Obviously God knew we'd need Sunday's message to prepare us for a week of refining! There's nothing quite like on-the-job, seat-of-your-pants training, and Ted has had oodles of that during a week of NATO exercise activity that has had him away from home 14-15 hours every day. I'm not sure when the last time was that he actually saw Zaden; yesterday I had Lucan take a long nap so that he could stay up late and have Daddy tuck him in bed.
The exercise ends tomorrow (Saturday). Thankfully Ted is getting Monday off to receive delivery of our express shipment, so we'll actually have a two-day weekend of sorts! Charis and I were originally planning to go on a USO tour of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, but unfortunately the tour was cancelled because not enough people signed up. We are extremely disappointed--as is Ted, who now has to work after all, LOL. (His boss was going to give him the day off since we had signed up for the tour almost a month ago.)
The combined effects of an exhausting, almost-single-parenting week plus not having the tour to look forward to have admittedly affected my attitude. I'm climbing the walls in this little apartment, tripping over toys and piles of library books and desperate for counter space for the never-ending job of feeding bellies that never seem to get full. I struggle to remind myself that God's purposes in bringing us to Italy are not solely for our traveling pleasure or cultural enrichment--they are for shaping and molding us into Christ's image. I'm sure there will be plenty of fun and entertainment along the way...I have pictures of some of those experiences already! But ultimately we need the reminder that life is not all about us. If it were, this week would be a severe disappointment!
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