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Swinging over from Lisa Jo Baker weekly five minute Friday.

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Two days ago, I became an aunt. For the first time. So far away from family, I get to see this new nephew of mine through Facebook. Quite a view from here. I tell, the new mother, whatever I can remember about the early days, on holding a new born, on burping , on using Vaseline to smear the bottom so black poop wont stick and hurt the sensitive skin, on the marvelous rush of energy during  the first few days and the pop in that balloon a few days later.

I remember my 'early days' with my boys. And look at them now, on how we have grown through the years. Mothering through trial and error. And they still live, strong and sound, with intact fingers and toes, although a  tooth less before the first year.

I look at them out of the corner of my eye, when they play by themselves, talking to their toys and creating a world of their own. Making sure they don’t see me looking. Occasionally, I get to film this, and watch it a few hundred times watching their mouth, eyes and hands. How a tiny squiggly  looking fetus can be transformed into this complete being, with personalities different and same in ways from their earthly maker. I picture them, growing up to be men of character, compassion, loving their wives and fathering their children. I imagine how their tiny hands, grow out ,into hands of wisdom and care.

I look down from my barely 5 foot view, and see them growing, talking, and thinking. 

I look forward to gazing up from my barely 5 foot view , to the compassion filled, wisdom and knowledge filled, God men we have had the privilege of raising. Walking proudly, with a son on each side protecting their mama. Now, that’s a view I prayerfully look forward to.

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Brave

 Every week Lisa Jo Baker picks a word for a community of women to write their Five minutes worth.

And did you know there’s a whole community of writers that connect online before the prompt goes live on Friday nights? They use the Twitter hashtag #FMFParty and are about the most encouraging group around.

Are you interested to try this out? Here is a guide:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

GO

The beginnings to this blog was just for me. To write out the musings that filled my head, that needed an outlet. And once in a while, I put it on Facebook. Thinking at least 10 times about it. Don' t I want others to read my post?  What would they think about me?Am I baring my soul to the world? It's hard enough to open up and pour out to one close person . Imagine to interent world out there! Once in a while when I come across the "overview" page to my blog, I am amazed , or rather shocked to see the number of page views or the number of people who visited the blog. Even for an extrovert like me , it's a scary step to take. Being brave.

It's a choice to step out and open up, praying that this would help them a tiny bit. 

Over the past year, I have been amazingly , tremendously blessed by reading the stories of women around the world, their blogs, their podcasts. I havent communicated with them, but it's like I know their heart, I know their deepest secrets. The furrows in my grey matter are increasing the God way.

So, it was natural for me to involve the women I know here into this "gold". I wanted them to experience the same relief, the same awe. AGLOW Eindhoven and (in)courage conference was part of that. I took my church directory and added the email addresses of all the women from that thin green directory. And I waited in expectation. I expected all 50 or so women to respond and come and drink in this blessing. A step too much in "bravery" , a step out of God's plan. All He said was "invite". He definitely didn't give me the blue prints to their life. Its when no one but one turned up, I realized I took it a step further from what he asked me to. All He asked me was to "invite". He would do the rest. And this did not include them actually coming. This was a seed, He was intend on watering and letting it take root. 

He has been assuring me and encouraging me to continue. To continue to write and invite. And confirmations in ways, where people come and tell me, they could connect with a particular blog post, thanking me for putting words to their confusions and random strangers with their blessings in my comment box. That's His way of giving me a power boost , His way of pouring and mixing the fertilizers for proper growth upward and slowly. His proper dosage of "brave".

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Maximize your Mornings challenge for the summer @ Hello Mornings

With 2 weeks of holidays coming (we call it May holiday).... and in 10 weeks the summer , I definitely do not want to lose sight on whats important. When I saw this challenge, I thought to myself, its the summer, things are chaotic anyway, we will be away on holiday perhaps, oh , of course we will be moving into our new home for starters. Thats going to be super busy with living in and out of boxes. Nah! maybe I will join the chalenge after everything is settled and I am in regular routine. Essentially, I was taking a break from Jesus during the summer, and telling Him to take a chill pill and enjoy the summer too. That was a blow to my face. To think I was abandoning my Lord for a season. So, whether its the summer, or trips, or moving into a new home, my time with the Lord should be the first thing every morning. So, here I am taking the challenge.

Now whats the challenge all about:

• A 13-week challenge to maximize your mornings, via online accountability groups.
• Starts May 6th and runs through August 2nd.
• Registration is open until Friday, May 3th.
• Perfection is not a requirement. Just a desire to meet with God in the morning and a commitment to checking in with your group.
• There is also a free Bible study for all HelloMornings participants, Meet Jesus, a walk through the book of John.

So, think about this wonderful opportunity to learn and sit at His feet with accountability and perseverance.

 

Here

Making friends comes natural to me. I am an extrovert. But being an expat in an expat world with expat friends slightly changes that extrovert nature in me.

When I came to the Netherlands to join Bobby, everything was new here. But since Bobby was part of a church with his own set of friends, they became my friends too. And one such friend is Lingwei. We had an automatic connection, felt like we knew each other for years. We loved stationary and she was the only person I know and still know, who will be excited with me in a stationary store. Books, pens and papers and even paper clips excited us. She is Chinese but lived here most of her childhood. So she was'nt going anywhere. But then she met Matt, and long story short, she married him and moved with him to the U.S. That rocked my world. I had other friends here but she was my best friend. We kept in touch and send each other a book where we would write each other special things and paste photos... and even send each other pretty stationary things.  After her, I was very cautious about making friends, knowing very well, they are here for a short time or would leave suddenly. It went completely against my character to be "Hi/Bye/how are you ?"type of friend. Years went by, and I learnt that I could not just stay that way. That friends come and go, but they remain dear and valuable, even if we speak once in a blue moon, and is vital to your seasons of life.

Here is where I am and here is where I need to impact others and be impacted by others. So, I commit to new friends and give them all I have. And they bless me and my family more than I can imagine. They are part of what makes life interesting and meaningful. We can't say no to community. Even for an introvert.

Here is where I have learnt to nuture and value the relationships in my life.Here is where I have learnt many times on how to accept them they way they are because they love me the way I am.

I am so blessed to have a select set of really close women, whom I love and can go crazy on them. Can corner them and force them to tell me whats wrong. Can just laugh ridiculously for no reason. Make special "death by chocolate " dates. Who just know you need a hug without words. And also blessed with select few who are so far away, yet freshly close to my heart.

As I prepare my heart, yet again to say good bye to one crazy lady, who hates it when food touches each other and spends at least 5 minutes separating them on her plate, who introduced me to this space on blogosphere and the world of Pinterest without her knowledge, who calls me "friend " with so much love and kindness in her heart, I continue to learn new things about her, continue to be blessed by her words and actions and continue to behave as if she is going to be here forever. This friendship is not going to end because of geographical distance. Friend, you are stuck with me for life. Here and there.

The work has begun

April 2, 2013 we signed the deed to the house and every relevant document was transferred. There was much less signing to do as compared to when we were applying for the mortgage. Especially, when they read out the risks and responsibilities or like how they translated from Dutch " burdens", we gulped and looked at each other. Nevertheless, we knew this was the house God saved up for us. And signed the documents with God on our side. Last week,we
signed agreements  with the contractor. The kitchen has been chosen. And they have started ripping out the interiors. A good feeling indeed. This contractor will be the one who will be doing everything. From, fixing new windows,rebuilding and repairing damages, building my breakfast nook, painting, flooring and finally installing the kitchen. Around 40 working days is what he says. And we plan to move in by God's grace in June. We also got our Pastor and his wife to walk through the house and pray. A lot of spiritual cleansing and chucking out was much required. We realize that even more now.

Check out the huge container parked outside the house!
Tomorrow we get an update on all the work that has been done so far.

Dumping container

Sold

Remembering

Buying a house has been the major  development of this year so far. What He has in store for us with that house will be the "big" reveal of His purpose for us. Tuesday was the day when we signed papers and the deed to the house and the mortgage. We gulped and looked at each other when the notary person read out the risk and "burdens" (probably how he was translating from Dutch). to buying a house. No turning back?

We are currently waiting for the contracts to be signed with the contractor, so the renovation can begun. At least two months have been estimated. I wanted the work to begin on Wednesday, but Bobby is being very careful with the contract and crunching the numbers , and making sure that we are not agreeing to any other situations, or estimates. There has been a lot of issues in the news, these days, about home owners being stranded without any work done after half the payment was made and how they never pick up the phone and cause other problems. So being careful  and PATIENT is whats required now.

Enjoying our "old" home

People tell me, "look, you have a house now finally after being so patient...". Patient? who me? I had no other choice except to wait with Bobby being so patient and careful, following the housing market. Guess, that's why God made Man the head of the family. Imagine what it would have happened if that responsibility was given to me.

So I wait and continue being patient with him and Him. And while I do that, I have a huge de cluttering job to do. No one needs to carry junk from one place to another. But where to start is always the dilemma.

When I avoid that , I look at the memories and events that this house carried.

Came as a newly wed to this house. Benjamin and Elijah were born here. Elijah had his tooth come out at 1. All the birthday parties. The mums and toddlers bible study group. Young adults Bible study group. 4U2 Bible group. The stain on the walls reminding me what happened at that time.

Every room  fully lived. Filled with laughter  and tears.

I will miss this house. And will have lots of occasions to pass by and see how this house becomes someones else's home.

The new house(Minus the car)

Home

A really late response to last weeks Five minute Friday.....

I am Indian , living in the Netherlands and grew up in Kuwait. 3 countries in one sentence and thats as confusing for me , as it can ever be.  So, when people ask me where is home, I say The Netherlands. Thast were we are now and thats were I began my married, family life. My kids were born here and this is were I make my own rented home. This is were we raise our boys, build my relationship with my husband, work, and have a wonderful church family and cell group. In all the confusion, I knew for sure the Netherlands was my home. For now.

Since Elijah was born , we have been looking for a house to buy. He is 3 now. The need to own a house wasnt the criteria. I wanted a bigger nicer house. Great kitchen and play/office space on the ground floor. Our current house was great, until 2 boys joined the equation. It still is fine.

We silently made fun of other friends who saw 30 houses before they bought there own. And now we realize we have crossed that number quite a while ago. We visited houses. Disagreed always on which ones we liked. There was always one person who didnt like the house. Thankfully, we didnt include the boys in the desicion making madness. Our budget was low and our wants were on the higher end. It seemed impossible to own a house with the money we had in mind. Or rather what Bobby had in mind. We bid for two house along this journey. Didnt get anywhere with the low figures we were prepared to bid. Bobby was patient. I was impatient. I mocked him for the magic low number he always started with. "We are never ever going to get a house we like for that amount"i traumatized him.

As we celebrated Elijah's 3rd Birthday, I huffed and puffed about never going to have that dream house.

On January 22, 2013, we went to see a house that looked promising. Like many other we saw. I pulled myself together and thought, one more, and thats it. Bobby can go see the others, if any. We saw it, we liked. It required a fair amount of  renovation. We went back home. The price was really low, that means it was within our budget. It was the right size we wanted. BIG. So what was the catch?

Long story short,The house was taken by the bank and they were selling it , at almost 100,000 Euro less than the original price. The owners got a divorce and they put it in the market. It wasn't moving, so they gave it for rent , who gave it to someone else, who was growing weed in a professional set up. Finally, the couple couldn't pay, the bank took the house. The weed people were busted. The house was a mess with the insulations ripped out (to take in the smell, so one would detect it), ripping out some plastered walls. It wasn't maintained for 2 years at least and hence a run down look.

But I wasn't sure because of the weed thing and of course its going to take some money to renovate and bring it back to its original glory. We went with our real estate agent to see it again. By the end of the week we put in a bid. Like we did 2 other times. No hope at this point, since Bobby has this number which is always too low to bid. And I give him the silent treatment. The real estate guy bids for us from a low number until our maximum which was 10,000 below the asking price. The carnival holidays come and go and we still havent heard from the bank. Monday morning after holidays, when I was at work, I get a text message from Bobby. "We got it for 225,000 Euros! We have a house. " That magic number of his worked. God gave us a house for Bobby's desired value. It was 20,000 below the asking price! I couldn't comprehend what happened, and it still didn't sink in a week later. How did we get it?

Was God that interested to get a house for us in the right price, and the right house? Was God into giving us material gifts too?

Now all of a sudden, I was feeling was this really from God full heartedly, or was it a response to my whining?

It took a while for  me to feel grounded with this gift from God, when  I was reading "Radical" by David Plaat. That God gives us material gifts to bless others and most importantly to show His glory and kindness.

We had to quickly apply for the mortgage since my residence permit was expiring on March 1 and we had to have valid permits before applying. As we send the forms on February 28th  and the next day, my permit expired, it was another challenge I trusted God to see us through. With this time in the housing market, it wasn't easy to get a mortgage, and anything could happen for it to get rejected. I would only get a sticker in the passport as an alternative, while I waited for my new residence card on the 13th of March. As I went to the immigration office to get this sticker, the lady behind the counter said, that she couldn't give me the sticker. My immediate response was wear burlap and throw ashes on myself and begin mourning. It was only a few seconds later , that she said that my card was already here and she rather give me the card, than a sticker. Okay! burlap out and mourning ended. How quick I was to sinking! And if this itself wasn't enough, the date on my card begins from February 27th . Even though I was technically illegal for the past 13 days, this card says I had continuos permit without a single day without one. I never even prayed for this and never had to two sense to do it.... But my God, even thought of the minute things....

Yesterday, we heard that we got the mortgage. As we sign the documents , on the 2nd of April and get the key, and as we begin the renovation, I only pray that I continue to trust Him in ALL things and know that He has a good plan for me and my family.