Celebrating One Year in Angola!

Hard to believe, but we're already halfway through our 2 year tour in Angola!  We've survived a year in a 3rd world country!  We celebrated by eating butterscotch rice krispies and hot chocolate.  :)

This milestone has of course prompted some reflection for me.  The past year has been a year of learning for our family.  Learning about another culture and language.  Learning about 3rd world living and how truly blessed we are.  Briant and I have loved our time interaction with the local Angolans at work and church and have appreciated learning from them and the stories of their lives.  And the kids are learning to love and interact with children from all over the world on a daily basis at their international school. These things that we've learned have been wonderful and we feel blessed to be learning so much in and about Angola.  But one of the most important lessons that I think we've learned is that the Lord does truly strengthen us in our weaknesses.  Coming to Angola alone required much strength from the Lord and a lot of faith on our part.  I think when we arrived in Angola, the kids were exercising their faith in us as their parents; that we were doing the right thing by being here and that all would be okay.  They were leaning on us and our faith.  We had many family home evening lessons, scripture studies, and nights tucking them into bed, where we needed to comfort and reassure them in their fears, and give them hope with all of the new changes they were experiencing.  But now, at the end of one year here, I can see the existence of an inner strength that did not use to be there.  I can see that their own faith in Heavenly Father is strengthened and they know they are loved and heard by Him.  They are learning the importance of a person's individual faith and are looking for the Lord's hands in their lives.  Every now and then, one of them will say, "I saw a tender mercy today mom..."  I think it has been reinforced to all of us this year that, "The acceptance of the reality that we are in the Lord's loving hands is only a recognition that we have never really been anywhere else." (Neal A. Maxwell, LDS Apostle)  And so with that knowledge, we look forward to one more year of living and learning, together as a family and individually, here in Angola.
"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."  -- Corrie Ten Boom