It's less than two weeks away now, and the date seems to be racing toward us.
It seems like there is still a lot that needs to be done between now and our departure. We are making progress in our preparations, but it sure seems like it will be easy to forget something. We are trying to trust and be faithful, even though it feels stressful.
God continues to demonstrate His kindness and power to provide. We are planning to pack our personal effects in one carry on piece of luggage (luggage is commonly lost on these kinds of flights), and we are planning to bring things to leave in Zambia in our checked bags. We didn't have enough luggage for that plan. One of our team members was at a local thrift store looking for luggage on Friday. After talking with a manager about a piece that seemed priced too high at $25 the manager showed her other luggage for sale that wasn't on the store floor. She called E and E went to look at the luggage too... E came away with 6 full size bags to be used for our checked bags for $18! Amazing! So Saturday, we took stock of the carry on bags that we have that we could use. We had 2 carry on size suitcases with wheels and handles for easy transport through airports. We decided that the 2 youngest kids could pack in duffle bags (which we have) and those could be toted on top of the rolling carry on suitcases. That left us with only unwheeled luggage, and we thought it wise to try to find at least two more wheeled carry on size suitcases. Our plan was to go back and look at thrift stores and hope for another amazing deal. Well, before we went shopping, I took my son over to mow some lawns (two couples have been supporting us by paying us to mow their lawns this summer). After the first lawn was completed, I was chatting with the man and I told him of our luggage story. He said, "hold on, let me call my wife." It turns out they had 4 suitcases that they were planning on giving away to a thrift store, and two of them were the carry on size that we were looking for! God sure is amazing!
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Just a little more practice...
The countdown is on! We have just 19 days until we leave. We made a paper chain to help with our countdown. It is exciting to see it getting shorter and shorter!
Next Sunday we are going to start taking our malaria medicine. It's a natural medicine and we have to take it for 14 days before we leave, the whole time we are in Zambia and then for 14 days after we return. Now for some this is not a big deal, but for our kids, especially our 2nd born daughter it is worse than getting a shot :) You see, this malaria medication involves swallowing a pill, and it is pretty big. And for our daughter, she cannot swallow even the tiniest pill. She detests medicine and I avoid giving it to her at all costs. She will throw up taking tylenol and if she ever has to take an anti-biotic I have to give her several pep talks and a milkshake :) It's really a frustration for both of us.
So, here we are, just a week away from taking medication for the next 42 days and she is practicing swallowing tic-tacs. And praise God, she finally did it this morning! It took her two tic-tacs and about 15 minutes of encouragement but she did it. So, will you please pray with us that during this week, with just a little more practice she might be able to swallow the "pill" with no problem, so the bigger malaria medicine will not be so intimidating? Thank you in advance for your prayers. And if you have any suggestions for how she might have an easier time swallowing a pill feel free to let us know :)
Believe it or not our youngest child learned pretty quickly how to swallow his tic tac and now just likes practicing because it tastes good...
Also, we are scheduled to get our Yellow Fever shot on Wednesday of this week. We will all be glad when this is over. It has been a frustrating experience to not know if this vaccination was necessary and how expensive it is. But again, we are trusting that God has a plan for this and I am going to let it go now and not complain about the circumstance anymore.
Blessings ~ Erin
Next Sunday we are going to start taking our malaria medicine. It's a natural medicine and we have to take it for 14 days before we leave, the whole time we are in Zambia and then for 14 days after we return. Now for some this is not a big deal, but for our kids, especially our 2nd born daughter it is worse than getting a shot :) You see, this malaria medication involves swallowing a pill, and it is pretty big. And for our daughter, she cannot swallow even the tiniest pill. She detests medicine and I avoid giving it to her at all costs. She will throw up taking tylenol and if she ever has to take an anti-biotic I have to give her several pep talks and a milkshake :) It's really a frustration for both of us.
So, here we are, just a week away from taking medication for the next 42 days and she is practicing swallowing tic-tacs. And praise God, she finally did it this morning! It took her two tic-tacs and about 15 minutes of encouragement but she did it. So, will you please pray with us that during this week, with just a little more practice she might be able to swallow the "pill" with no problem, so the bigger malaria medicine will not be so intimidating? Thank you in advance for your prayers. And if you have any suggestions for how she might have an easier time swallowing a pill feel free to let us know :)
Believe it or not our youngest child learned pretty quickly how to swallow his tic tac and now just likes practicing because it tastes good...
Also, we are scheduled to get our Yellow Fever shot on Wednesday of this week. We will all be glad when this is over. It has been a frustrating experience to not know if this vaccination was necessary and how expensive it is. But again, we are trusting that God has a plan for this and I am going to let it go now and not complain about the circumstance anymore.
Blessings ~ Erin
Saturday, July 6, 2013
a few nerves... mostly excitement
Good morning~
I woke this morning thinking about traveling to Zambia. I'm a little bit anxious but mostly excited! Time must be approaching quickly... I'm feeling pressure about making sure that our family is ready to leave. Not only physically ready, but spiritually and emotionally too.
We found out this past weekend that our team has met our financial goal! Isn't that amazing? God is faithful. As I've been praying these past few months, I've been praising Him that He can be nothing but faithful! I'm so thankful for that. Life can be so up and down and I'm thankful for the trust that I can put in God's faithfulness. I just found out this morning that we need to get the yellow fever vaccine. That is very expensive, and we are bummed about having to get it. But I am thankful for an answer in my email box that was very decisive. (There was quite a bit of confusion about if this shot was necessary or not.) God is faithful and He knew that when we booked our flights through South Africa that we would need this shot... so I will trust in His plan and hold loosely to our finances. We are still needing to save for traveling expenses. But I trust that God has this under control too.
I wanted to share another example of God's blessing on our family as we prepare for Zambia. We just recently got our immunizations (all of them except Yellow Fever). As I was getting information about what we needed to get and making the appointment for our family to go to a travel clinic, I somehow managed to call 2 different travel clinics (I did not realize this). I did think it was strange to be quoted two different prices for a consultation. One place said it would be $65/person. Another place said it would be a $98 group fee. I just thought, "Huh, maybe the group fee is something the first person didn't know about." (I was still thinking this was one clinic.) Well, as time went on, it was brought to my attention that there were in fact two different travel clinics and I'd better call the clinic we had our appt. at to clear up the consultation price. $65/person (6 people in our family) vs. $98 is quite significant! After being on hold for a few minutes with the clinic that has the $98 group fee, the woman came back on the phone and pleasantly said, "Well, it looks like it will be $98." I couldn't believe it and asked why it was so drastically different than the other place. She said, "Actually, it is supposed to be $98/person, but because you were quoted a $98 group fee we will stand by it". I couldn't help but smile and say, "Well, that is God's blessing to our family, isn't it?" She laughed and said, "Yes, it is." That saved our family $500! The immunizations were still plenty expensive, but God has been so good to us.
It's been a humbling experience to raise support for our family to travel together. We've seen God provide for us over and over again. I want to say Thank You to each of you who have supported us financially, but also Thank You to each of you who are lifting our family up in prayer. We don't know exactly how we will be different when we come home from Zambia. I know we need the finances to get there. But we need the prayer for our hearts to be ready. We will be changed in some way and we want to be soft to whatever God's plan is.
Blessings ~ Erin
I woke this morning thinking about traveling to Zambia. I'm a little bit anxious but mostly excited! Time must be approaching quickly... I'm feeling pressure about making sure that our family is ready to leave. Not only physically ready, but spiritually and emotionally too.
We found out this past weekend that our team has met our financial goal! Isn't that amazing? God is faithful. As I've been praying these past few months, I've been praising Him that He can be nothing but faithful! I'm so thankful for that. Life can be so up and down and I'm thankful for the trust that I can put in God's faithfulness. I just found out this morning that we need to get the yellow fever vaccine. That is very expensive, and we are bummed about having to get it. But I am thankful for an answer in my email box that was very decisive. (There was quite a bit of confusion about if this shot was necessary or not.) God is faithful and He knew that when we booked our flights through South Africa that we would need this shot... so I will trust in His plan and hold loosely to our finances. We are still needing to save for traveling expenses. But I trust that God has this under control too.
I wanted to share another example of God's blessing on our family as we prepare for Zambia. We just recently got our immunizations (all of them except Yellow Fever). As I was getting information about what we needed to get and making the appointment for our family to go to a travel clinic, I somehow managed to call 2 different travel clinics (I did not realize this). I did think it was strange to be quoted two different prices for a consultation. One place said it would be $65/person. Another place said it would be a $98 group fee. I just thought, "Huh, maybe the group fee is something the first person didn't know about." (I was still thinking this was one clinic.) Well, as time went on, it was brought to my attention that there were in fact two different travel clinics and I'd better call the clinic we had our appt. at to clear up the consultation price. $65/person (6 people in our family) vs. $98 is quite significant! After being on hold for a few minutes with the clinic that has the $98 group fee, the woman came back on the phone and pleasantly said, "Well, it looks like it will be $98." I couldn't believe it and asked why it was so drastically different than the other place. She said, "Actually, it is supposed to be $98/person, but because you were quoted a $98 group fee we will stand by it". I couldn't help but smile and say, "Well, that is God's blessing to our family, isn't it?" She laughed and said, "Yes, it is." That saved our family $500! The immunizations were still plenty expensive, but God has been so good to us.
It's been a humbling experience to raise support for our family to travel together. We've seen God provide for us over and over again. I want to say Thank You to each of you who have supported us financially, but also Thank You to each of you who are lifting our family up in prayer. We don't know exactly how we will be different when we come home from Zambia. I know we need the finances to get there. But we need the prayer for our hearts to be ready. We will be changed in some way and we want to be soft to whatever God's plan is.
Blessings ~ Erin
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