Finding rest

Finding rest can be a tricky thing.  There are all sorts of ways to find rest, but it's not always physical rest that we need.  This past week we were in the Dominican Republic.  It was quite eventful getting there with delayed flights, running through the airport, not being able to check in at the hotel, etc, etc.  But we made it.  We enjoyed the three days we had there.  Some great friends, Bacho and Laura, met us there to make it a sort of mid-year type conference for the team.  We were able to connect with them as a team, individually and as a couple.  I think it was refreshing for everyone involved.

The results of 11 or so hours of travel

It was hard to find physical rest there however.  Have you ever tried sharing a bed with a 2 year old or 4 year old?  Oh my.  So we came back and slept for like 10 straight hours.  We were all pretty excited to be home.  But we are thankful to feel spiritually and emotionally refreshed.  The team seemed to connect in ways that hasn't really happened before.  It felt like our marriage had new purpose after getting to process through some hard things.  And our kids just really wanted to go home.  To Venezuela.  This has been a hard transition and I think visa trips will always be hard on the kids to understand, but we're so grateful that they consider this home.  We feel blessed by that.

We were able to go to the beach the last morning there

It's rough being 2

The kids loved the "train" we took to get around

One other thing that brought us all kinds of joy from this trip is that people like our parents and Bacho and Laura brought us all kinds of great things!  It's amazing how exciting something as simple as peanut butter can be!  But we were able to get things that the kids like and different gifts for the kids.  We also were able to get some Valentine's Day stuff for the kids and for the women's time we have coming up.  We hope the students feel blessed by things from the States.  It's such a joy to be able to receive special little things from people who care about us.  If only someone could send an air conditioner....

The team with Bacho & Laura after dinner one night