Hi Friends,
For the past 6 months we were on sabbatical. It was a very blessed and wonderful time. I knew it won’t be particularly restful (having 5 children, three of which are under 5 is not the definition of restful :D), but I knew it could be very fruitful and it was even better than I expected.
I am thankful for the conversations I could have with Chris due to him being home, I am thankful for the family time we had with the children, and I am thankful that I got to go to places since Chris was able to be with the kids when I left.
During these 6 months we learned more about what it means to live a healthy, balanced life that honors God. Both Chris and I are prone to push ourselves more than is healthy as we see needs. We came to a better understanding of what God desires for us. There is such a thing as working too much (even if it is in a form of serving Him), whereas He wants us to live life balanced in other areas as well.
Chris read books on the topic of burnout and gained a better insight into how we can live our lives in a way that is pleasing God. One of the things we learned is how there are only a few things that God only entrusted to us. Our spouse and our children. No one else is my husband and no one else is my children’s mother. Only I can be a wife to Chris and a mother to my children. So all of these responsibilities are entrusted to me by God. They should be priority.
We also know that God delights in us fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and therefore our church should also be a big part of our lives. Thankfully we’ve always considered the church an important necessity, so now we just want to be even more involved in the lives of those attending our church.
We would still like to serve full-time, but at this point it won’t be with Word of Life Hungary. We love WOL and are thankful for their ministry, we still try to help where we can (I was a unit leader at camp a couple of weeks ago and Amy was translating the instructions when there was a need), but we feel that with our current family situation (number and ages of kids), we wouldn’t be able to keep the balance between family, church, and work there.
As of right now we are not sure what’s next, so if you remember it, please pray for us for clarity as God leads and guides us. We haven’t looked into anything yet, but soon it will be time to do that.
Meanwhile our kids are growing and maturing. 🙂
These past 6 months we’ve spent so much time playing with them, watching them grow and change. They are all tremendous blessings.
Amy and Haley finished school well, Amy will start 7th grade and Haley will start 4th grade in the fall. They are wonderful artists. They sure didn’t get that from me. 🙂 We love watching them create and play together.
Joshua and JJ spend most of their days together. They are good brothers. They love puzzles and recently they put together a Pixar 1000 piece puzzle daily. They usually finish in about 3 hours and insist on doing it the next day as well. At this point they may be able to do it with their eyes closed. 😀
Benjamin turned 1 last month. He is a very sweet, content baby, who only cries when tired or when he is hurting. He loves playing with any size of ball. He doesn’t walk yet, so he throws the ball and crawls after it. Throws it again and crawls after it. He can do this for an hour. He also likes to play ball with others.
We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. It is very tiring, but we are doing really well. I keep telling people I much rather be tired and well than rested and feeling bad. 🙂
Have a wonderful day!
The James family