Grateful

Hanging out with some mothers in our
 first year at Grace

Today we celebrate 6 years since we first arrived in Ethiopia. I look back on the last 6 years with its many ups and downs. How far we have come! I am blown away with all that has been accomplished, the people we have met, the lives I am privileged to know. I am blown away. Not in a million years would I have comprehended all God had for us in the journey. I am humbled and grateful beyond words that he chose our family. Completely grateful.



Lydia at 8yrs old feeding Marcie's
babies in Addis.

I heard a great sermon on Sunday called ‘What’s your problem?’The speaker spoke about problems not really being problems at all, but an important part of fulfilling the dream. His dream of having a wife and family did not envision 2am nappy changes. But it is PART OF THE DREAM. We often want the victory, not realising or willing to see that we need to have victory over something first. Just as a farmer cannot receive a harvest without the Ox first ploughing the field. I loved this analogy as it so relates to life here for majority of Ethiopians.

It is so good for us to get out of our own headspace and look around. Once we have the dream, we can so easily look at stretching times as problems, when they really do not have to be problems. If we embrace them and ‘count them as joy’, have the perspective that they are what we signed up for OR a growing opportunity to get to where our dreams lie, then our attitudes can so much more easily reflect joy and gratefulness for ALL that we have.

So grateful for my princess Berhani

I want to be more like that, always.

I am so grateful for the life that we are living. Sometimes when 'problems' arrive, and I am tired and drained or have too much on my plate, I can so quickly say ‘I didn’t sign up for this’, but if I stop and think, I realize that I did in fact sign up for this. This is part of the dream. I have wanted this dream for as long as I can remember.

And what is more amazing than living my dream. The thought that if God has done ALL THIS in the last 6 years, beyond anything I could have fathomed, what must lie ahead!?

What are you grateful for?

Have you forgotten that your problem can be part of your victory, an important part of fulfilling your dream?

Dee xx

ALSO, JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT ON MONDAY 18^th OF JUNE THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO www.gracecentres.org. It comes with a revived Grace Centre Website that it easier to use! I encourage you to sign up on the new blog if you would like to continue to take this journey with us. God bless and thank you so much. x

First photo with the directors and our families together

Grace long term volunteers!

Hanging out with some of the staff from Grace
that we are so blessed to know!

This photo was taken on the day our first baby 'Hope' died. It was an unbearably sad day. From it, was birthed 'Hope Memorial Clinic', a health centre that serves hundreds of families.