Married for 10 years…… It is just absolutely unbelievable to me. What an amazing blessing these 10 yrs have been. Although I can look back and see times that we struggled with different things that were going on in our lives, I really can’t think of times that we seriously struggled with our marriage. It’s been a wonderful, joy filled partnership that I thank God for all the time. I always tell Jack that I’m not sure why God blessed me were I was in my life when I was 18 and we met but I’m so glad He did!
We started thinking last summer about what we would do for our 10th this year and we tossed around the idea of a Carribean vacation or something exotic but we just couldn’t come up with the right thing. After talking and praying a bit, Jack said “why don’t we go back to the Yucatan?” We had been there over our 4th anniversary working together on the mission field and I couldn’t think of a better way for us to spend our 10th. Being on the mission field together as a couple is one of the most powerful things I could ever recommend to another couple. A mission trip is always such a huge blessing to a person anyway; putting yourself aside, being out of your “comfort zone,” experiencing the thrill and excitement of the unknown, then being able to experience that with the person God gave you to always be right there on your team is simply amazing.
Once we gave this trip over to God, He ran with it! We received a credit card offer which got us free airline tickets (NEVER, ever saw one of these that wasn’t a scam but I went through this one with a fine tooth comb and it was actually legit!). THEN, our friends in Michigan had owed us an authentic New Orleans meal from a voucher we had bought from an auction I organized for our previous trip to the Yucatan so we decided to take them up on that one Sunday we were visiting up there. Well, we told them about our upcoming trip and how we would work for several days and then try to get a hotel somewhere for the last few days of our trip. They looked at each other and then pulled out a book from the time share that they own. Sure enough, the resort they go through had a hotel in Merida close to where we would be. They decided to give us the stay in the five start resort for only the cost of their transfer fee. The time share is always for seven days and we didn’t want it for the whole time but it turned out good because we were able to let our missionary friends take advantage of the hotel as well one of the nights we weren’t there. Seriously, can you believe how big our God is? Free airfare, basically free hotel; glory to Him.
We booked all this last fall and had everything in place long ago. Well, come to find out, a group from our old church planned a trip and they ended up being there the same time as us so we all got to work together again! The other amazing thing about the timing of this trip is Laila. We really felt like God wanted us to make this trip and we didn’t know how that would fit into foster care but we knew He would work it out. He had perfect timing planned out so far ahead of us that Laila would not be needing a home not until we got home (t-minus 4 days and counting by the way ;)
The trip turned out to be so much more than we could’ve imagined. We got to work on the Mission Outreach Center that they are building on their property. The mission has always housed groups at the church or in the homes of different members of the church. When this is finished they will have one place that will hold several people and it is two-story so they can house men on one floor and women on another. We worked on finishing the roof for the second story. Not sure if Craig planned it this way or if it was just God’s timing but it worked out perfect that Jack was there because his height was a huge asset in handing up buckets of concrete and blocks up to the men on the roof.
No roof when we arrived
This is what we start out with for our concrete
My big muscles :) This is how we mix; no concrete trucks here!
Jack passing the buckets of concrete up to Marco
Once the edges were done, these solid concrete beams were delivered. HEAVY!!! Of course the little Mexican guys can carry them with just two of them but we needed a team!
Once the beams were in place, we passed all these blocks up an assembly line for the men to get up onto the roof.
Again, my big tall husband was a HUGE help. I love him :)
It’s sideways but here’s a video of Jack in the background passing the blocks up to the roof.
That was the end of the work that Jack and I did because we knew we needed to make time for spending together (we’re not so good and making time for each other). We left the group and went to the nice hotel. We ended up going back and visiting the group a few times, once for church on Wednesday night and once because our friends Raul & Sandra invited us over for dinner. We had an amazing time exploring downtown Merida and having to speak the language, shop and find restaurants on our own.
Us on our actual anniversary
Craig & Rhonda suggested this really great restaurant. The man is cooking our dinner over a flaming pineapple that had a face made on it like Mr. Potato Head!
Meet some of our Yucatan Friends:
left to right: Craig, Rhonda, Janet, Sandra, Abby, Raul, Me & Jack
Hermanas: Me, Sandra & Rhonda
Jonathan, Me & Jack
3 comments:
Praise God for His work through you in Mexico... and for working out the timing of everything... including that tropical storm! What a way to celebrate your life together with Him as the center.
What an amazing way to spend your anniversary!
What a great trip!!!! I love the picture of you relaxing in the sun! ;)
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