God is Not an Elephant

It's true...God is not an Elephant. You know why? Because an elephant never forgets....but God FORGETS!!

And you know what? We need to forget also. FORGIVE AND FORGET.

Easier said than done right? Trust us, we know. Sometimes people hurt us deeper than we ever thought imaginable. We can't help replaying the hurtful actions and words in our heads over and over again. We think we've been treated unfairly so it's ok for us to hold a bitter grudge. But that's not right...it's not what God calls us to do.

Look at what the Lord has done for us:

Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases...

Psalm 103:2,3

He forgives ALL our sins!

Let's follow in the Lord's footsteps. Stop holding on to anger. Stop replaying the hurtful scene in your head. Stop holding on to bitterness. FORGIVE. LOVE. FORGET. BE LIKE JESUS.

He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;  
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:9,10

Forgiving and forgetting doesn't always mean the relationship will be restored. Some relationships can not and should not be restored to the way they once were. Sometimes all we can do is forgive with no strings attached. Make sure your attitude towards that person/people is right in your own heart, pray for the one who has hurt you, and ALWAYS be ready to offer verbal forgiveness if they come to you with an apology.

We love this new song "LOSING" by Tenth Avenue North. Take a few minutes to listen to it. It will rock your socks off!

"We think pain is owed apologies and then it'll stop
But truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of Mercy and Your Grace"

Pictures of our new place!

We are finally moved into our new house and boy does it feel good! After 2 months of living out of a suitcase, it feels incredibly wonderful to unpack and put things in their proper place! I don't think we realized how ready we were to settle until we were actually able to!

The Lord really blessed us in giving us the place that He did! It's a beautiful 4 bedroom home with lots of space for Isaiah. We are the first occupants so everything feels new and clean. It is in a great location- 5 minutes from the grocery store (with traffic), less than 10 minutes to Drew's work, and close by to many other amenities and places we go often. Another bonus is that it is up and away from the main road a bit so we don't get much "African dirt" in through the windows (a problem that many houses here have).

We still have a long way to go as far as "setting up" goes. We only have the bare bones in the furniture department and haven't even begun to think about decorating yet! =) But, little by little we know we'll be able to buy the things we need and begin to make this place feel like "home." For now, we're just thankful to have some place to call our own!

Here are some photos so you can get a visual picture of where we are living. 



Our bedroom.



Different angle of our bedroom.



Our bed (We had our bed frame made so that we could get an "American" size queen bed instead of a "Ugandan" size! Hoping to get it next week).



Master bathroom off of our room.



Guest bathroom



Guest bathroom.



Bedroom for our new baby!



New baby's bedroom.



Isaiah's room. We're waiting for his bunk bed/trundle bed to be finished being made and then all these mattresses will be up off the floor (and ready for guests to come sleep in)!)



Isaiah's room.



Zai's room.



Hallway



Hallway



Front porch (and Isaiah playing with our house girl, Suzy). He loves Suzy!!!



Living room.



Living room.



Dining room/ living room.



Kitchen.



Kitchen.

Kitchen.



Pantry

Our washing machine!!! Yay!!



Another bathroom.



Our fourth bedroom which is now being used as a spot to put our deep freezer and a laundry room.



Back porch.

Well that's it for now, folks! I'll post more pictures once we get more furniture and things decorated a bit. =)