Austria, Munich, and Istanbul

We had a great time on vacation. Our friends Rachel and Rob joined us, and I think we sufficiently turned them off from having kids anytime soon! :) We all had a great time, I'll let them speak for themselves, and found some much needed refreshment for the mind, body and soul. The last full day there we spent in a half day of prayer, which turned out to be a half morning of soul wrenching hearty fight for Wes and I, but in the end our souls felt so cleansed and we were back to being teammates again. Marriage is hard, marriage with kids is harder, and marriage overseas for the first time with kids is harder still. God does not promise it will be easy, he provides a way for us to stand up underneath the burdens. I'm remembering some of my memory verses and remembering the lessons buried in their richness. God hasn't abandoned us, and as we looked up to the mountains... THE ALPS!... we were quick to remember the verses about finding His strength for us, His being our right arm. God is God, and we sometimes forget our feeble minds, attempts and struggles aren't too much for Him to handle, or that we aren't so insignificant for Him to see. When sharing our lives with other people, I try to be as honest as I can. I suppose that has brought me some unwanted attention or criticism, but I hope it has also blessed others with knowing the truth behind the facade. I know we all struggle but I just hope someone benefits from our struggles. Communication is so key to marriage, isn't it? I'm starting to think it is the most important thing, even more so than having God, because it seems Wes and I were following God yet we didn't communicate that with each other, and as the struggles became heavier and heavier we were sinking from not being united through communication with God, with each other. Last month we went swimming in a canyon before the waters dried up, and I attempted to swim across a lagoon with the picnic blanket over my head, in the end I went under and couldn't get up because I didn't want to let go of the blanket and get it wet, I finally came up gasping for air and laughing at myself, to see Wes and Ben standing on the shore laughing at me too, and wondering just what I was doing. I suppose you could say the last couple of months has been like that for both of us. We're swimming along bearing this burden independent of each other, certain the other one has too much for them to help, and we just end up drowning in our burdens. Jesus stands on the shore shaking His head, and at the same time is in the water waiting for when we will let Him share in the burden bearing, but so is Wes. Wes desires to partner with me as well, and I with him, and if we together partner with Jesus... well what burden would be too great then? None.
We went hiking, biking, mountain biking, walking, swimming, played cards, saw beautiful places, lost my perscription sunglasses and 'pass the pigs', but I think I will learn more from our last morning in the woods with Wes and Jesus than I did from any other part of the trip. It was surreal to watch the World Cup in Austria in a pub though :)
I was grateful God allowed Rach and Rob to come and meet us there, but I can't help but think they didn't know what they were getting into! We were seriously messed up and in need of some serious debriefing and decompressing! But its so great to reattach a friendship, one that lives on past memories and past things in common, we were able to gain some new memories and some new things in common. I suppose in this stage of my life, that is pretty important to me, and God allowed me to have that need met. So besides the fact the hotel didn't have a pool right there, and everything was in German, we had a blast! And some amazing pics we'll get posted soon! :)