The fact that this post happened to be part three of The Story of Us is appropriate. Three is a good number. It’s the number of the Trinity. It’s the number of completeness. Some people even claim it’s the perfect number of toppings for a pizza. It’s also the number of us. But more on that later.
(un)comfortable
I met my wife a little over five years ago. Over the last five years we have done a lot. We’ve experienced a lot. We’ve been through a lot. Some of it good. And some of it not so good.
During the last five years we have fostered two children and are in the process of adopting one. In the past five years we’ve relocated a lot. In fact, we moved three times in less than a year. We’ve lived at the beach and in the Hollywood hills and a couple of places in between. We’ve given ourselves to service. We did mission work in Brazil and in Africa. We’ve traveled a lot in the last few years. One of our goals in the first few years of marriage was to travel. So we visited Israel and Palestine. We walked the same dirt as Jesus himself. We saw the civil war in Syria with our own eyes. We visited 11 countries on three different continents. We even launched a skin care product line and published a book. All in five years.
You guys know me, you know I’m not bragging when I list these experiences. The truth is, over the last five years we’ve made some good choices, but we’ve probably made far more stupid ones. We’ve been blessed but we’ve also been broke, and broken (hearted) more than once.
(un)stable
Through it all we’ve always lived at least one step beyond our comfort zone. We’ve always pushed forward. When we lost our foster son, we pushed forward and brought another child into our home. We visited the Middle East and Africa in the same year, at a time when it probably wasn’t extremely safe to travel. We are both self-employed and have our own businesses in an economy where that is rapidly becoming unwise.
We always try to step out and trust that God will be faithful (and He always has been).
(un)afraid
That is where the number three comes back into play. We are pregnant. With twins. In March we will be way out beyond our comfort zone again. We will have three children under a year and a half. Ahhh!
I’m not ever sure how that works because I don’t even have three hands. But I wasn’t sure how adopting out of the foster system would work, yet here we are. I wasn’t sure how visiting some of the poorest people in the world would work, yet it was a life changing experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. And I realized they are often far richer than we are in the things that matter. I wasn’t sure how moving would work. Then moving again would work. Then moving again would work. But it all worked out. (So far)
It turns out two hands are enough when you are where you are supposed to be and doing what you are supposed to be doing. You very rarely find out that God has given you too many hands, but it turns out you usually have just the right amount of hands for the work you are supposed to do.
So bring on twins! (basically triplets) We don’t do anything halfway! (or a third of the way) We are comfortable being uncomfortable! (wait, what?) We’ve got this! (don’t we, sweetie?!) I’m not scared, I can do this! (just kidding. God, can you cover me again? I got the next one (again, kidding. you got that one too))
Prather, family of five!
To be continued…
