A great day!

I'm grateful for a very uplifting day with God, Ash & my church family!

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Have you ever typed a sentence, only to backspace and delete it?

I do this all the time…for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because what I have written has come out the wrong way - it just wasn’t what I was trying to say. Other times it’s because it is worded badly…will anyone even understand what I am getting at? Sometimes it is just because the words are bound up inside and trying to get them out is like scratching and poking at a splinter just hiding beneath the surface of the skin. Whatever the reasons, I backspace a lot!

I wonder if I could backspace in real life…what things would be different. Would I try and backspace the things I have said that were unkind, even cruel at times? I think I’d like to be able to do that. There are even some events in this past year I feel like I would like to ‘backspace’ and delete. The strange thing is however, I know God has allowed these circumstances to occur, and he is using them to help me grow. So I remind myself, does that mean these experiences aren’t painful? Does that mean that I have no emotions attached to them? No of course not. It means that I need to learn to ask God to give me the strength to endure rather than question how can I erase what has just happened to me.

Isn’t that a challenging yet fantastic phrase “God give me the strength to endure” these challenges. This is my prayer at the moment. Each day seems to bring new challenges, new struggles that remind me that I weak, frail, emotional, full of faults and failures. Each day seems to be full of things that I wish I could ‘backspace’ and do again, hoping for a different outcome. But I am confident that as I am reminded of how fragile I am at the moment, that God is my strength, he is my Father and he will help me to ENDURE and overcome. It might not be today or tomorrow but I will begin the see the changes in myself that he is doing. I will begin to see that rather than relying on a backspace to fix my messed up life, I can rely on the real AUTHOR… the one who had plans for me before I was even born. The one who is the beginning and the end and the ONE who doesn’t need a ‘backspace’ button to write the story of my life.

BUG OFF!

It's been a huge week. My hubby and I were furiously racing around getting kids in bed etc on Friday night to finally sit down and spend some time chilling out because we had hardly seen each other this week and low and behold we found a bug infestation in our house! Well it started gradually, first we noticed them in our eldest daughters bed and room. We promptly popped her into our room and began dismantling her room bit by bit. From what we could tell it looked like bedbugs. The more we read about bed bugs the more stressed we became. They nest anywhere and everywhere, you need professional bug killers, you need to HOT wash everything and dry everything in dryer. Often people just burn things or throw them out because they are so extremely difficult to get rid of. So anyway we started doing the hot wash and dry thing to try and begin the clean up process, incredibly one flippin bug made it through alive both the processes!!!!! We were feeling quite discouraged (did I mention tired?) by 2am when we realised they were in most rooms of the house and the piles of clothes and doonas bagged up kept growing. So we fell into bed for 5 hours so I could continue to dream of squishing bugs!! I should mention too that our daughter had bug bites all down her arms which is a common place bed bugs bite. I had them on my feet as I'd been in her bed the night before to settle her. (Prob upset now I think of it, because she was being eaten by those nasty critters!!!)

Anyhoo, we had found a bug inside our pillow so we were pretty worried about the bugs being inside our new mattress (our daughters was very old so we were happy to through it out).

So the next day came around very fast and we soon realised we needed help...Nana came over about lunchtime to take the girls for us and we managed to find a company to come over and spray our house. YAY. You should have seen our house...it looked like a bomb has hit it literally. You could not walk for tripping over massive 60 litre black garbage bags full of clothes, toys, doonas etc.

The bug guys were great. They said they looked very much like bed bugs but didn't think they were big enought to be bed bugs. It took them a while to decide but eventually the verdict was given...they weren't bed bugs BUT of course it was still an infestation so we had them treat the whole house. However it DID mean we didn't have to do all the washing we had originally thought so PRAISE GOD. But since a lot of the stuff was mixed in with dirty clothes, half washed half dried, some still had bugs in it...it still meant for a bit of fun at the good old Luandrette. Now there's a place that I don't frequent very often! So we came home yesterday afternoon to our house that was bug free had very literally been soaked form wall to ceiling! Yep...all the walls, floors, mattresses, couches everything!!! By about 9pm last night after drying out the house it was pretty much all back to normal....what a huge evening it was though putting the clothes away, the rooms back to normal, and thinking man if we were tired Friday night, we are EXHAUSTED now!!!

So how grateful do you think I was when we fell into bed and realised we could have a sleep in this morning because the kids were staying at Nana's house?! YEEHA! Plus, my grat is for the fact they were NOT bedbugs but just very gross bugs that could be killed easily and for the fact that the bug people could come out on the day we called them!

Most of all my grat is that THEY ARE ALL GONE NOW!!!!!

Settling in Thailand

Since arriving in Thailand we have been so wonderfully blessed by those around us.

I am grateful for all the help we've received: things picked up, being driven around for 2 and a half weeks, meals made for us, household items and toys leant to us and just general assistance with getting our family organised.

Today my husband is off securing a car so finally we'll have our own transportation to get around AND on Thursday our shipment of boxes will be delivered to our house. This is so exciting as we've sent over saucepans, towels, children's bedroom items and much more and I am hanging out to properly set up home.

There is a lot to feel thankful for today....

Since

Don't sleep through this grat.

Today my grat goes to the fact that our bed sold on Ebay for a great price!!! Yahooooooo

Splish Splosh Splat Grat

Wow I still get amazed at the small things that happen, that clearly demonstrate a higher power going before me.

Today was the first week back of swimming for the year, for my 3 year old. It was a new day, new time and new class. The previous term she had been going with her cousins so I was wondering how 'different' it would be this week. HOWEVER God in his graciousness had it all sorted. When we arrived, we found that none of the other 3 girls had been able to make the first week, so low and behold, my normally fairly timid (in a group) child, got to have her whole lesson one on one with her teacher!!! This was of course perfect because she hadn't seen her for about 6 weeks and it was just the best way for to feel so comfortable and at home. Plus the lesson was tailored exactly to her needs! On top of that, right at the end of her class, her little friend Charlotte and her Mum walked up and they were in the group after us...this is my friend was playgroup who the girls actually started out in the same class together when they were in the preschool classes! It was only Charlotte and one other little girl in that group and so Hellen the teacher asked if I wanted to swap Bella to the 11am class from the 10:30am class. HOW PERFECT!!! Now I have someone to sit and chat with while I watch the lesson, Isla has a little playmate to keep her entertained and the girls get to be in the same class as well!!!! This is the same lil friend who Bella did dancing with for a term also and they just LOVED seeing each other during the week and at playgroup:)

Man I am so grateful that God is not bound by times or circumstances and that he manages to coordinate everything so perfectly. How great that he sees the big picture unlike me who finds it hard to plan 2 days ahead LOL!!!

My sparks

I am grateful for my beautiful little Island. The way her eyes light up when she looks at me, the cheeky shine that is always there. She warms my heart and I just want to eat her up. She is always looking for ways to make us all laugh and it usually doesn't take long to it either! Her strength of character and posture is remarkable. I am excited to see how God uses her friendliness and strength in years to come. I feel so blessed to have her in my life, especially bringing me such joy at the moment.

And I am grateful for my sweet gorgeous Bella. Her kindness and generosity astounds me. Her thoughtfulness is far beyond her years. God has given her the most compassionate spirit and I feel blessed to have her around me each day, especially as a comfort at the moment.