Saying good-bye. . .cherishing the season . . .

Saying good-by to my favorite toys for the children reminded me of saying good-bye to seasons of my childrens' lives…

The big blue and white car Valerie had as a little toddler and then pushed Victor around in, we gave away this summer to the nursery of AFE School. A school that was created to educate children who live and work in the garbage dump of Tegucigalpa.

I have so many memories tied up with that toy. As you can observe, my father taking a picture of his grand-daughter playing on it without even realizing that he’d put her bathing suit on backwards!

While we were overjoyed to see our children give generously, and we were delighted to see the other kids play with the toys and yet I confess my heart felt a twinge of nostalgia.

In the same manner when I gave away our children’s car seats today, I remembered the years of service they provided and it made me realize that my kids are getting older. It makes me want to cling to my children and not let them grow up. The pain of watching your children grow from one stage to another is real. It hurts. The twinge of pain is there even as you welcome the next stage of life. Probably these feelings are heightened by the fact that my kids have been at their grandparents for a week. But, I choose to accept the nostalgia as a normal, natural part of raising children and certainly not glossing over the pain will remind me to cherish the moments of this season all the more.

Prayer requests:

Before school starts end of August, pray for Mommy to fully engage as wife and Mommy as these last couple of months I have been focused significantly on work what with our trip to Costa Rica in May (see pics and news http://tiny.cc/DrAvd ), our trip to El Salvador in June (see pics and news http://tiny.cc/GUh4a ) and this July hosting the Short Term Missions team from one of my supporting churches, North Way Christian Community (see links of pics and news http://tiny.cc/Q9Gen ) and on top of that , these last two weeks I made the final push to finalize a study of Christian Camping International, Latin America's (CCI/LA) leadership. We are trying to figure out why we are not forming new, up and coming leadership at the National Association level. If you are interesting in finding out the details (and reading 54 pages), I have posted my paper for my class at Trinity on Slideshare, I'll be posting it in a few days (click here to see it: http://www.slideshare.net/lisaandersonumana/slideshows )

Praise God for how Alfredo continues to experience God's grace and favor on his business.

Pray for us as a family as we take these last weeks of summer vacation to learn to consistently respond to God's invitation to be with Him (quiet times, Bible readings, and taking a Sabbath rest).