As though I need another hobby to take the time that I should be devoting to the other ones,-- er, need another hobby to fall behind on, need another hobby!! A friend of mine was sharing a story of her recent vacation to Texas with her family. She mentioned that the day they arrived they had a few hours to kill (before the scheduled agenda of the vacation, I believe), so they found a few letterboxes to fill the time. 'Letterboxes?' my BFF & I asked??? She began to explain the hobby of letterboxing: you access www.atlasquest.comfor a clue to a letterbox (there are other websites as well as other ways to acquire clues). After following the clues and finding the letterbox, you use the stamp found in the box in your own personal logbook and then also stamp the letterboxes logbook with your own personal stamp. It's like a scavenger hunt (and from what I hear, a bit like geo-cache also, although I'm not too versed on that hobby)! Some people get into it and carve their own stamps so they have a unique image for their stamping. And to remain a bit anonymous, each person (in our case, family, as we've decided this will be a group effort) also has a train name to sign into the logbooks, too. After quite a bit of deliberation, we decided on CемьяCее (pronounced SemYaSee) as our trail name: Cемья means family in Russian and Cee stands for the 1st letter of our last name. Unique, keeps people guessing what that backwards R stands for, and, really, a fun way to add a little "russian language" to our diets!
Here are a few photos from our 1st letterbox find. Of course, I won't tell you the name of the box, because it's very faux pasto ruin the hunt for other letterboxers and I'd hate to ruin the fun for all of you!! hehe
Still have not received our finalized-stamped-and-ready-to-add-to-our-dossier Homestudy report!! I guess the story is that our SW has been sick. At least she responded to me- it makes me feel a bit better and reassures me that she's not trying to bail on us, but rather is just living up to her reputation of needing a bit of pushing and reminding to get everything done. I know, it's sad that I have to say that- we really like her and we're glad she's apart of our journey still, but it does get a little nerve-rattling when I think about the time that it is taking to get this done. And with the region that we are in, we can not do anything further with our dossier until we get the homestudy because certain documents need to be dated in a specific order. I do remain faithful that God is using this time to get us on the right path that He has for us. Proverbs 16:9 reminds me that "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps." I'm standing firm in this truth and I will rejoice in these delays!
I also have had a very heavy heart about international flying lately. I don't really want to get into it right now, but to make a heavily-detailed story short, our extended family has suffered several losses do to airplane crashes, one of which was a major international airline crash (which resulted in over 200 deaths- you know, the big breaking-news-on-every-major-network kind of crash).
I know that fear does not come from the Lord, and I know that life is merely a vapor. And I honestly know that when it's my time to leave this earth, regardless of the ages of my boys, my Father in heaven will provide for their every need and will not forsake them. But I also know that I can petition my Lord and present my request to Him and that He is faithful to hear my cries. So this has been my prayer- that God will keep us safe as we travel multiple times to meet and petition for and pick up our daughter; that He will keep us from all evil, that the planes will be in perfect working order, that the weather will be ideal for a text-book smooth flights, that all passengers will act appropriately and that the staff of the plane will handle their responsibilities with great care not to miss a single step.
I covet your agreement in this prayer!
