Missed phone call

I was in an area today where  I did not get a phone signal when my hubby called at his lunch hour. 


 We always speak at his lunch hour, every day- we have for years.  It is rare that we do not.  Today I missed his call.  Now, I have missed his call before, but I know that I will see him in a few hours when he was off work.  


Today, it was different.  I would not be able to talk to him for a few hours.  Today the missed call was something that made me very sad...


I could not even bring myself to listen to his message when we were once again in an area where I received a phone signal...I needed to listen to his voice when I was away from everyone else...because I knew the tears would flow.


We went out to see the Amish woman I already spoke about, apparently they need a Midwife in this area-and I like working with the Amish.  The land is not as close to the mountains, but is hilly, a gentle rolling type of land.  I always feel at peace when taking care of the Amish women, because they accept their pregnancy as a normal thing, a GOD designed plan, and feel blessed with the children.  


I felt at home there.... a little...


It was about an hour and 15 minutes from the town I am staying in, so on the drive back-I had to wait to listen to the message from my husband.  


Then,  when we got back, my blood sugar was so low-I needed to eat...again I had to wait. I would have to listen to the message in a little while. 


Finally away to my 'room' I went, and I could not bring myself to listen to his message, I just fell on the bed and sobbed. 

Scott and I do not say much when were on the phone, but just hearing each other breath is enough... I miss the sound of his breath...


As I was crying, and praying ...the phone rang.  It was him!  It was his break in the afternoon!


 I did not even know what time it was!


  We often do not talk during this time because he has such limited minutes, but today, we both needed it.  It was so lifting to hear his voice.  Each day I need that so I can go on.  


This is the way it is with our FATHERS voice too..    I need to hear from HIM-to hear HIS voice as HE directs me.  If I do not, I do not want to go on -making decisions with out HIM.  


Ladies, I have to ask you some difficult questions:-
*do you love GOD-YHWH? 
*REALLY???
*Do you long to hear HIS voice everyday? 
*Do you wait patiently to hear HIM speak to you for the day?
*Are you sad if you do not?  
*If you do not hear HIS voice, how ever HE speaks to you-why do you not?  


You have to make time to be still before HIM...you should expect to hear from HIM and if you are not, ask your self --why?  
HE does not leave you-
You have left HIM-- if you are not hearing from HIM.  You are most likely out of HIS will.  There is no
 in-between-you are either in HIS will or you are NOT.  
There is not a gray area for HIS will.  


And for your husbands ladies---do you long to hear his voice too?
How is your relationship with your husband?
Is it where GOD would have it be?
If you say no..and...
If it is not right-why?  


Are you committed to YHWH or not?


 If you are then it should be your desire to be committed to your marriage and committed to loving your husband too.  Sometimes that takes work, but your heart needs to be soft and open to that.


If you are not committed to your husband or do not feel that you love him-then you are really not committed to GOD either.  Stop right now and change that, do not continue in a direction of being out of GOD's will.  That is a dangerous area to walk in.


Because if you do not commit yourself to GOD and also to your husband, then you are out of GOD's will.  


My prayer for each of you is to learn to walk in the FATHER's will and in HIS ways and also learn to love your husband as GOD would have you love them.
Ireena

Friday...day #5 or more or less!

Today we will go see a client that is south of here.  She is Amish. Yesterday we had a gathering of women who want to assist midwives or become a midwife (many are already in school now) and did a work shop for them.  I taught my class on blood loss estimation- a practical hands on class.  I make fake blood and clots and place this on pads and chux pads and they have to tell how much is there.  It is very helpful in learning what is normal and not-and how to recognize the need to act quickly!


Just to let you know, I am counting down from 28 days, but a few of the women are known to go over due a few weeks here so I may be here a bit longer than the 28 days.  That would be after thanksgiving.


everyone have a blessed weekend.  Have a blessed sabbath!

Virginia

Well today is Wednesday-day #3 of about 28.  I arrived in Virginia late Monday night. 
Here are some photos of the drive as I entered the mountain area-the photos do not do justice to the colors-but then I was driving while taking the photo!

 I thought about stopping for the night before driving across the mountains, knowing I would be driving across them in the dark-but the thought of spending $80-120 to just sleep somewhere when I was only a couple of hours away, that is not something I could do.  Me, the mission minded person-who will sleep in her auto on a mission trip to save money-can not do the luxury of a hotel.  So I kept driving.  The mountain road for the last 30 miles was a very curvy winding road-average travel speed was 25 to 30 mph.  I bet it would have been beautiful in the day time!


I arrived about 10 that night, to a beautiful home, an older home on a street of large older style homes.   Old mature trees with colorful leaves, it sort of looks like a Norman Rockwell picture.  My room is upstairs, the bed is comfortable-and I have a private bathroom which is nice.  




This photo was taken today -in the morning...

It is hard to live with someone you do not really know.  You feel like an intruder, and it is not because they make you feel that way, it is just the way it is.  
   The first day we went to a bible study in the morning, about 500 women were there.   You were assigned to a table for this 6 week study, so your with the same women all the time.  It was fine.  Not what I am use to, but ok. I have no problem with interfaith bible studies, just depends on what they are teaching -if it is valid and truth of HIS word or not! 


Then in  the after noon we went to a prenatal appointment, the woman is having her 6th baby, but they are use to doing the birth  by themselves so they might not even call their midwife.  Not sure if I will be a part of that one or not.  Prob not.


After that prenatal, she drove me around the city showing the town and telling about the history of the buildings and what it once was...


It is a nice town, very "artsy-"


Today we had prenatal's all day-some here at her office and some home visits.  The people were wonderful, and very nice.  Now it is evening, and were done.  Maybe we will be going out to dinner...

To My Husband-Love Story

Today I will leave, I will drive away from our home to work for 28 days.  I pray that time will fly past...I look for and long for the day I will return to you.  


I will only make it because the LORD YHWH is LORD over our lives.. In the past when I have gone away for only a week at a time, I would cry for the first 2-3 hours of the drive...so I know I will cry for the day today.  My face already feels chapped from the tears continually on my skin...


I have loved you from the age of 13 -and from the age of 15, I knew you would be my husband.  I can still remember where I was on this earth, I could stand in the exact spot today -where I heard GOD say-"This man will be your husband."


So many people today do not get married with the intention of 'for ever' they marry with the heart from the beginning saying-well as long as I love you, or until I find someone else, or if we can make it.  They do not and have not experienced the togetherness we have.  That kind of love only comes from our FATHER above.


We have been through thick and thin as they say-we have survived a fire, we have survived trials and tribulations in our marriage that would and have destroyed other marriages. It is only because we have made the choice to stay together, and await for YHWH's blessings to flow into our lives.


HE never said we would have a easy life, and really we have not.  But he did say HE would never leave us.  HE has designed this time apart-for what ever reason, so we will walk thur this month with the hope HE brings-that the reward at the end of this trial will be HIS blessings.


Each day I am gone, will bring me one day closer to my return.  Pray for me as I pray for you.  Keep the LORD at the top of our lives in our marriage, as that is the only reason we have made it this far. 


I love you
I will miss you
I will return to you...wait for me with open arms... 
your wife....

Ready for an Adventure...

 ~Some of you know that I will be leaving the area for a short time (but it will feel like a very long time) and for those of you who did not know, now you do.


I have no one due during October and November, and wanted to stay busy~~I also needed some income...(I have got to pay the bills!!) 
  So last week-I covered for a midwife while she was out of town, now I am off to Virginia to work with a midwife during a busy time for her...


This is the longest amount of time that Scott and I have been apart for more than 35 years.  (we have been married for over 30 years but dated for 5 years before that).  This will not be easy for either one of us!


I will leave tomorrow morning, drive all day and hopefully arrive about 9 pm or so.  I am not sure if I should stop and stay at a hotel if it gets late, because of driving thru the mountains when it is dark is not my thing since I am not use to the area. I do hate to waste the money sleeping at a hotel.  I also do not want to deal with the possibility of bed bugs.  (you need to remember I am the one that will sleep in my car or truck when on mission trips-rather than use money for a hotel~ I am very cheap that way!) 


I will prob just arrive late-I guess.  There is nothing else I can do about that.  I could leaver earlier in the morning, but I need to make a slight detour and stop at a store...so the decision is, do I go to this store in ohio that I would not other wise go to -or spend the $10.00 to have something shipped to me...and just get on the road for Virginia...


Not sure.....I will decide tomorrow morning.


I will journal about my trip...so if you want to keep up with my travels and adventure, stay tuned.  I am praying that the LORD YHWH will get Scott and myself thru this, and we will grow closer together in our absence of each other.  


You do not know what your missing sometimes until you have to experience it for real....


I pray that each of you will be blessed by this diary of our time apart...and if your marriage is struggling, if you are feeling like you want to give up on your marriage, well stay tuned.  I plan on sharing in such a way that you will hopefully reconsider those thoughts.  Marriage is a holy contract, and remember GOD hates divorce. So stay tuned to hear from me-my thoughts and my adventure.... 


Until later
Ireena

CATCH UP ON OUR LIVES

Well, summer is gone.  Fall is here and soon, so will the snow of winter.  Scott and I continue to work to get this small farm into condition for us or to be ready to sell.

The Tipi is down, the cover repaired and put away for now.  Although I like it more for the winter use than any other time, for this winter we will keep it down.   Perhaps we will use our little cabin this winter-we did not get to use it last winter due to the squirrels got into it and tore it up and we need to get all of that fixed.  Maybe we will get to work on that this winter!

Scott is hoping to get the wood stove into the house soon and that will save us much money.  He has worked on the fencing all summer-but there is still a lot of work on the fence that needs to be done.  Not just upkeep, but more fencing needs to go in.  If he can get some done before the ground freezes, he might try to do just that.

  He has also been able to get a load of silage (for free!) he hand shoveled that into the wagon, then will hand shovel it out into a area that he can control how much the animals eat.  Silage in itself, a lot at a time, is not healthy.  So we do not want our animals to just eat and eat it, so we limit their access to it. 

  He was able to get some hay we will have about 200 bales to put up for the winter, at a dollar a bale, cant go wrong there!.  That was a HUGE blessing!  Now to get it all.  He already picked up about 60 bales, but has more to get.

So this is what he has to do before winter:  

*Go get the rest of the hay (and pay for it yet-and get more if it is available)

* still have hay from the other place on order we have to pay for and pick up too-about 16 round bales

* finish fencing

*finish building the other hay mow (one side is done-the second side needs to get done)

*finish removing the silage from the wagon

*winterize everything around here: windows, doors, garden hoses etc.

*re-stack stones/broken cement we got free from the church when they broke up the old sidewalk and we took the pieces home to use as a filler in the driveway and border wall- along the drive way

*finish siding the barn (we have had that siding for about 16 months, and try to get a piece up now and then...one side is almost done!)  But it HAS to be done before winter.  It will protect the barn.

I have to do the following:

*winterize the garden

*winterize the grand children's play area

*winterize the wood that needs some touch up painting-

*finish cleaning and organizing my old/new office inside 

*sewing stuff (my new work clothes and stuff...)

*the front garden which has not been weeded for 15 months- (it was 'resting') needs to be weeded before winter so the old dry weeds do not re seed-

*and help Scott with the other list.

scott has a few weeks to get his list done...

I have one week.  Sigh.

I was gone last week covering for another midwife-did 5 births in 4 days.  Busy time! 

Here are some photos of the fall views from where I stayed:

Here is a cute little old store in the valley...

here are a few other photos of the area...

 Now I am home for one week then I leave for Virginia, to work with a midwife there for ??? a few weeks or up to about the end of November.  I am not sure I will get everything done I need to do before winter!  If not, then the snow will cover it and let it sleep until next year!

But Scott, who will be here-will work hard to get all of this done.  Maybe it will keep him busy enough to not miss me!