Chelan

Well, since September / October ’09, we’ve started on a journey that took us from me not working, to working part-time as a Gymboree Teacher – and Ricky working for SCBN & the Todds, to working for himself, from his home office {or anywhere that has Wifi}.  We’ve had to adjust to making less income overall, but the adjustment hasn’t been all that difficult. At first we made too much income to be elig. for healthcare insurance for the kiddos, but I waited to apply, and after discovering a clerical error they made, they (Children’s Health Ins. Program) got their ducks in a row. Now both our lil ones are insured for medical and dental needs, which is pretty great.

It’s definitely been a step of faith, but as we have been lead in our spirits to be more generous with our giving, we’ve seen over and over again God’s provision…from the status of our health to our vehicle (s)  to our home (not having to pay rent since we discovered the owners are short-selling the place & not paying their mortgage). They may end up offering us “cash for keys”  to have us vacate the property sometime after our initial lease ends (May 1st)…but who knows. We’ve even had people just stop by & give us cash, several times.  Bottom line, is that we don’t know our future, but the cool thing about that is – we don’t care much…I mean, we care, but we have never been so stress-free. Because we are assured…and are choosing to not live in fear or worry. We’re constantly reminded & are reminding each other of our past – and how our God has never let us down – how he has always taken care of us.  So no matter what happens, if we stay here in Austin – or we move back to Oregon, we know that He will not change – he will see us through & not let us go without.

We were talking about why we are not stressed out, just last night, while watching Animal Planet. And we agreed that a big part of it,  is probably because a conscious effort is made to not schedule a lot of things (or over-commit) like …

• I know my limitations when it comes to work, so I let them know when I interviewed, that I would only like to work a certain amnt – and I’ve only worked that amnt- 18-23 hrs/wk.
• At church, we want to serve, but I’ve also seen burn-out in ministry many times over. So to prevent that & keep it fresh, I volunteer on the worship team 2 weekends/mo. instead of every weekend.
• We don’t enroll the kids in multiple extra-curricular activities (just one per season, for Bray…& Angel might like gymnastics starting this fall?).

I’m not trying to be all, “look-at-us”, but we’ve just noticed patterns of other families. Families who seem to be tired, stressed out and do not have enough time to go out w/friends on a half-day’s notice (or even a week’s) because they’ve adjusted their lifestyle to overcommitment. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. What we truly value the most, we fill our time with.

To us, it’s important to have an open-enough-schedule to say “yes!” to a family member or friend who needs to get together & talk or reconnect.  We may have plans that can’t be re-arranged from time to time & we’ll try to keep plans we make. But relationships can really only be built multi-dimensionally, face-to-face. So if a friend calls us up and is need or they just wanna get together & talk, we do not want our own family or church or work obligations to hinder our availability to them. We’ve witnessed some cultures do this, and how as a result, they have close-knit community. They call each other for or about really, anything. They esteem each other – they prioritize the meeting of needs (emotional, spiritual, physical & material) among each other…and in return, there is such a closeness. A welcoming atmosphere. That’s something that we used to not think about much, but maybe in the last year, have grown to admire and desire for ourselves. Having an open schedule has helped us to be available to spending time with the Lord too – reading or listening to a sermon or praying. Of course, we get caught up watching TV sometimes too – I need more discipline with my time-management. But long story short, what we’ve been learning, is time is not money. Time is love.

When all is said & done, what matters is community. The close relationships we have…the time we spend with our family, our friends, and especially with our Creator.