a roller coaster ride!!

Baby, it's NOT cold outside!  But the air is feeling slightly more festive each day!  One reason for this feeling is that I am now, officially, allowed to sing Christmas songs!  Another cause: my parents will be here in 11 days!!!  And I've been spending every bit of my free time online, searching for ideas of how to inexpensively decorate the apartment.  I want to make the most of this wonderful season, but I feel as though I'm starting from scratch in the idea department.  Getting bundled up and tromping through the woods to select the perfect pine tree is just not done here!  I am holding onto hope that a few neighbors will go all out with lights and decorations but, other than our local Ace hardware, I'm not seeing very much potential for a tour of lights!
Enough of that, though.  It's not even December yet!  Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We are abundantly blessed!  Although we really missed gathering with mass amounts of family, it was good to celebrate the day in new, tropical ways!  After putting my 'little' brother, Abe, straight to work on his first day here, it was good to have down time.  We started the day by concocting a delicious mess of biscuits and gravy and then headed to the beach.  The guys frolicked in the water for hours, while I was content with an occasional toe dip and reading my book in the sun.  We wanted to be at our absolute hungriest for Thanksgiving dinner, so lunch consisted of granola bars and two bags of Rambutans from the farmers' market!  The spiky looking fruits, once peeled, are sweet and juicy like a big grape!  And our growling bellies were certainly not disappointed that evening.  Dinner with one of our 'adopted' families from church was a great time and absolutely delicious!

No ground breaking developments in the coffee fields this week.  Just more picking!  Derek says we're 'over half done'.  I think he's vague about this for my sake, lest I conjure up an 'end date' only to be disappointed when there's still more picking to be done!  (Still, I'm convinced we're at least 75% done!)  It's awesome having a third pair of hands busily picking; Abe is certainly a trooper!  This is his first trip to Hawaii and we're excited to show off more of this beautiful island once my parents arrive.  He has done a bit of snorkeling and went surfing with Derek and a friend on Sunday!  Unfortunately, their beach adventure was cut short when a rookie crashed into Derek, somehow managing to knock loose his big toenail!  Derek had to operate on himself, ripping the nail completely off (with pliers!!) 'while his adrenaline was still pumping!'  Yikes!  I definitely don't regret missing that episode, especially because I was enjoying 'girls night', going to a Christmas concert and eating Chinese food!!  

I know the 'what's next' developments in our life resemble a roller coaster; I'll apologize in advance for any motion sickness you may be experiencing!!  These past few weeks Derek and I have been soul searching, peeling back layer after layer of dreams and ideas, and we've been praying a LOT.  Knowing we had a month and a half left in the apartment was the motivation we needed to look forward and ask hard questions.  In the process, we realized our dreams have been doing some rearranging, unnoticed by us until now!  Traveling and wild adventures have always ranked high on our 'list' and that may not ever change; what has happened is the shuffling of other options on our priority list.  All of a sudden we're thinking that our very own place to call 'home' sounds pretty great.  We're realizing this next season of life may not include relocating to a different continent, but that does not mean it has to be any less adventurous!  

By mid-week we're suspecting that our time in Hawaii would be coming to an end and we were actually okay with that.  We were brainstorming on how we would manage to transport all that we've acquired back home.  We're also wondering where 'home' is and figuring out what location would put us by family, an ocean and a great church.  The possibilities were exciting!!  Then came the knock on our door.  

A man that Derek had just met on Sunday wanted to know if he was interested in a landscaping job for the next seven months while they went back home to Canada.  Hmmm...  The NEXT day, we find out there's been a change of plans with the pastor coming to our church and we're told we can stay in the apartment through June! (yep, that's seven more months!!)  I don't believe in coincidences, which means this didn't 'just happen to work out'!  God is AMAZING!!  We don't understand His methods; I must admit, I was confused and actually a little bummed when it first sunk in.  I'd already allowed my imagination to go wild with thoughts of the next chapter.  I was excited about a cross country trek in a U-Haul, I LOVE road trips!  The thought of living by family again was SO exciting!  And, I was ready to see what God had next for us.

But, as we talked everything out once again, it became crystal clear- God was making a way!  And I am incredibly thankful!!  It's possible that this soul searching was necessary simply to keep us in a place of surrender.  This week prepared us to go, wherever that may be, and whether that happens next month or in seven months... or whenever God says it's time!  We don't know why He wants us to stay, but all that matters is that He does.  We don't want to be anywhere but right where He puts us!  And that's as far as we've gotten!