So...It's been a YEAR!

Two of my English students during Taiwan's 10/10 celebration.

It's amazing how quickly the time can fly. Life has been life. It passes way faster than you realize, and then you look at your blog and realize that you haven't posted anything in over a year! Oh my! I don't know if anyone really missed my ramblings but let me apologize for my absence and move on.

So what have we been up to lately? Let me see...

Last time I posted we had just left McCarthy Baptist Church and were praying about God's next step for us. Shortly after that post it was confirmed in our hearts and lives that God was calling us to Taiwan. I know! I was totally shocked too! If you want more of the low down on how that came about please continue reading on our Taiwan Ramblings blog.

The other really big news is WE HAVE A BABY! After one confirmed miscarriage, one possible missed miscarriage, and years of trying to conceive, we landed in Taiwan and conceived a baby within a week. Talk about life changes. We definitely weren't expecting that to happen! Our beautiful little Noelle is now ten weeks old and is thriving. We love her so much and we praise God for the special blessing that is our baby girl. We are honored and humbled to be her parents, and we are striving show her our love and God's love every day.


I know this is a relatively short post compared to all that has been happening but you can find more details on our Taiwan blog. Until next time!

Grace and Peace,

Christiana

Wisdom I Learned from The Sound of Music

When I was growing up, one of my mother's favorite movies of all time was The Sound of Music. She loved it so much that she actually named my baby sister Gretel after the youngest VanTrapp child. Needless to say, I have seen Sound of Music over and over and over.

A little over a week ago, Jimmy found out he was being let go from his position at the church. It was very short notice and definitely unexpected (since it had more to do with church politics than job performance). Since then I have been praying about what we should do and the direction God may be leading us in now. Which brings me back to--you guessed it--The Sound of Music.

More than once in this musical classic, Maria says, "When God closes a door somewhere He opens a window." That's where I feel like we are right now. God has closed the door on our ministry at McCarthy (for whatever reason) and now He is directing us to find the window He has opened.

So please pray for us as we seek God's direction. It is a very stressful time, but also an exciting time. I know, right now you are giving me a bewildered look and saying "Exciting? Are you completely off your rocker!" But I assure you it is.

Since Jimmy had the weight loss surgery in October he has lost 190+ pounds and we are able to consider more ministry options than ever before. We are even praying about whether or not God may be leading us to bigger and more adventurous things.

I will be sure to keep you informed as we see where God is directing us. Until then I simply want to say thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support!

Grace and peace,

Christiana

What I Learned from My New Job

Today I left Wal-Mart behind and I started a new job. It's always exciting and a little nerve wracking the first day at your new place. You don't quite feel fully comfortable and there are so many things that you couldn't possibly know that you feel overwhelmed. If you are anything like me you are probably worried about whether or not you dressed up enough or your co-workers will like you or possibly even if you will be able to actually do this job once you get into it. However, once you get in there and things get started you find out that you are doing good. Then it hits...

Information overload! You have met tons of people and "learned" lots of names. You have filled out about a billion tax and benefits forms. You have gotten your new name tag/ID badge. You have taken a tour of the building and you might even have gone through orientation. Just when you think your brain is mush and it can't possibly hold another fact--your boss either sits down with you or pairs you with someone to show you the ropes and they begin to ply you with even more information!

There are studies out there that say humans only retain about 30% of what they learn by hearing it alone. I don't know if those numbers are accurate or not but after starting a new learning experience today I could easily believe it. When my brain stopped hurting, I started thinking...

It's no wonder that God communicates with us in small, bite sized pieces. It should also come as no surprise that He often makes us wait for an answer instead of revealing His whole plan to us at once. If He did we would simply get the worst possible case of information overload in the whole world and on top of that we wouldn't even retain all of the plan! So maybe next time instead of complaining that God isn't giving me information fast enough I should stop and be thankful that He IS giving it to me in doses that I can handle.

I would love to hear your thoughts...