This and That

Good morning Hanstad blog followers!  We know many of you are praying for us and for that we are thankful....keep it up...we need it.  Brad's sister Karin and her husband Deon were here recently and we had a great time with them.   The kids enjoyed some Aunt and Uncle time which was fun.  Many fun moments were had and even a couple of trips to the Snowcone Lady.   No matter how old you get, or how far from home you are, time spent with family is just good medicine.

On the home front--Jack, Molly, and Ellie finished up their seasons of league baseball and softball.  Jack will now play only for the Texas Stallions select team.  They will play their last tournament of the spring season this weekend and then have a little time off until they start fall baseball.  He is doing strength and agility training every morning at his school.  Molly decided not to play select softball and will be playing soccer this fall.  Ellie was too young for the select soft team, the Texas Twist, but they asked her to practice with them.  I am sure she will be voted team captain by the end of the first practice...haha.  Drew will be forced to end his love affair with the concession stand and start to play soccer too this fall.  I guess if our kids are going to be part Brazilian, they want to learn to play Futebol.... that is soccer in Portuguese for your Northerners.  Even Jack talks about playing soccer for his school next spring.  Does the thought of a North Dakota hockey player going against these southern boys scare anyone else???  Should we tell him that there is no penalty box?

I think our firstborn deserves her own paragraph...I know she would agree.  What a beauty she is becoming!  She is diligently working toward finishing two years of high school yet this year so that she can start her senior year in the fall.  How hard it must be to see the little kids leave for the pool everyday while she sits on her computer.   But she is determined and we are proud of her.   She has applied for a job at a cupcake shop and for those of you who know her fondness of frosting, you will understand our concern.  However, it has a happy little place and we hope that they will see what an asset she would be and hire her!  She will turn 16 on July 3rd....but her heart is in Brazil.

Brad continues to work at his main job of providing for our family.  He is working on a great business opportunity that we hope would give us great flexibility for being in Brazil.  Our hope is to return to Brazil later this fall and stay awhile.

Please pray for the details of each step of this journey.   At times the hurdles seem too many and too difficult to overcome.  I keep recalling that part of the movie "League of Their Own" with Tom Hanks and Geena Davis.   She wants to quit the team because she says "It just got too hard."  Tom Hanks replies..."It's supposed to be hard.   If it was easy, everyone would do it."

And so we continue to trust that the task God has given us, even though it often feels too hard for us, is NOT TOO HARD FOR HIM.

James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.   Perserverence must finish its work in order for you to become mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Perservering......always,

Robbyn for the Hanstads

Happy Anniversary

20...yes I said TWENTY....years together!  Today we will celebrate our 20th Anniversary.  Wow how our lives have changed since that day when we overcame the odds of young love and actually said "I do".  And we meant it.  We really meant it.  Those of you closest to us know that our challenges began the next month as we packed up that moving truck and headed for California...just the two of us.  I'll spare the details here on the blog but the truck barely made it there and we had to grow-up and overcome during those 1500 miles.  God continued to increase our joy day by day along with allowing challenges to come our way.  The ups and downs of marriage and just life in general can be wearing.  And yet, as we look back, we see how God has used each and every heartache and test to prepare us for the task he has given us here in Texas and in Brazil.  We see how God has grown our faith, matured us through some very unpleasant circumstances and trials, and shown us how HIS WORD IS TRUE and HE IS FAITHFUL.  We are grateful for the five great kids he has given us.  Even though the quantity can be a challenge, we recognize that each one has a specific purpose in his call on our lives as a family.  I find it significant that God would give us an even 20 years to learn and grow and prepare us for service in Brazil.  With a group like us....I guess I can see why it took so long!  Actually, God's timing is perfect, and even though there are many days, most days in fact, when we feel completely inadequate to raise our own five kids, let alone take them to another country to help raise 85 more kids, we are COMPLETELY CONFIDENT that God will provide everything we need and equip us with all things for this task.

Now, time to curl the hair for the big day.  We can all be thankful that my hair is not nearly as big as it was in 1992.  I know Brad is.

Smiling, smiling, smiling,

Robbyn