It’s all in the timing…

…is what I’m learning at the airport.  I’m sitting in a quiet corner of CVG airport outside of Cincinnati, drinking a caramel frappuccino and watching my girls color.  When we arrived an hour and a half ago, we learned that our flight to Paris has been delayed an hour and a half.  This is cause for mild concern because that only leaves us 40 minutes on the ground in Paris to make our connection to Bangalore.  That isn’t much time, and we don’t know the airport in Paris at all.  Worst case scenario, we miss the connection and have to spend the night and part of a day in Paris.  Worse things have happened.

But that isn’t my point in writing today.

Today marks one year since I met Jennie from TMS.  One year ago today, I sat in a classroom in Asbury Seminary’s Orlando campus, and Jennie came in to speak to the class about TMS.  One year ago, I felt my heart rise and fall with one beat, longing for the opportunity to serve in foreign ministry yet feeling sure that it would never happen.  I’m not even sure I prayed about it at the time.

But here I am, one year later, waiting patiently as our trip to India begins.  This is one of many steps we will take as we prepare for foreign ministry.  I never thought I would be doing any of this, yet here I am.  Here we are.

One of the things I keep learning though this process is how perfect God’s timing is.  He is bring us to each new step at just the right moment, and he is preparing us for each of the next steps.  I don’t always notice, or maybe I just don’t acknowledge, his beneficence through it all.  And then he’ll do something like make a couple of dates coincide, just to call me to attention once again.

God is so good, and he is so faithful.  I am so thankful for where we are and how we’ve gotten here, and I am so excited about where we are going.

Peace be with you, my friends.

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day!  We’ve been celebrating at the Flory household by attending church, cooking out for lunch, eating dirt pudding, and showering Michael with gifts and love.

Because it is a day dedicated to fathers, I want to devote today’s blog to Michael.  It occurs to me that many of you know me pretty well, but I don’t know how many of you know Michael.  That’s too bad, because he is an amazing person.  So I’ll try to show you Michael as I know him.

Michael was born in the Netherlands to American parents who taught on military bases.  He lived in the Netherlands for his toddler years and spent a little time in England.  His parents eventually came back to the States and settled in Richmond, IN, where he grew up.

I met Michael during our junior year of college at Purdue University.  He was a friend of  friend of a friend.  We hung out together when our mutual friends made us, but we eventually became real friends.  We both went on a three-week class trip to Greece and Turkey in May of 2001 (it was my graduation gift to myself), and that was when we fell in love.  We were married in December of the next year.

Michael is brilliant.  It’s a quiet, understated feature of his, much like many of his other characteristics.  You can tell by talking to him that he’s smarter than most, but the guy is a rocket scientist.  Really.  He got a PhD in astro-chemistry at University of Arizona.  He proved a molecule existed in space that no one knew about, and he got published in some big science journals.  He won an award at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy at Ohio State University.  My husband is smart.

He has lots of other talents.  He had a bowling scholarship in college.  He is a great bass singer.  He draws pretty good stick figures.  He likes to play ping pong, disc golf, and basketball.  He can run a 5k in right at 30 minutes, but he’ll complain about his knees for the following two weeks.  He is surprisingly sociable for a scientist, and he loves to laugh.

Michael is a great husband, but perhaps an even better father.  He has done an amazing job of taking care of our family.  He works hard to provide for us financially.  When the work is done, he is just Daddy, playing Wii with Sofia, reading books, and engaging in whatever imaginative games the girls want to play.  He likes helping with the girls’ homework, and he is instilling in them a love of science.  He is so close to perfect!

One of the awesome things I’ve gotten to witness in the last year is how he has really stepped up to become the spiritual leader of our family.  Most people don’t know this, but Michael has really been the impetus behind our mission endeavors.  He is all in with it, something I never thought I would see from him.  He is leading us in such an important way, and I love it.

So that’s my husband.  Actually, that’s my best friend.  He is amazing, and one of the best gifts God has ever given me.

Grace and peace to you, my friends.

India

Last night, I made coconut curry chicken and rice for dinner. It may not sound like a big deal, but it kind of was. Sofia tried two bites and managed to make herself not spit them out (hey, that’s progress for a picky eater!). Emma ate a small bowl of it and claimed to really like it, although it was a little spicy. 

So why did I make something adventurous? I’m glad you asked! It’s because our family travels to India in less than three weeks! We’ll be going for some cross-cultural training associated with our move (still next year). Our destination is Bangalore, which is in the southern part of India. 

Emma is excited because we change planes in Paris, which she has wanted to visit since she first saw a picture. Sofia is hoping to ride an elephant. Michael is looking forward to the food. I’m looking forward to seeing our friends from TMS. 

As we ate our Indian-ish dinner last night, I thought about how much this trip is going to impact the four of us. Michael and I have traveled internationally several times, although never that far into Asia. All of the thing we will see and do have the possibility of majorly impacting our little girls, allowing them to witness what life is like outside of their safe, insulated, privileged lives. I can’t wait to see what God will do with this opportunity for us all. 

Grace and peace to you, my friends.