Obedience

Naomi is growing and changing so much, it seems like every day she has learned something new. As she began to be more active it was natural to begin to give her instruction: helping put away toys and books, showing her the safe way to get up and down the stairs, not to play with plug ins, and how to hold a sippy cup, among many other things. Most of these things, I try to teach her for her safety. I know what can happen if she tries to stand while she walks up the stairs, she will fall (at least until she is bigger). Her legs simply can not reach to the next step, she needs to get down and crawl. Not only do I not want her to fail and get frustrated, I can see the cement floor at the bottom of the stairs and know that if she tried to go alone and I was not there to catch her, she would get seriously hurt. There are so many aspects that she can not yet process and understand.

Just recently she learned to say the word no. She has yet to say it in response when being told something to do (however I know that time is coming). She will walk around pointing at things that I had told her no to in the past, saying no repeatedly. This is most obvious when she comes into the bathroom as I am getting ready. She will walk in, go up to the trash can, point and say "no" then comes the toilet, "no" followed by the bathroom tissue and shower. A lot of the times once she has made her rounds, she will continue saying no as she goes back to the toilet paper and starts to unroll it. Trying to get as much on the floor as possible before mommy notices.

It is amazing to me how much this can remind me of my relationship with God. There have been many times in my life that I have struggled to trust God's leading. Where I haven't understood or been able to see the big picture. Sometimes it didn't make sense so I would fight against obedience and when I would finally give in, I was able to see more of what God had in mind and where He was working. Sometimes it would be difficult and I would want to give up and my loving Father would be there to encourage me down the narrow path. There have also been times where it has been so easy to focus on the "no". Where I dwell on the law, the rules, all the things that as a believer I am called not to be a part of. I would get so focused that I would completely loose sight of the freedom that I had in Christ. I would loose sight of the love that God poured out as He gave instruction, because He could see the big picture. He knew the consequences that would follow and didn't want that for me. he wanted me to prosper and grow. He didn't sit there making a list of rules to ruin our fun. He made rules because He loves us. Even though I am far from the perfect parent, I definitely identify with God in this area more since becoming a mom. He is not an absent father that only comes to make rules. He is a loving Father that wants to be there spending all the time He can with me. He wants to make me laugh and smile and be there for me when I cry. What a beautiful thing.

Transitions

In life, change is a given. In our life it seems like change and transitions are something that we can regularly count on. From the time that Seth and I got married (actually even before) we have been busy with transitioning to new jobs, new towns, new homes (or apartments), new country, new language, and a new baby (soon to add in another). We both have a strength of adaptability and if you look at our four years of marriage, God definitely had our future in mind. It seems like right when we have finally found a good routine something changes and we need to start over from scratch once again. Many people might get frustrated in this sort of situation however I enjoy the challenge of finding a new way to make it work. I have come to learn what a blessing it is to be able to handle the transition process well now that I have become a mom. Every week Naomi is doing something new and I am needing to change how I do something. Recently we are still working on finding a new routine since last week because Seth has been working, we are both in an online class and Naomi has successfully switched to one nap a day (while still keeping up on all of our other tasks). This will definitely not be the last transition. Change will continue to happen and I am encouraged that no matter what the situation, I can lean on God, the one thing that will never change. 

Us at the Christmas Program at the Matousek family gathering. Seth was a shepherd, I was an angel and Naomi was a lamb. For some reason we had three shepherds but only one lamb :) We need to get some more kids in the family!

Remembering

It blows my mind sometimes, how quickly things can change and how just that quickly, I forget how things used to be. Naomi has been sleeping through the night for a while now. However it really wasn't that long ago that she was still waking up multiple times in the night. (I have definitely gotten spoiled and will definitely have a new norm as soon as our next baby comes.) Over the past couple months I have really enjoyed the sleep. Then all of a sudden, last night I woke up at 1 am to the sound of Naomi crying. It actually took me quite a while to figure out what was going on, I had gotten so used getting the peaceful sleep.

For me this definitely isn't a one time occurrence. I forget about a lot of things in the past and focus more on the present. For example I have a hard time recalling movies that I have seen. Even if it was just a couple weeks ago that I watched them. In situations like that, I forget because it is just not very important to me. In situations like the first story, I forget because I like how things are now and don't want to dwell on the past when I was constantly waking up. However, I can also forget good things, ways God has worked in my life, fun experiences with my family as well as some of my German. For me with a lot of things, if I don't think about them regularly then I loose sight of them.

I see this happening at times the longer we are here in the states with Austria and the ministry there. Yes, we are here sharing with people on a regular basis how God has been using us there but it is still easy for to talk about the facts and not as much about my heart. I tend to notice though, the more I skype with people that are still there, the more I hear about the various ministries (both praises and prayer requests) and the more I spend time working on my German, the more my heart grows for the people there. The more I invest in the people, no matter how far away they are, the deeper they are etched into my heart.

Realizing these things has also convicted me of how quickly that can happen too with spending time with God. When it happens less often and the busier I get, the easier it is to forget and not make that time be a priority. In times like these I realize how important lists and schedules are for me to remember everything. As well as how important it is for me to encourage and remind (in a loving way) my husband of these things as well.

In remembering, I am going to share a few pictures from the past year that remind me of all the ways God has blessed and used us.

Mentor relationships

Those that we connected with through German Class

Naomi!

Giving Thanks

It is crazy to me how clear God can make it when He is trying to get a point across to me. I hear it from so many different directions all at the same time. Recently it has been how blessed I really am and how I need to turn around and give the credit and give thanks back to God. I am currently still discipling/mentoring three youth girls over skype. I shared a little bit about my relationship with Caro in the last post and how I was challenged to go on a walk with God and just give Him praise and thank Him for...everything. I learned a lot about myself including how selfish I can be during this time but I have been amazed how this conversation has come out in all of the 3 mentoring relationships that I have. It has come up through different passages of the Bible that we have been reading, different thoughts that they have and how they are being challenged. (Not to mention it was the week of Thanksgiving) It is clear that I have some growing to do and more thanks to give. Through this past week, God has really just amazed me: How well He can communicate with us, how much he provides, and how I am blessed way beyond anything that I deserve. However it is not because of my righteousness but because of His great mercy.

I find that now during this season of life for us with support raising that we go through ups and downs. That there are times where multiple people are deciding to partner with our ministry or at a higher level then they were every day and then there are some days where we are faithful and working hard and it seems like nothing is changing. It is easy for me to then wrap up my emotions and attitudes into how well support raising is going at the moment. A lot of this just happens naturally however this is not how God has called us to live. We should not be swayed by the changing of times but instead keep our focus on Him and find our stability and encouragement in him. I was reminded of this today as I met with Caro, a youth girl that i continue to meet with weekly over skype as we are here in the states. Sure our situation now is that of support raising but we can have this tendency no matter where we are in life and what we are doing. But really our joy is to come from Him and it doesn't matter what is going on in our life, we can always receive that joy from Him. She has been having a particularly difficult and challenging time in her life as she has been sick, responsibilities at school, an internship to prepare for, a driving test to accomplish, family obligations, and the list goes on. Sure, her life looks very different then mine but it would also be easy for her to let these things control how she is feeling and living her life. However this week we decided to go out alone and go on a walk with God and just spend time thanking Him for all that He has done for us. Praising Him for who He is. She made the time even though she did not think she would have enough time or energy to do it however she came back reenergized praising our Father in heaven, drawing her joy from Him. She has been such an encouragement for me to be seeking my joy and energy from Him no matter what. This has caused me to share some of the praises, thanks, and God sightings that I have from the last couple weeks.

- The fact that we live across the street from our nieces and nephews and are blessed to have them come over and visit frequently throughout the week (including now as Titus is playing with our Monopoly game)
- Being able to get together this last weekend with my whole family to celebrate Thanksgiving
- All the love and support that we receive from so many people that are regularly praying for us and the ministry in Innsbruck.
- The support of the organization that we are a part of.
- About a month ago we had an ultrasound and my placenta was very low and they had said if it doesn't move I would have to have a c-section so they would need to monitor it so we went in for another ultrasound a couple weeks ago. Right away the doctor mentioned that the placenta had moved a little bit but not enough so I would have to come in again in another month. She was encouraging and then went on checking different things in the ultrasound she was about ready to wrap up when she asked to take some more pictures of the baby's heart, it was just such a good angle. I said she could and right away when she went to zoom in on the heart she paused and said that the placenta moved, a long ways away from the bottom. She said that I must have been having a contraction earlier and that is way the placenta was so low at the time but now because she took her time she saw it go back to normal. She said I would not have to come back to have it checked on again. I however give the credit to God and am curious who it was that was praying for me and our baby at that exact moment.
- I was reminded by getting together with a friend how blessed I am that we have had one healthy baby and are pregnant with a second. Before Seth and I were married my doctor had told me that she didn't think it would be easy for me to ever get pregnant, if I would ever be able to. It had weighed on me for a long time and took a while to give that over to God and trust that He would bless us with children in His timing however He wants to. We however have been so blessed!

I could go on for a very long time, however I will stop so it doesn't get too long! God sure does bless us in so many different ways!

On the Road

We have now been in the states for a little over two months and we have not been in the same place for more than a week since English Camp at the start of July. We have been to Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Oregon and are now currently in Washington. In the next few weeks we are planned to go to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Minnesota. The plan is for things to calm down and us to settle down more in Seward starting after our training in Minnesota which is the first week of November.

Honestly at this point I am a bit exhausted. We really have all been doing well traveling especially Naomi however the her car seat is definitely not her favorite place. Even though traveling has been going very well so far you can see it in all of us that we are just getting tired and are ready to be back in Seward for a while. It has been awesome to see though as we have spent time with friends, family and supporters we have been encouraged and energized. So far I have really enjoyed the time that we have had connecting back with people here even though it can seem like a lot at times. But please be in prayer for us as we will road trip back to Nebraska, have a friend visit us from Austria and head off to our training (which we are unsure at this point if both of us are going to the training so you can be praying for that as well).

In the last week I have been amazed by God. I had the privilege to see newborn twins in the hospital. They were born at 29 weeks. The one was 2 lbs and the other was 2 lbs 11 oz. This was my first time being in the NICU and it was unlike anything I had experience before. I had always heard of babies that were very small and premature being born but it is so different seeing these two little boys in person. Seeing and touching them brought me back to all the things I read during my pregnancy with Naomi about how she was developing. God is so creative in how he creates us and it amazed me even more to see Jonathan and David hooked up to tubes but still moving, crying, and making dirty diapers. It is nothing less than a miracle that these boys were alive and progressing well and it was a privilege for me to get to see them at this fragile part of their life. God is so good.

It has also been great to see so many different parts of this country. There are so  many differences and yet beauty no matter where you go. It has also been awesome to be able to come in contact with believers everywhere we go. We have been so blessed and encouraged. We have received such overwhelming hospitality and support. I am very excited how God will continue to use all of these people in our lives and us in theirs.

Thank you all for your prayers! Please let us know if we have not yet been able to connect with you since we have been back and you are wanting to do so soon! Here are some random photos from the last couple weeks. Hope you all enjoy!

Fun at the park!

Bath Time!

Us at the Badlands in South Dakota, although you can't see it very well

Naomi in the lake, she had so much fun! although the life vest was a bit difficult.

Updates!

Thank you for all of your prayers! We are still in the thick of the busy season. So I want to give you an update on all of the previous prayer requests and then give you a few more :)

Updates:
- It went very well having Viki stay with us for a week. It was definitely a new experience for us, seeing as we were practically parents of a teenager for a week. It was a difficult situation knowing that her parents normally have almost no rules for her and for the most part don't even know what she is up to. However we weren't going to have it be like that while she was staying with us which she responded to it very well and was very respectful to the decisions that we made. We were able to have really good discussions with her and challenge her to think more about what I life honoring of God should look like.
- We skyped with our new candidate coach and got moved along to the application process. There is quite an extensive list of things that we need to get done all before July 15th which is in the middle of English Camp so our goal is to be done before that. We are probably close to half way done although we still have the Theological questionnaire yet to be finished so please be praying for guidance and motivation to get everything finished.
- Allie (our summer intern) did arrive well and has been working on adjusting to life here. The language barrier has proven to be a bigger barrier to overcome for her than for some so please be in prayer for her. Pray that she will be able to really connect with a few of the girls during the next few weeks before English Camp and that God will show her where He is already working so that she can come and work alongside Him.
- Pfiju came and went and it was a great time had by all. Seth really got to know some of the youth that came with our group better as well as many other believers from around Austria. It was also a really good challenging time for many of our youth. Be praying that they will continue to grow and be challenged in their faith.
- Seth's cousin will now be visiting us at the end of July after English camp which makes me a lot more excited for it considering we will have more room to breath then.
- Still the same prayer for the other girl that will come and stay with us for a week starting on the 25th and then will be leaving the same day that we will be for English Camp on July 2nd!
- The big updated prayer is that we will be heading back to the states in August sometime during the first couple weeks and are looking at setting a date sometime in the next couple days so please be praying for that. God has really been providing with everything. Providing someone to move into our apartment and take all of our stuff, a car for us in the states, a potential place to live, a potential apartment for when we come back as well as many many more things. There are still many things to plan and get working out but I am very excited to see how God is going to use us in the coming months!

I think that updates you with the main things that are going on right now in our life. Please especially be praying for the whole transition process for us. It is very common to experience culture shock again as coming back to your own culture after being away. Pray also for the plane ride and things as we will have Naomi with us and just the we will be very motivated to get things done that we need to. Thanks again for all your prayers! I hope you all had a great Father's day as well :)