One of the most amazing things in our time of unexpected "delay"--I say that with inadequate words to say how thankful we have been for how things have unfolded--it has been very hard at times, but just amazing things have happened, too. Anyway, one of the most amazing things has been provision of this house. All of our personal connections had fallen through, so I remembered a colleague in England--a doctor in Aaron's program--who had quit his job and was living with friends as he is exploring ideas in community health. He just emailed churches in the Liverpool area and asked if anyone would be willing to house him during his stay for the program. It was such a moving act of faith in the church and God to provide. So, we began on Friday to call churches in Sunnyvale, the town where our teammates, the Hines, live. Nothing came through with several calls. It was moving into Friday afternoon and I called another church who had an answering machine with a message saying the office was closed, but if you had an emergency, call such and such number. I thought, this is an emergency--we can't keep staying with our friends and we have no other options--although my parents graciously offered us to stay on at their house in Houston. I'm 38, with my husband, 3 kids and sleeping on the couch at my parents--sold our stuff, following a call to Africa and get deterred with no end in sight? Man, this is low!! So, I called the number and got a surprised pastor, who graciously told me 3 churches in the area who have houses. The other two did not work out--houses filled, but First Baptist Garland had a house that would be available in the time we needed!
Wow. I cannot say enough about this community and their generosity. It has been the most loving, gentle place to have a crisis. We have really recovered here and have a beautiful place to stabilize. One of the things that has surprised me about having a health crisis is how disorienting it is--no end in sight, occasional serious issues and trying to live a normal life and help kids through their lives is a little difficult. So, three cheers for FBC Garland! We are now in full spring and whoever has done this garden over the years has created a virtual symphony of bloom--everyday we wake up, there is something cool coming and going in bloom!!!! Awesome.
The front of the house.
Holly bushes!
The view from the porch...
Some of side yard flowers...
Early rose blooms--we have 2 bushes, the other is pink. The cool thing about this is that there is a bee hive in our garage! Maybe that's why the flowers are so cool?
A fig tree--we often have had a fig tree in our yard or neighbors, and this is no exception!
Garland is a town FULL of iris--many, many varieties. We have yellow, white and purple in several places in our yard.
A porch with rockers!!!!
This house has two yards and it is a dreamland for the kids--there are several trees to climb and lots and lots of room to do their thing. This the magnolia tree in the front yard.
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