Thanks God, I needed that!

 The past few days we've really felt like we are here!!  We finally have our public transport cards (after getting lost in the mail due to a possible zero that I included that should have been excluded) , so we've been getting out and about. (Thank you Dory Hofstra)! We made it to downtown Amsterdam and the girls and I will head back tomorrow with a Dutch neighbor boy to meet a family from South Africa and go to a cool kids museum. I'm excited!

We've continued to be humbled by the little things of being newbies here and God's provision for us, almost daily, as we learn. Just yesterday  I managed to lock our whole family out of the house we are house sitting because the locks here are different and a key won't work in the door if there are keys in the lock on the other side.  When I realized we were all locked out, I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces patience." James 1:2-3

Matt was in class so Anya, Nora and I, wandered to campus and were able to eat lunch there while he came back to attempt entry.  Amazingly, although I had shut all the windows up tight because it had looked like rain, he had noticed one a few days before with a faulty latch.  With the help of a neighbor, who we had helped a days before loading something into his car, Matt was able to get in and was eating lunch as I was praying on the way home that we would be able to get in without breaking anything, and he fixed the latch too!  We all rejoiced ,were reminded of the blessing of eating with the Tyndale students again, and stayed "home" the rest of the day!

Swimming in the canal!!

Today, the girls and I ventured out again, on our bikes to the more predominantly Muslim part of town to do our grocery shopping.  They have better fruits and veggies at better prices and huge tubs of OLIVES. Anya and I love olives. Anyway, it began to rain and the ride was long and we were pooped.  About a 1/4 mile from home, the rain had stopped and Nora looked over and saw ripe, wild blackberries on the side of the bike path.  YUM.  We picked enough to add to the other fruit to have quite a gourmet fruit plate for desert, and there are plenty more that will ripen with time!

Nora commented that she thought God was rewarding our perseverance!  :)

 "I will teach you and guide you in the way you should go, I will keep you under my eye." Psalms 32:8

I could go on but will spare you other examples, (unless you want more) but it got me thinking about how parents love their kids so much and often go and above and beyond what is even reasonable to their children, just to show their love.  I'm feeling like that now.  That God knows that being away from home is not easy, for the girls or for Matt and I, and somehow He is going to go above an beyond in the little things (and not so little things) to show us His love and give us the confidence that we are in fact, under His eye. 

 

Thanks God, I needed that!