it's short but sweet::

I'm sure I've violated the blogging code of ethics by going this long without posting, but life has been just a little bit crazy!!  We have been in Hawaii for 10 days and there's not really words that will do our experience justice, but I'll give it my best shot.  We have experienced a plethora of emotions; from ecstatic joy to overwhelming fear.. we've been off the charts!!  I don't have time to delve too deep, so I'll give you the short and sweet version...
Saying goodbyes to all of our Colorado family, friends and dogs was NOT fun!  But we were able to spend our layover in Oakland, CA. with my Dad, Mom and 'little' brother, which was something I needed desperately!  We had to cram the last seven months into seven hours, and we did a pretty good job!  We arrived in Kona to find 73* weather, a slight sea-breeze and the smell of flowers!  Life was looking pretty great!!  Then we went to the land and life started looking a little...less great; picture weeds as far as the eye can see, covering what we're hoping is our coffee trees!  The weeds are at least as tall as the trees, and some are 10-12 feet tall!  Picture a greenhouse, chock full of weeds, ripped plastic on the roof, and a broken refrigerator.  We tried to put on our optimistic faces "Alright, well it could be worse..."  "Hey, at least there IS plastic on the roof..."  But we were both withering.  Add to this overwhelming site all the emotional goodbyes of the last 24 hours and the fact that we pulled an all nighter and we've got a pretty sad picture.  Fast forward a day (because we're supposed to be on the fast track here, and I've only covered a few hours!!)  We're back at the land with a good night sleep under our belts and we've both had a good long talk with God; we're checked in and we've stepped up to the challenge.  We've cleared out the weeds in a different greenhouse that has an intact roof, we've cleared out the storage container and found what we can use.  We've moved a bed into our new 'home' and found out that it's nicer than the one we left at home!!  The neighbor has brought us a bunch of bananas and some avocados!  Things are looking up.  Fast forward a few more days and we can actually see coffee trees apart from weeds;  we can walk down rows that we've cleared out with our weed wackers!  Derek's built some counters, we have more of a kitchen, we know where to take hot showers at the beach, where to get drinking water, where to haul our trash, and we're getting pretty, stinkin' excited about the adventure before us!!  Over the weekend we went snorkeling and ran into some dolphins!!  We also found a really friendly church, and a few favorite road-side stands!   This week we've made a lot more progress at the land; we've almost cleared the two acre section, and our greenhouse continues to feel more and more like 'home'!  We've met up with some YWAMers and we're really excited to get plugged in at the base here in Kona.
There's so much more to the last 10 days, but I just wanted to give a little glimpse into this journey we are on!  The ONLY way we're doing this is by the strength and joy of Jesus!!  It's been amazing to dig into our Bibles each morning and find what He has for us, as well as just praying constantly and giving things back to Him.  He is in charge and has a great plan, and we're just along for the ride!!  We're having a great time; we laugh a LOT, and we're just barely starting to discover what the ocean has to offer us.  [Derek bought a spear gun today, so that will make for some amazing stories, and hopefully some amazing dinners!!]  I'll do my best to get another post up soon, but until then... stay surrendered, God's ways are so beyond what we can imagine!
-B