God At Work In Our Family

The most difficult thing about being parents is knowing that your children belong to the Lord. It's not because parents don't want to trust God, but because we don't trust God. We want to. We say we do. But functionally, we tend try to influence our children more than we pray for them. Well, at least that's what we have experienced.

BUT GOD...

That's been the refrain in our family for many years. Whether we intentionally prayed or not, God has always provided. Whether it was health or finances or emotional strength or wisdom or what have you.

Psalm 63:3 says, "Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!" (NLT). We have found that to be true again and again in our family. Praise be to God!

In this post, to give you a sense of God at work in our family, we want to share with you a snippet from each of our kids' perspectives on moving to Germany. They have known about the possibility of this happening for a long time - like for us as parents, it hasn't always been an easy thought.

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SEEING WITH LEYNA'S EYES

Here's a quick view from Leyna's perspective - we asked her to write a story and draw some pictures...

My Germany Journey

For a prayer request, Leyna said, "That I wouldn't be so nervous about moving, especially speaking the language."

CALLIE'S PERSPECTIVE

When we asked Callie about what she is excited about for going to Germany, she said. I'm excited about the room that I'm going to share with my sister, the fact that we are actually going to move there, and that we will have a creek close to our new house.

Here's a picture she drew.

The New Creek

In terms of going to Germany, there are still some concerns. Callie said she's worried about saying something wrong when speaking German. She is also worried about the new school where she doesn't know anyone.

As a prayer request, Callie said, "Please pray that I can find a friend so I won't feel alone."

LORELEI'S POINT OF VIEW

To help convey Lorelei's thoughts about this move, we asked her a few questions.

How have your thoughts about Germany changed over time?

Around a year before we moved to Indianapolis, when we first heard about it, everything just seemed fun. Once we had moved to Indy, it seemed like we would move in just a short time. I was still excited about it even though it seemed like it would come fast. When we didn't actually move to Germany, it just kind of disappeared from my view.

What has always been difficult for me in this journey is that there's always been a lot of waiting. There have been seasons of "Oh, we're moving... soon." But then there have been moments of "Maybe it'll happen in a year or so." It's been confusing and sometimes very difficult.

In the last year or so, I heard my parents talk about it more and more. While it was exciting at some level, the more real it seemed to become, the more worried I got. I became very worried about finding a house, making friends, speaking the language, financial support, and many other things. I was worried about whether we would actually go. It's been kind of a roller coaster that I don't want to be riding. I'm sometimes happy and sometimes sad - I'd rather have it be steady instead of riding these highs and lows.

As time has passed and I have grown, my perspective and thoughts have changed. In recent months, conversations with my parents about my worries have been especially helpful. It's also been good to get more specifics about how things will actually be living in Germany. I learned that not everything will be bad when we move there - I don't have to worry about it all. At the same time, praying and being reminded of Jeremiah 29:11 and Isaiah 43:1-2 have been a great help to me.

What are you looking forward the most?

The things I'm looking forward to is having a real relationship with my family in Germany. My Oma and Opa as well as my dad's cousins, aunts, and uncles, is exciting to me. Although I'm worried about school, I'm excited to be with kids my own age and maybe be more challenged in school. Though I love being homeschooled by mom, it's a different kind of learning environment than being in a school with other kids.

I'm also excited about learning another language and become fluent in it. In some ways I have often thought that I could really fit in in Germany because I've often felt that I may fit in there better than I did here in the US, even though this is my home.

Furthermore, I'm excited to live in another country and culture and be a missionary there.

One of the things that I look forward to most is being able to travel to other countries around Germany and see different cultures, people, and languages. While the US very diverse, Europe is quite different in terms of diversity and language and culture.

I'm not sure if it will happen, but I'm happy about thinking that I may get my own room when we move to Germany.

My prayer request would be that I can be more courageous; I tend be slow to warm up to people, which sometimes makes things difficult. I also want to be courageous about speaking another language - I don't like to make mistakes that's not the best thing when trying to speak a new language. Lastly, I'd love for you to pray for a friend... or a few friends. I don't need many friends, I just would like one or two solid long-term friends.

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As parents, we couldn't be prouder of our children. They have been tremendously courageous and easy to lead. They have been teachable and willing to take huge leaps of faith. We know that God will do great things in our family - that will be the breeding ground for the things that He will do through us.

Thanks for being on the journey with us.