Happy 4th of July

Well, it is the 4th of July. This day is special to me for several reasons. Not only is it Independence day for our home country but it is also Shannon's and my anniversary. We were married 19 years ago today. It seems amazing to me that it has been 19 whole years and on the other hand, it is even more amazing to me that it has been ONLY 19 years. When I look at how our marriage first started-where we were and what we have been through-it is amazing to me that we are where we are today. God truly does raise up the weak so that what is done, is done to His glory.

On Sunday our church did a wonderful patriotic program called Celebrate America. We started with some praise and worship, then the Armed Services anthem was sung by our choir. As each of the branches song was played the church asked for veterans of those branches to come forward to be apreciated. I always have mixed feelings about this. I am glad to see the veterans recognized but as a veteran I find it very uncomfortable up there, especially because Shannon and I are usually the only Marines up there besides the Marine in uniform portraying our branch. Unfortunately this year, Shannon was home in bed very sick. He was dizzy and nauseous and stayed in bed all day. There was another Marine that went forward with me. I had never seen him before. The Marine portraying our branch is an active duty Marine that was injured in Iraq and received a purple heart. I just love the dress blues of our branch and he wore them well. My mom and dad, sister Corryn, and her boyfriend Matt,. joined us for the service. Then we went to mom and dads lake place for dinner, the annual 4th of July waterfight, visiting, grilling supper and a bonfire. It was a fun day but we all wished Shannon could have been there.

Yesterday we went to Shannon's brother's home. They recently moved to a farm and we had a BBQ and bonfire there too. We didn't get home until 1AM and all of the kids feel asleep in the van on the way home. We slept in this morning.

Today Shannon and our oldest son are doing some yardwork. I am doing laundry and cleaning. Tonight some dear friends are coming out for supper, fireworks and a bonfire. We haven't had time with them for awhile and are looking forward to it. We usually see them just at church each week. It is so hard sometimes to find the time to maintain friendships. We are looking forward to their visit.

We can't help but wonder if we will be here, in Minnesota, for the next 4th of July. We hate the thought of taking our children away from family and friends and traditions, for the new and unknown, and yet we both know we have to obey God's call. We are certain that this is God's will for us and know that our entire family will be truly blessed if we walk in the way He wants us to. We are looking at Tanzania as our Promised Land. I wish to share a portion of an email I received from another family looking at moving to Africa for the same reason but in a diferent location,

"This is what God said in Numbers 14:31 about the children of the first generation. 'But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.' That generation used their children as a reason to not go into the promised land. I'm not saying, go or don't go. But don't hold your children up as the reason you don't go."

So, we shall put feet to our faith and trust Him to prepare a way. We wil trust Him to comfort us and our loved ones through the transition.