Preparations: Part 2

Well, first things first. We are expecting a baby boy in November! Kelly is doing very well, and we are very excited. We are planning on having the baby at Mbingo. A question I often get is, "Will the baby have dual citizenship?" The answer is no. A lot of the African countries protect their citizenship, and simply being born on Cameroonian soil does not confer citizen status. Anyway, just wanted to deliver the big news!

Another piece of big news in the Schmedes family is that we are officially finished with residency! I was quite blessed to come home to my beautiful family, complete with streamers, party hats, and cake & ice cream! (Blue Bell of course). Writing a blog on my thoughts about completing 5 years of surgical training would take awhile, so I will save that for later.

We've moved on to various other "get ready for Africa" activities like immunizations. As you can see, the kids have done quite well.

Perhaps the toughest family project to date was our crazy big downsizing garage sale. The inside of our home looked like a mini flea market! Ada Grace had fun rummaging around all of our stuff.

I must say, selling our things has shone a new light in my heart regarding idolatry. We often define idolatry as something we place above God. That's certainly true, but what if we value something more than God values it? What if the things I own (which are many) are not used for helping others, showing hospitality, or bringing honor to God? If so, these things become idols. Does something have any value at all if it is not leveraged for God? Even for a short time, if we have and hold something merely for our pleasure or selfish ambition, it is worthless to God. And if something is worthless to God, it is worthless to us.

After the garage sale, the kids were happy to escort me to Salvation Army to donate the rest of our clothes, etc. Yes, I did buckle them in before we left!

And finally.....time to rest. God designed us all to rest. God himself rested after he created the universe. Kelly and I try to remind ourselves of this, as it is often easy to rely on working hard to move on to the next task. In fact, we need rest so we can reflect on what God is doing in our lives and to focus on what we are actually doing: loving God and following Him.