Celebrating Life

Last week we got to be apart of the celebration of my brother Josiah getting married to Toni Lee. I feel so incredibly grateful that we were here in America for this time. There are many things that we have had to miss out on while we are missionaries overseas. I could write out that long list of all we could not be part of and how we felt badly about it. Instead I want to choose to look at the many times we have gotten the privilege to be at major life events. The first one that comes to my mind is in June 2008, when my grandfather Vincent DeTrinis passed away. It happened 1 week before we first left for Kenya. It was a unforgettable joy for me that I was able to be with all my extended family and share in all the great memories of Grandpa's legacy. It would have been heartbreaking if  his death had come right after we had arrived in Kenya because there would have not been able to fly back. All I can do and thank the Lord because it was nothing that anyone could plan or arrange but God had his perfect timing in it all.

 My brother Josiah is in the marines and is getting ready to be deployed in August. I stand in awe of him and his new wife as they committed themselves in marriages while understanding the challenging circumstances that it brings. They are strong- in away that I do not know if I could handle it. I have been able to have conversations on the treasure of life since we have been in the States. Being confident that from the moment we are born there is a time that the Lord has for us to die. Until that day we are in a sense immortal. It helps me  to have a peace that I am not in control. It has made me take one day at a time and be conscience of what the Lord has in store for me today. It was so special for my family to be in New York last week for the wedding. On that same day it also marked Charis'(my 5 week early, bath tub baby's) birthday. We ended up celebrating that the next day at Chuckecheese with my Dad and step mom. 

My children have asked when we are going back home, because Kenya is their home. I am glad that they are wanting to go back. I have explained we still have a few more months of visiting and we need to enjoy the opportunities we have to be with the people who live in America because soon it will be awhile before we be able to see them again. We have been able to do so many things and see many people. With everything we have been doing and with all the places we still have yet to go I rejoice with all the celebrations there have been and remember the verses:

"Now listen, you who say, 

"Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 

"If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

I do not fully know all that will come in the future. I want to love Love the Lord with all my heart. I want to be an example as a godly wife and mother. I want to serve people and point them to the great sacrifice that Christ made for them. I won't worry about how I will do all this. I just look at today and surrender my life right now.