WARMTH - Heidi's House Reflections

Shortly after we moved, I was asked often if I had a favorite part of our house, or if there was something about the new house that I especially was enjoying.  A great inquiry - one that I would ask others too.

Well, yes. Yes to everything: the whole house is my favorite part and I am especially enjoying all of it, the view, the quiet, the cleanness, the built correctly-ness, the brightness, the windows, on and on and on...

However, the one thing that always makes me smile outwardly or inwardly is this:

A sink full of dishes to wash?!

Well, yes and no. In our new home, each time I turn on the water and wait for the warm water to come, it comes. And that is what makes me smile - it actually catches me by surprise sometimes at how quickly it comes.

It isn't that our old house didn't have hot water. It did - we usually always had hot water for showers like any family that showers all at the same time. However, many times, we didn't have hot water for very long, or very hot. Most all the time, I filled up a cooking pot with soapy water to wash dishes because the sink never filled up with water warm enough to wash. We had a couple of flash heaters and without going into much detail, some of them worked better than others.

However, now, it works all the time.

Now, not always having hot water was an opportunity to discipline my thought life and my reactions to my circumstances. I love a perfect world and sometimes I can spend quite a bit of time constructing my ideal world in my head. It was a bummer to have water disappointments for sure, and I got into the habit of thinking about others who don't have any water at all, or it's so polluted it's unusable, and many times would pray for them and the organizations who are trying to change that for those parts of the world. Now that's a quick attitude check for sure.

I catch myself doing the same thing here in my new house, so happy for the warmth on my hands, that I still pray for those who don't have it.

And the sister to warm water is a warm house. It hasn't gotten too cold yet here in Poland, but when it gets chilly and we turn the heat on, the house warms up. Woohoo!

Jillian came home sick last week, temperature and the chills. She went straight to bed. Later when I checked on her, a waft of hot air escaped as I opened her bedroom door. Her whole room was sooooo warm, too warm perhaps. She was snuggled under her covers resting and her room was so warm because she turned her radiator temperature up high. Well, that's what we did in the old house and the room was still drafty - only the radiator was hot.

Another smile and a quick prayer of thanks for our warm house with a furnace that heats both the house and the water; windows that keep the warmth in and the cold out.

So far, that's my favorite everyday thing about our new place.

Just For You

Just look at this image below. OK, so the quality isn't so sharp. Look at the text underneath it. I just figured out how to take a photo of this on my computer so you could get an idea of what I am asking of you.

Every 4-6 weeks I send out an e-newsletter with recent family news and updates on our ministry here in Poland. Even now after the "fall back" daylight savings time change this weekend, Greg and I are still up at 1:11 am putting the finishing touches on a paper newsletter we are mailing out this weekend.

We've got growing daughters, now teenagers that you'll want to get the latest news about. We moved into a new home; we are home owners now, so you'll want to make sure you have our new mailing address.

And right now we have some special needs in our family: educational, personal needs for each person, ministry. If you would like to know about them and help in anyway, please sign up for our e-newsletter (or update your current email address) and I will send you a special letter about our needs and how you can help through prayer, practical ways, and financially. 

You can do it right now by clicking this link here.

Hey thanks so much for staying in touch with us. Go ahead and give me a "high five" for figuring out how to do this cool social media thing. :-)

Heidi for all of us

Three Amigos

What do you get when 1 Councilman from Minnesota and 2 landscapers from Colorado come to town?

Wayne, Steve, Neal, and Heidi

Neal ever enduring the new kitchen cabinets

Wayne moving that dirt around in the yard.

Neal stamping the concrete on the terrace and teaching the polish cement worker how to do it too.

And Steve designing the yard!!

A long time ago Greg made arrangements with Wayne to come this summer and landscape our yard. Wayne brought his brother Steve with him and asked Neal to come to.

They came ready to go and put in many hours helping us both inside and outside the house.

So I'll give you some before and after shots of the transformation the Amazing Three Amigos did during their August visit. They worked so hard in 90 degree weather.

A very tired Neal and Steve after all the work.

A happy Heidi and Greg after all the work! Guys, thanks so much for coming and giving and giving and giving and laughing a little too. We were already blessed that you chose to come and even more blessed after you time with us. 

A New Home

Four years ago May we received a call from dear friends who, with excited voices, told us "We found the perfect place. Come now and see it." We jumped in the car and drove a short distance to view a plot of land for sale. Our friends decided to buy property and wanted us to buy the lot next to them. Thus began an exciting process of buying property as foreigners in Poland. Six months later we owned this property pictured below.

However, it was 3 years later and two other homes built next door before we were able to secure a loan to build a house.

We began July 2011 to build our own house. Many wonderful answered prayers and the uncountable help by our dear friends Leszek and Grazyna made this possible.

Right now we are in the last stretch, the most trying part: decisions about colors, tile, fixtures, quality, size, and more than we are aware of. 

We hope to move into our new place by the end of June!!

Many of you have stayed with us over the years and we are delighted to have you come again and stay in our home that was designed with you in mind. We have so many miracles to share with you of how this house was built; everyone the Lord brought together to make it happen!