Abi in Panama

Abi has made it to Panama! 

She left at 5am this morning, so I'm sure it's been a long day. They don't use fb messenger in her mission, so she called us with Google Meet, and she can also use Whatsapp if she wants. She called us and it was good to see her face. She's still smiling! She shared her location with us on Google Maps. 

Hmm, let's zoom out on that to see where you actually are.... Ok, I see, south side...

Let's keep going and zoom out some more...

Ok! Very good, that is exciting! And she's a mere 2,945 miles away. Now we can watch her every move. First time being able to do that with a missionary. This will be a fun new feature. 

Katharine went over to play with Scarlett today. Corey took her on his way out, so she was over there from noon until 2:30 when Meghan brought her back. So nice of her, and I'm so glad Katharine has her little friends to play with. I've ordered a few toys for her for Christmas, of for an emergency if one comes up. I was dressed and ready for a ride around 3 but wasn't able to get out until 4:15. I left, the girls were her to watch the kids. S&N left at 5:45 for a YW thrift fashion show activity. Lily watched the kids until she went on a date at 6. 

I wasn't as fast on my ride as I needed to be to get home before girls left, cause I kept pausing to write notes down on my phone. I was listening to the Follow Him podcast for this week with guest Andrew Miller and there were so many nuggets of wisdom that were shared, it was great (other than I had to keep stopping!) Right off the bat, like at minute 3, Hank Smith shared a quote by a friend Natalie Norton "Happiness in life is how your manage loss, how you deal with loss." Elizabeth Bishop "Life is the art of losing. Children grown The world's a moving target. One thing is guaranteed, everything that arises passes away." Our religion requires us to lose our life in order to save it. I loved that thought - we need to learn to expect loss and be happy with trust in Christ in spite of those losses. I was thinking of my mom, trying to cope with loss of memory, of my sister Jersh and my friend Nicole, both coping with the loss of marriage and the fallout that comes because of that (moving, new home, new schools for kids). Corey often says that frustration is just a failure to meet expectations, SO if we can just keep our expectations as "I am going to lose this one day" then maybe that will help us? Just enjoy the day that we have now, take time to behold and smell the roses, and know that it will pass.

BUT, even though joys may slip away from us day by day, CHRIST has overcome all things, he holds all things in his hand, and he will restore to us our desires. So do good, love, serve, and those things eventually will be ours for ever and won't be lost to us again.