Childhood Memoirs: June

every summer, as a part of the work we do with athletes in action, jon has a summer assignment. it's kind of like a mission trip, but of course they're all based in athletics. this year, jon had the opportunity to lead a team of about 30 college baseball players down to the dominican republic. while they were there they played other teams, served communities, taught youth baseball clinics and loved on the dominican kids in particular. jon both served as the general manager of the team as well as the spiritual discipler. it was awesome. for him and for the boys and i back home.

for a month.

jon left june 5th and got back july 4th.
does that perhaps explain my blogging absence a bit? hahaha ;)

the week jon left the air conditioner and the microwave broke, and all three boys had colds that kept them up all. night. long. and the place where jon was staying lost their wifi connection in the domincan. we had thought that we could skype everyday, but basically lost communication for the rest of the trip.

a couple weeks after that my mom flew in for a visit and the car broke, and we had a scare at a water park where i thought jack had drowned in a wave pool. it was really scary and more than i care to give details on. the week after that, my best friend hallie came to keep us company with sadie and all 6 of us came down with a stomach bug! we've officially been through it ALL together now.

it really did all feel like a lot. i think the biggest thing was just the pressure of protection that i felt not having our man around. assuming all of my usual mom responsibilities with the dad ones too. financial, spiritual, protection. i truly have a new empathy for single mommies :(

despite there being trials along the way, God used our month apart to really do a work in our family. i've never truly understood asking God to help me through out my day. to be patient with the kids and keep me from completely exploding in massive temper out breaks (did i mention that rowan basically stopped sleeping for the entire month? no naps and impossible to get to bed at night).

by God's compete grace, i felt joyful being a mommy the entire time. i read my Bible more than ever, and even established devotions every morning with the boys. we even bought a djembe with some photo shoot money i made to use during our morning worship. when it seemed like we were losing it, we all stopped and prayed. all four of us. God was so faithful in those times. such sweet moments and memories. now to not let it stop!!!

jon brought everyone back a special little thing. jack - a baseball bat, finn - a soccer ball and rowan a little drum. they treasure them.

it was days before anyone would leave jon's side!

here are some of jon's pics from the trip:

each boy chose one of their stuffies to send with jon to give to kids in the dominican.

jon found a little boy around the same age to give the stuffie too. for most of them this would be the one toy they would ever have. they were mostly orphans.