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