February 15th - Settlers and Stories

     Coming back to where you have lived for a long time is always an interesting time, how do you see everyone yet also do what you need to do, and not get worn out through it all. Going shopping for food here in the US is not as easy as it used to be, we are still overwhelmed by the choice and availability of everything one might want. I suppose we have been living across the street from the Co-op shop in Overton for a couple of years but it is only the size of most produce areas in supermarkets here. Enough complaining though, we are having a great time in Goshen with our church family in this area. When leaving Family Worship Centre some 3 1/2 years ago we really felt sent out and that feeling has not changed for us, it is a very welcoming and comfortable place for us to be, even if that be only for a few weeks per year.

     The first weekend of being here has been great, we have caught up with many friends built up over the years of living here. Our good friends Jeremy and Ang had us over simply to hang out with them and their kids on Saturday, that is so cool to be able to join others in their lives. This was followed on Sunday by attending the church meeting where a familiar topic of discipleship was spoken on, always good to hear about how we are to walk and grow in Christ. After a fine lunch at Hacienda one of the staples of dining in Goshen a church wide games party was thrown and a large crowd came out for the event. For the strategy gamers there was Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Euchre and War for card gamers and party-like games upstairs for most of the gals.  It is such a blessing to spend time with our friends, here to see their children growing up, and be encouraged by their walks with Christ as they go through ups and downs like we are. There have been some adoption type things going on as well over this weekend.

     For those of you who have been through any kind of adoption process you'll appreciate that privacy and knowing when/what to say is a key feature of the story. That is our experience as well, there have been some background stories taking place that we don't feel we can be very open with, at least until the timing is right. One of these background stories took place in our first week here as we answered an email while in England about adopting a newborn through a private situation. Of course we were very excited about this possibility and began looking for either open or closed doors. We often talk about God being able to open any door and while that is true, He might be better at closing doors before we either walk into them or get into the next room without a way out. In this case the door was open for a short period of time and now it seems as though it has effectively closed. As you can expect this has not been easy for us, but it is all part of the story and adventure that God has us embarked upon.