and falls forward to get what he wants...soon!
5. Wyatt is always waiting to do something! A "chill" day doesn't really exist in his vocab unless he is with his daddy. If Levi has to go get the car fixed, ect. I send Wyatt to tag along and he is perfect the whole time. The moment I enter the scene, Wyatt becomes needy again. I bet Levi gives him the "man up" speech!
6. Levi is so ready to get busy busy. He has lots of meetings and is on a 3 day trip right now, but he is just dying for rainy season to end so the roads can be open to do more.

And that is the run down of all that we are waiting for these days!

Change

Change...a word that describes my life all too well, almost day-to-day! Right now our "schedule" has been home a week (when I say "home" I am still referring to my friend's house in Meshobra that we are living in until a house in the area we want to live becomes open, which means we are still living out of boxes and will be until around October), and gone a week. We have been on great trips seeing new friends who plan on moving to our area in a year. Right now they are in language school so we are just trying to encourage them, ect.

Wyatt is so much fun these days and Indians spoil him rotten as always. He loves going to our friends' houses and never seems too uncomfortable. He eats at the table with a spoon and fork by himself, he tries to put on his clothes, he still loves ball and is now really into books and coloring, he loves his brother and can't get enough of him. We are almost over the bottle. He loves juice these days and can't get enough of it. He is a big helper and loves to "cook" with us. We let him sit on the counter with his mixing bowls full of random things like rice, flour, water, ect. and he has a ball. We have a routine at night where we read 2 books, the bible, then sing a silly song and a worship song, then pray and tell everyone goodnight. he likes to pray by himself. It brings tears to your eyes.

Tate is talking all the time (bah, bah, bah), sitting up, and laughing so much. He loves to be kissed! He still sleeps great and has two teeth on the bottom. I thought he was going to be my chilled baby but these days he is moving like crazy. We will see.

The Lord has been working and convicting my heart to live a life and teach my boys to live a life of giving. So today we are packing some of our cold weather clothes and taking them to some kids that really need them. How excessive we tend to be! My kids have 2 winter coats a piece while the kids down the road have thin shirts on that will hardly keep them warm. So Lord, forgive me for my greed and break my heart to meet needs around me. How dare I as a believer fail to take care of those the Lord created? May they understand a God who loves them so much more than I can.

Please continue to bear with us as we have internet that is similar to dial up at the moment! I am dying to post some new pictures, but it will take time.  Love you all and thanks so much for keeping up!