Surviving and Thriving

so, blogging has not been a priority for me lately. Survival has. And, I'm happy to say that we are moving out of the survival stage. I grew up in Buras, and my extended family was all around us. The saying "It takes a village to raise a child" can easily be applied there. My children's village will look different. Bella knows who her grandparents are. She's really good with names and faces. She often pretends to call her Popie (my dad) whenever she gets a hold of a phone. But, she doesn't see our family every day or whenever she wants to like I grew up doing. It's just different being a US missionary. It's not the same sacrifices as a world missionary makes, but there are a lot of sacrifices.
The thing about being a missionary is that you are sent. We've been sent to a group of college students who need to know about Jesus...because if they don't meet Him now, there is a small chance that they ever will. So, there is a huge responsibility in front of us. We are training our student leaders to reach out to their roommates, classmates, and peers so that we can work together to reach the 19,000 students in Lafayette. It's working. Our events have been blowing up this semester so far!
The one thing we don't want to sacrifice is our family. It's weird saying that we're a family of 4 now. That's just crazy. We want our kids to love Chi Alpha, to love being missionaries to UL, to love the Lord. In order to do that, we need to put them first before the ministry. We have to work hard to do that.
For a while I felt like if I wasn't at a Chi Alpha event, I should be at home. I don't know why I thought that way - besides the fact that Bella is really fast and it is hard to chase her around! I've decided to participate in a women's Bible study at our church Crossroads on Thursdays while Lee is at TNL. They provide childcare, and Bella is loving getting to play with the kids. She easily goes to the nursery now. Praise the Lord! So, tonight will be our first night. I'm really looking forward to it. It feels weird not being with Lee, but before I know it, my kids will be old enough to come to TNL with me or even on their own. Time flies so quickly. I mean, Bella is going to be 2 this weekend. She's a little girl...and we're going to get to spoil her for her birthday like never before. Life for us as missionaries is quite an adventure.