The Caldwell Journey...

Hi!  I'm Krista.... I used to blog ;-) I am hoping to get back into blogging. I guess I just held off for so long because I knew I didn't need to be writing yet.... I was overwhelmed with all that had happened and wasn't sure how to express it without losing sight of how God was using this to make me... us... our family... more like Him.... don't get me wrong... He is far from done!  However, I am not near as worried about it all as I was a year ago.

So when I last wrote....

Nathan was 8yrs. old (May 2012) and had just finished the 2nd grade in an all German speaking school in Austria.  He began the 3rd grade at a private school in Texas that fall.  The transition for him was nearly seamless.  We praise God for how Nate has done in school with all the changes.  

Micah was 5yrs. old (nearly 6) when we left and had been in a German speaking Kindergarten since he (well, both boys) were 3 yrs. old.  They were both nervous about transitioning to all English teaching.... but again, fantastic kids adapting to changes!

Grace was 2 1/2 and was saying little phrases in German, but hadn't really grasped the language.  Thankfully, we have purchased materials to ensure they won't loose their 2nd language.  She was still in diapers (wasn't going to train while packing up a house and moving!) and shy as can be with strangers.

Here I sit in 2014.....

Nathan is finishing the 4th grade and will be 10yrs. old next month!

Micah is finishing the 1st grade and is 7yrs. old!

Grace is 4yrs. old now and keeps me company at home!

Part of me just wants to "jump in" with blogging and pick up with "today".  But for some of you that follow us and may not be in constant touch with us... here is a brief... yes, I am going to actually attempt to keep it brief...update.  I'm gonna try a bullet point approach. 

• I wrote in May 2012 about our upcoming furlough.  So catch up with it down below or just click here.
• We flew into New York from Austria to see my family over the summer and also while in the area report to supporting churches.
• We then set up house in Texas (a friend allowed us to live rent free in her one bedroom town house!) a couple of weeks before school began for the boys.  We traveled with Danny sometimes and just brought the school work along. 
• By the end of 2012 we noticed our financial support was not increasing, but decreasing a bit (and we had actually acquired some new supporters!).  After the holidays we had to make the very difficult decision to resign as full time missionaries with the BBFI.  We didn't want to continue taking in support from churches knowing we weren't going to be able to return and live in Austria full time. A couple of churches kept supporting us for about 2 months more while we began to find work here in the US.
• We were without a job for a few months.
• We had the even more difficult task of telling our friends and our church family back in Austria.  That. was. hard.
• We went thru some very discouraging times and were encouraged to find a new church family and wow---I can't begin to write down all that happened to bring us to where God used those events to show us His plan and the healing began with a church family that just loved us and started to help us heal.  We had been thru so many ups and downs over the last few months that we didn't realize how mentally and emotionally exhausted we were!
• Danny interviewed for a job that he really had no experience in and yet, God had started equipping him years ago.  Danny is a self taught (via a great friend, Mitchell) technology minded person.  For the last year he has been the Technology Coordinator at a school district in our area!
• We moved to the country because there was a house available for us to live in (woo-hoo for 3 bedrooms instead of 1 now!) and it happens to be next to Danny's family.  Though that has been another transition after nearly a decade of being just "us".... the kids are thoroughly enjoying being near cousins/playmates.
• The boys changed schools--again.  And again, God has given them such a wonderful experience and granted them an easy transition (this Momma needed it too!).  They now go to school where Danny works as well!  They leave together in the morning and stay about an hour later after school with Danny and then come home together!
• Danny & I are still very involved with our churches in Austria and are continuing to have Christian Football Camps there too.  We have a few churches that are continuing to support the ministry there and send their checks to a Clearing House that handles it for us.  If you want to be more involved or just get information about the football camps or our church plants just email us or comment on the blog with your email address.  
• Last month (March 2014) we were able to spend Spring Break in Austria!!  We have missed everyone there so very much!  The kids were not able to go due to the expense primarily and we knew we were going to hit the ground running since we only had the week to get stuff done before Danny had to return to work.  We met with church leaders and the body, the football team Danny played with, friends from our old neighborhood, and also went thru our storage building to prepare our stuff to be shipped back to Texas.  We really only wanted the sentimental stuff to be shipped back.  We gave away half of everything there... that was harder than we thought it would be...but if you live there you probably have closet units and appliances, etc.  So friends helped spread the word and we were able to bless some people who wouldn't be able to buy these things on their own.  Our hearts were overwhelmed with the friendships that we were able to catch up with during our time there.  I feel blessed to be have called so many countries "home".
• Danny & the kids have also started raising some chickens, guineas, goats, and the dad of a friend of ours gave them 4 ducks.  I play more of a "supporting" role in all this ;-)  I have bottled fed a baby goat though and that was not so bad.  The highlight is all the eggs we get. We currently get about 14-16 eggs a day and we split them with Danny's parents.  Now if the hens would stop using my front porch as their bathroom!  Danny is working on the fence around the pasture and hopes that will cut down on some of their roaming to my front door.... however, the grasshoppers were not as bad last year and the chickens were rather plump from all the snacking. ha!

There.... I believe I gave you the gist of it all.  For those who remember me writing that I was going to give a brief update... this WAS brief! HA!  Lots of other stuff happened that, for us, did some major overhaul on our walk with God and that, though painful at times, is becoming beautiful as He shapes us to be more like Him.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,to give you a future and a hope."