Sanders Party of Five

Well, we’ve been in Los Fresnos for just over a month now, and we’re finally beginning to settle in a bit. The month leading up to our move, and especially the week before, were such a whirlwind that I was expecting to get down here and be able to relax a bit. Boy, was I wrong! From the time we pulled up to our rental house on the afternoon of August 2nd, with tons of willing helpers waiting to unload the moving truck, we have been immersed in a different culture, a different way of life, and lots of homesickness. I would be lying if I said it’s been easy, but at the same time it’s been wonderful. I know that sounds crazy, but let me explain. Our family has bonded in extraordinary ways over these last weeks, as we have faced these challenges together. It has been quite interesting to see how we’ve each handled the move differently. Not knowing when or where someone will have a sudden bout of homesickness has been challenging, and since we’re each experiencing similar emotions, yet in radically different ways, we’ve learned to treat each other with much more kindness, compassion, and mercy than usual. We are thankful that God has allowed us to show this grace to one another, as this would have been an impossible task without Him.

We are also learning a lot about living in community with other believers, which is something I have never learned to do very well. To Every Tribe is full of people from various parts of the country, diverse backgrounds, different stories, etc., so it has been a bit of a challenge to figure out how to relate to this assorted group of people whose lives seem so far removed from my own. It has been such a blessing to realize these differences, but know that we are all here for the same reason: to be used by God to spread his glory among the nations. It is such a privelege to be a part of this group of people who so obviously love the Lord so much, and are willing to spend their lives reaching the lost in those hard to reach areas.

We just finished our fourth week of homeschooling the kids, and they seem to be enjoying the year as yet. Admittedly, it has been a challenge for me to school all three of them, especially considering the age differences, but we are figuring matters out as we go along. Of course, that pretty much describes our entire homeschool journey to date, so that’s not a great deal of change from last year. I love our new curriculum, although it requires a significant amount of preparation time on my part. I’m hoping that as the year goes along and I gain more experience, it will come more easily.

We were very fortunate to find out about a local homeschool varsity basketball team, so Sam is staying busy with practice and loving it. He has never trained so hard for any sport, and his strength and endurance are continuing to improve. The team trainer, a former professional basketball player, has a unique gift of being able to be great friends with the boys, but really making them want to work harder than they’ve ever worked before. I’ve never seen anything like it, and Sam is learning tons about what makes a great leader just by being around the trainer every week. It’s awesome to see Sam growing into such a fine young man despite some of the adversities he’s faced in life, and I’m so thankful and humbled when I see God at work in him. Being a teenager is hard, as we all know, and Jeremy and I are relying on God’s grace daily as we learn how to shepherd Sam through these tough teen years. He misses everyone at home, but struggles to talk about it much. I don’t try to force him, but we do have conversations quite often about how we think we’re dealing with everything. Occasionally during these talks he’ll talk about what he misses, but it’s extremely difficult for a fourteen year old boy to open up about his emotions. He knows that we’re here for him, and will continue to be here for him. Again, I think the basketball team has helped him tremendously, as he has already met many friends on the team.

Olivia is doing well, and as usual continues to make friends fairly easily. Being pretty much the only white, non Spanish speaking family in the neighborhood has been a bit of a challenge, but she’s making the best of it. We’re blessed to have a ten year old little girl named Jackie living next door to us, and she and Olivia have really hit it off. Jackie, who speaks fluent English and Spanish, is trying to teach Olivia some Spanish, and Olivia is teaching Jackie how to play the piano. Olivia has struggled a bit with homesickness at times, which was expected, but still not easy. She feels emotions very deeply, and has a wonderful ability to talk about those emotions with us. This has meant a few rough nights of difficult conversations with lots of tears from everyone involved, but thankfully these nights are occurring less often. The most memorable remark from her came when we were watching Return of the King a couple of weeks ago. During the last ten minutes, she cried like I’ve never seen her cry at a movie, and when I asked her why she was crying, she said she finally understood how Frodo felt when he left everything behind and had to go somewhere else. That was a tough one, but I can see her trying to understand, making connections, and not withdrawing.

Everett continues to be his typical wild and crazy self, and keeps us on our toes and laughing most of the time. His unique view of the world is both refreshing and challenging, but I wouldn’t give anything for it. Being the youngest in the family affords him many opportunities to imitate everyone’s behavior, good and bad, usually with humorous results. His latest obsession is doing a Tim Hawkins impression (learned from big brother), and he actually does it quite well at times. He misses his friends back home like crazy, and talks often about our neighborhood in Alabama. For some reason (his age, I guess) I thought he would have the easiest time with the move. While this has been true in some respects, the depth of his emotion has been heartrending on a few occasions. Sometimes he’s just sad and can’t explain why. A five year old only has so many words, and some of what’s going on in his mind simply can’t be verbalized yet. I just give lots of hugs and try to be patient when he’s struggling in this manner.

I believe that’s all I have for right now. I do have pictures, but unfortunately I’ve been unable to locate the charger to my camera since we moved. As soon as I find it and can charge the battery, I’ll post those pics. I realize that a picture is worth a thousand words, and reading a long blog post with no visual aids is no fun. I apologize and will do my best to remedy that as soon as possible.

We miss you all so much and hope everyone is doing well. I’ve tried to write a blog post so many times over these last weeks, but it just hasn’t happened. While this one is a little update about the kids, I have so much more to say. I just don’t know how to say it yet. I’m in awe of God and the ways he works in these lives of ours. To be here is such a privelege, and humbling, and terrifying all at the same time. I honestly don’t have the words most of the time.

An official ministry update is coming from Jeremy in a few days, so keep an eye out for it.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  2 Corinthians 4:5-7