A lot of fires

I've been home a week and it has been good. I've gotten a lot done, but it seems there is always more to do. I see the end in sight. This morning the counseling pastor at the church here told me that every 3 moves in a marriage is the same stress as one fire. We're going on 4 fires now (that's about 12 moves in our 17 years of marriage for those of you not good at division).

I always think that I'm doing fine with the stress of our moves and then my body says otherwise. So I'm here to ask for your prayers for my body and the stress it is feeling. This morning I woke up with a stiff neck and head ache. I've been fighting a knot that wants to control my shoulder with pain for a month now. And then this afternoon heartburn struck. I rarely get heart burn. But I think it is heart burn from stress, if there can be such a thing. Deep breathing is also hard to do right now.

So please pray for me in these weeks ahead and even more so in these next few days. I need to deal with the stress as God would have me deal with it. I'm not even sure what that means. Thanks for your prayers.

Home again

I returned home from my travels last night. I think I fell to sleep in about 2.5 seconds last night and I awoke at 4 a.m., finally giving up the thought of going back to sleep at 4:30 a.m. and crawled out of bed.

We had great meetings in Turkey and I had a wonderful time with my mom and my sister, Becky, in Holland and Germany. We definitely built a lot of great memories in our time together. My friends wedding was beautiful and it was just so fun to be able to be her witness in the Catholic church of Germany.

It was also a great time of relaxation for all of us. My mom really needed the time away and even though she came home exhausted, she was also refreshed to continue as the caregiver for my dad. She commented many times how she felt God was really filling her with his presence.

I'm ready to conquer the rest of the packing for our return to Moldova. That says that relaxation happened!

So today please pray:
1. That my mom would continue to feel the presence of God in her life and with her as she deals with my dad. Daily we face new challenges with his deteriorating health and physically and emotionally it is so much for my mom. Please pray for her, Evelyn.

2. For all the details of packing. There is still so much to do. It is absolutely overwhelming and at times we look around and don't even know where to start. Please pray that God gives us clarity in the packing in the next week.

3. For the details of shipping. Shipping a container is so complicated when it is something you've never done in your life! It is also complicated shipping into Moldova. Will you pray that we can get the rest of the details worked out in the next few days and that we can get this done and ready to go?

We are excited about our return to Moldova in about 6 weeks. It is hard to believe the time is already here and we are excited about it. Blessings.