I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Psalm 3:4<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It has been months since I\u2019ve written a blog post.\u00a0 It\u2019s not from lack of things to say, perhaps not even lack of time (although that is part of it), but just that one hasn\u2019t been written.\u00a0 But currently this is my view as I sit and write this one.<\/p>\n Snowy Colorado friends, jealous much?\u00a0 In all honesty though I can\u2019t even tell you what this current place means to me.\u00a0 We\u2019ve spent a lot of time adjusting to our new life, and new routine here.\u00a0 It\u2019s been busy in so many ways.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve cried more tears in this transition than others before.\u00a0 (Is it ok to be this vulnerable?)\u00a0 We\u2019ve moved so many times, and each time has had its own challenges, but we\u2019ve never moved with a child.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that\u2019s played the biggest role for me in my challenges, that and perhaps the pregnancy hormones (yeah that\u2019s it, let\u2019s blame it on those).<\/p>\n Gisenyi is such a beautiful place, and there isn\u2019t anywhere that Maddy and I can\u2019t go.\u00a0 We have freedom and we walk almost everywhere, but this is the first time we\u2019ve lived somewhere without a missionary community.\u00a0 This is the first time we\u2019ve moved somewhere with a completely active, social toddler and the first time I\u2019ve felt like I can\u2019t offer her a social outlet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, we walk on the road and see \u201ckids\u201d on the street.\u00a0 And when we go to church on Sunday\u2019s there are plenty of kids she hangs out with and she is CRAZY around them!\u00a0 She sings and dances and does everything she knows how to do in order to get attention, and Maddy already knows a few words in the local language, Kinyarwanda.\u00a0 But our life here is very different.\u00a0 Different is good, change is good, ministry is good.\u00a0 But sometimes different can be difficult.<\/p>\n There are days that I crave a play group, or a park, or an English women\u2019s Bible Study.\u00a0 A library time, a church nursery, or a MOPS group.\u00a0 A close friend to share my frustrations about my ever changing toddler (who I\u2019m now convinced is hitting her two\u2019s).\u00a0 The sleep issues we\u2019ve been having, how to know if I\u2019m doing the right thing at times, how to know when to potty train.\u00a0 A mom friend that can encourage me, even when I can\u2019t encourage myself.\u00a0 I\u2019ve cried many tears convinced that Maddy needs more than I can offer, but Maddy is happy.\u00a0 She\u2019s thriving and loves her life here.\u00a0 But there are days that I still need a place that we can go that is kid friendly for Maddy and relaxing for mom.<\/p>\n And then by chance, NOPE by a God ordained circumstance, a friend and I found this place.\u00a0 We were going to go together to eat dinner at one restaurant, that particular restaurant was closed\u2026so we were going to go to another place, and then said let\u2019s try this hotel that we pass by almost everyday and see what it has.\u00a0 That\u2019s when we found it!\u00a0 The perfect place for both mom and toddler.<\/p>\n A place with lots of grass for Maddy to run, a fully legitimate park, with slides, swings, climbing things, a trampoline, a swimming pool, a beautiful garden, and some sort of beautiful peacock.\u00a0 The place I\u2019ve been praying for, craving to have and shedding tears for not having.\u00a0 The perfect place to come to get energy out of an active toddler that isn\u2019t always on a busy road, isn\u2019t always me having to chase her over rocks or before she takes a tumble down a steep hill, but a place that I can sit, and write a blog, knowing she is safe to roam. \u00a0This hasn’t solved her safe social outlets, but that can come with time.\u00a0 For right now at this moment, this place is my answer to prayer.\u00a0 This place is my paradise.\u00a0 My perfect, God ordained, paradise.<\/p>\n Monday, April 18, 2016 I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Psalm 3:4 It has been months since I\u2019ve written a blog post.\u00a0 It\u2019s not from lack of things to say, perhaps not even lack of time (although that is part of it), but just that one hasn\u2019t been written.\u00a0 But currently this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giseyni","category-madelyn","category-missionary","category-mom-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0993.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"