The Price Tag

I can not believe it is already the second week of 2012.

I am not sure how to catch people up with our story. It is hard enough for us to keep up.

But we are here!

As you can tell, our journey has taken us on uncharted, unmapped, and unplanned sidetrips.

The month of November went by in a flash. After being away from Dave and the girls for nearly 10 weeks, while being with my mom in South Carolina, I joined them in California. We were enjoyed our time together, and found the beauty of being together as a family as our major blessing.

We then packed up and drove across the country to spend time with my mom and family in South Carolina. We were able to visit churches along the way, and met the most amazing people. We became part of a true church family in Wyoming, where the people blessed us beyond we could have imagined with simple fellowship!

We were able to spend some amazing time in South Dakota with the Mettenbrink family. They are called to the country of Mexico, but Dave and I secretly pray that God will park them in the beautiful country of Costa Rica. We recharged and refreshed ourselves with this faithful family in the Black Hills.

The girls were able to see more amazing parts of the United States.

We made it back in time for Christmas Eve here in South Carolina.

We had the traditional Christmas Eve celebration at my mom's house, but we were all so blessed just to be able to have mom with us, our very own Christmas miracle.

Santa came on Christmas day, and as usual, totally spoiled those Cartwright girls.

And then our last tradition of the season, time spent at my dad's. Unhurried time, just enjoying hanging out around the tree (and as usual, the gifts that Santa and mom and dad didn't bring, magically appear at grandpa's house)

So here we are in January. Once again we are torn in 2 parts of the country. Dave is back in California, and the girls and I are in South Carolina. We are in full swing now with Home School, which I have to admit, I LOVE.

Dave comes back here next week, and we will visit churches here in South Carolina. That part was planned all along. So we will be here till the middle of Feb.

But when do we get to Costa Rica?

We are getting closer. . .

Our goal is to be there June/July of this summer. We are a little over 50% of the needed budget. Which is such a blessing. We were at 50% of our budget the beginning of the summer, but had a budget increase (which was huge) so we are finally back on the up swing again.

So what have we been doing?

We have been growing and learning. . . So much. . .
I wish the lessons we have learned in the last few months were the easy kind, but they have not been, they have been the kind where you can not move forward, without some serious time spent on your knees, in prayer, looking to the one who provides the answers. I can't say that I have been a great student, in fact it was quite the opposite. . .

But God is so faithful, and so patient.
(and I hope you are too)

I am reminded of a sermon by Pastor Gunn, where he was talking about God's plan being the only Plan for us. . . and a quote from that day was. . .

if our faith cost us nothing, men will value it as nothing

So I am learning that faith, is not something you can merely read about, or study, it is a journey that comes with a price.

Our prayer is that our faith becomes deeper and stronger than we ever thought, despite the circumstances that surround us. One that we value


The girls and I are going to really do a better job of telling our story. So please continue to stay with us in prayer, and in thought.

Now that I have access to a camera, a computer and beautiful girls, our blogging will hopefully be better!