The Dreaded Weekend

Well, it's here. The weekend that I have dreaded for the last 6 months. In 2 short days, Ahmed will leave us and begin his journey home to Egypt. Actually, it is less than 36 hours. My gosh - where has the time gone.

Why am I blogging when we have such few time left, well, it is 10:45p on a Friday and he is out with friends. My heart hurts when I think about the pain that will come so soon. I know he has to leave, but that does not make it any easier.

The last 6 months have been incredible. Better than I imagined. But I am not going to lie. There have been a few trying times, but nothing that we couldn't make it through.

We have experienced so much... and yes, I have lots of pictures to post... but we have had some major computer issues. 2 laptops are now down, 1 with a cracked screen, yikes, and the other now has a major virus, double eek!! We have had to revolt back to the good old classic desktop that is slow as Christmas. I do promise to get some pics loaded real soon.

So much has been happening the last couple of months. Keith is still very actively searching for that full time ministry position. We know that it will come in God's timing. But like I have said in the past, patience is not my best virtue. There was a position open recently that we all just knew was the perfect position for Keith. No seriously, I don't think there could have been a more perfect one. Well, I guess there is one out there, just haven't found it yet. But anyway ... this position was with a well know Baptist Association and it happened to be the Marketing Director. It was the perfect mix of ministry work with TONS of churches plus marketing, photography and videography - all of Keith's years of experience. There were 6 up for the position, then down to 5, then down to 3 and quickly narrowed to 2. Keith was one of those 2. Our prayers were strong but that was not obviously God's plan. We soon received a letter that said they had chosen the other candidate. Of course we were heartbroken. Just devastated.

I knew at that instant that the chances of us staying in Bham were slim to none. Or, should I say, I knew the chances of us having to move from Birmingham were higher. Oh the pressure. Well, just a few short days from receiving the letter, Keith got a set of questions to answer from a church that had previously emailed him. Then he got an email from another church asking if he was still looking for a position. Then a 2nd set of questions came from a 3rd church. Wow, Lord, is this really happening? We had gone so many months with no response and all of a sudden 3 different churches interested in 3 different cities and states.

So much is happening so fast that who knows where we will be. It scares me SO much to move from Birmingham, but I know that God will help calm those fears if that is the plan he has for us!

But for now, we focus on our last time with Ahmed, spend some much needed quality time with Noah and then prepare for our next student who will come in August. No, we are not hosting full time next year, again, a much needed break, but we will have a student for 6 weeks and for that, I am excited. We have just about decided that we love hosting and know that is a great ministry for our family, but will probably be something we consider every other year so that we can also focus on our little family.

Please keep Ahmed in your prayers over the next week. He leaves Birmingham on Sunday and heads to Nashville. From Nashville, he will fly to Washington, D.C. He spends a short time in D.C. then travels by bus to NYC where he waits on his plane to Germany and then to Egypt. It will take him a full week to return to Egypt - yikes!!

Please also keep Noah (and our family) in your prayers. We have gotten quite attached to Ahmed and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye. We do not know when we will see him again. Could be just a few months, could be years, could be ... well, I won't go there. But Noah has gotten attached to his "bro" and I almost dread explaining Ahmed having to go home to his Mommy. In Noah's eyes, I am Ahmed's Mommy. And pray for Maggie -- she's fully accepted Ahmed into her "pack" by not eating her dinner until everyone is home for the night. She may not eat for a couple of days and I'm really nervous. Guess that will mean extra treats for Maggie!!

Well, good night, friends. My Ahmed has gotten home and I'm off to tell him goodnight for the next to last time!! (sniff, sniff!)

~Randi