Life is moving a little too fast for me

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. Romans 1:8

I love this verse. Often, when I am just sitting and being thankful, I think of our beloved "mission friends," people we adore who have chosen to leave comfort and ease and home and travel to wherever it is God has for them. They are proclaiming our faith throughout the whole world. Some of them are in very dangerous places; others, like us, are in safer environs, but wherever we are, I know that we are loving each other and praying for one another. There is great comfort and ease in that.

I am home this morning instead of at church. At about 3:45 this morning, Sarah Beth came and got me because Hannah was violently ill. So I spent the rest of my morning taking care of her and the huge mess that surrounded her. I am keeping her home this morning, hoping that we can go tonight to the concert at a park on the other side of Moscow. I think she just had too much garlic sauce with her pizza last night (Papa John's was dinner), but I want to know that for sure before I subject her to the metro. Nobody wants a sick kid on the metro, trust me.

Last night was Sarah Beth's first formal. I'll have more pictures tomorrow--the camera is on its way to the church where the volunteer group is playing this morning. She got ready at Jeff and Karla's house (all the IMB girls did), and then we met them there to take pictures. I looked at all of them--so beautiful, inside and out--and I was struck by how fast all of this is going. Too fast. Wasn't she 4 yesterday? Now she's going to formals and looking beautiful and grown up. She was just elected Vice-President of her junior class for next year. Wasn't it yesterday she was in kindergarten?

Yet, as much as I'd like to really slow things down, I am so grateful for what God has done and is doing in Sarah Beth's life. I am certainly not implying that she is some perfect wunderkind, because she isn't. But she is a tremendously good human being. When we started the process to be sent by the IMB to Russia, Sarah Beth was none too happy with us. Over time, little by little, God has just worked a miracle in her heart. She has had as easy a transition as I can imagine. She has embraced the new and the different and enjoyed it for what it is. She has managed to spend very few days focused on what she has given up. And I'm pretty sure she would tell you that she has gained more than she has given up to come here. I am especially proud that she is a hands and feet kind of Christian. There is absolutely no hypocrite in Sarah Beth. I know so many teenagers who act one way at school and another at church. I've had kids who were so worldly that I was shocked to find out they were regular church attenders. Sarah Beth is a doer. She is very involved with our English Club, making relationships with the students. She is a great photographer, and she is helping her dad by taking pictures of the group from Alabama. She clearly sees, more than most kids her age, that God can use any skill for His glory. If He gifted you for it, Sarah Beth knows that He can use it for His purposes. I didn't know that at 16, did you? You can see why I'm so thrilled and thankful for the person she is daily becoming.

But it's hard, isn't it? Every day she grows a little more toward being out of my home. They are ours for such a short time. And to think of going on stateside, putting her in college, and then coming back here without her--more than I can handle. But the time is coming. Too soon, the time is coming. So I'm going to treasure every second of her presence in my home. I am going to laugh at her jokes, enjoy her view of the world, listen to her music, and watch while God turns her into the person He has all along known her to be. Most of all, I'm going to be grateful. Really, really grateful. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are thankful for the way God is at work in the lives of your children, and that noone called your house at 3:30 this morning. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye