Waiting on the Lord

Waiting as a general rule makes me uncomfortable. I'd rather be doing anything than waiting pretty much any day of the week. Why is that? I'm not sure although I know it has something to do with the way I was raised. Both my parents are doers. So much so that they sometimes frighten me! Though I will say that they both do take time to themselves. My dad studies for the bible studies he teaches, works on wonderful wood turning pieces for family and close friends, attends twice weekly book clubs with his guys friends and works out a lot. My mom spends lots of time praying for her family, friends, church and internationals as well as reading the word, she loves painting, working out twice a week and she fields about a dozen plus phone calls a day from her three children (10 from Christine, 1 from LeeAnne and 1 from me!) They also both give themselves wholeheartedly to their grandchildren. So it's not all work although they do more work than any other retired couple I know.

As far as Alan and I go, we are waiting now. Waiting on the Lord to tell us what we should focus on and who we should talk to. We're waiting for language school to be able to communicate. We're waiting to evangelize and disciple until we can speak the language. We're waiting on health insurance to decide where we can have Chloe and we're waiting for Chloe to be born so I can stop feeling so uncomfortable and fat! :) So, why do we hate waiting? Why does God tell us specifically to wait on the Lord, to be patient, to be long-suffering? I don't know but I would love to know your thoughts on this.

Since my last post, we've managed to get everything moved down here (finally), purchased all our furniture, put it all together, unpacked and cleaned until we didn't think we could do any more and now the apartment is looking pretty good I think. I'm going to finally include some pictures here so you can see where we live an.d how things are coming together :).

This was when we first arrived. We still had the van and trailer loaned to us from a friend. We then drove them back to England, got our car and dog Webster and drove back. This is what we've accomplished since then...

This isn't all our pictures but it gives you an idea. Schönau is a beautiful place. We've taken a couple of drives just around our village and the mountains and streams that flow into the Nectar make it such a special place to live. Here are just a few pictures. I'll try to take more in the coming weeks and post some of the area around our church and Heidelberg.

This week Alan is volunteering at the church trying to help out in any way we can. I've asked if I can help with the youth group as the church doesn't have a college group (yet!) and we'll have housegroup on Wednesday night at our friends Matt and Tamara's house. Our language school starts on the 14th and hopefully we'll catch on quickly and not find it too overwhelming.

Chloe is pretty quiet during the day and decides to wake up and do summersaults at night. Her health seems good but I'm still waiting on health insurance which will ensure we can have the baby here rather than back home. We know that no matter what God is in control and that He has us in the palm of his hand. We appreciate our followers, supporters, prayer partners and friends so much and would love to hear from each of you as to how you are doing and specifically what can Alan and I pray for you for? May the God we know and serve guard each of your hearts as you trust Him for your future.

Alan and Mary