Psalm 37:4

At this time last year I thought that this time this year would look a lot different. If everything would have gone the way I "planned" I would have a pregnant belly right now and Erik and I would be packing up our apartment and wrapping up our time here in Indonesia. But, God had another plan in mind for us. As many of you know, towards the beginning of this year, Erik and I had to decide whether we were going to sign our contract for another year here. It was a tough few weeks and months for me as I began to feel that God was leading us to stay for another year. I say it was tough because at that time I didn't want to. I wanted to start a family and be done teaching. I wanted to move back to the "comfort" of America. I wanted to be with my family. The more and more Erik and I talked and prayed, a strange thing began to happen.My feelings began to change. I began to get excited (I couldn't believe it) about staying. And slowly I even began to feel that I didn't even want to go back to the States yet. I wanted to stay in Indonesia. I wanted to continue to teach at SPH. And I began to get very excited about signing our contract to stay. God did an amazing work in my heart. Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of you heart ..." And that is exactly what he did. My desires slowly turned into his desires and I experienced a peace about our decision that I can't explain. Now, as I write this I am very emotional thinking about all of it. God is so faithful and good.

So, am I still feeling this way now as we close out this year and prepare to head home for the summer and then back for another school year? Absolutely. I am even more excited about next year than I was. Not to say that I don't believe next year will hold challenges - I know it will. Next year will bring some great changes that Erik and I are both really excited about. Erik will officially be the Athletic Coordinator at our school. While this will bring new responsibilities, Erik is so excited. He will organize all the sports and coaches (planning and organizing tournaments, games, and practices) and he will also oversee the PE program, meaning he will develop the PE curriculum and make sure it is being implemented. And I will be teaching Grade 1!! Yep, I am moving up from Kindy! I am SO excited and a little nervous for the change. I will get to teach with Katie (woo hoo) and also a new teacher coming to our school whose name is Peter (who I actually know and worked with at Corban). We are going to be an awesome Grade 1 team! :) The sad thing is that I no longer get to work with my wonderful Mia, but I do get to work with another teacher who I know and will be wonderful! Another change that is a little sad is that some teachers I am close to will be leaving Indonesia. My good friend Lindsey and others will be dearly missed, but I have hope we will cross paths again in the future. With people leaving that means new people are coming! Some good friends of ours are moving here and we are SO excited :). A change that we will not have this year that we are really excited about is that we will not be moving! Erik and I haven't lived in the same apartment for more than 1 year since we have been married so I am very excited that I am not packing up an apartment and that we will come back to the same place in July. I love our apartment and I am loving being able to make it more and more homey.

As we finish up this year in the next 3 weeks I am hoping they go by quickly, but I also don't want to wish away this precious time I have with friends and my sweet kiddos. In my classroom we still have some fun things to look forward to like friends visiting from another school, and of course an end of the year party. We will also be busy wrapping up the year with grades and other end of the year matters. Erik and I have been blessed this year beyond measure and I can honestly say that I am so looking forward to returning next year. For those of you wondering, we don't know what the year after next will look like. I am working on not making my own "plans" and really leaving it up to God. I will keep you all updated as we near our next time of decision making :).

And, what's a blog without pictures? So, here are just a couple of things that have been happening in the life of Erik and Amanda over the last few weeks:

Me and 7 other girls went to Bali for a weekend getaway to celebrate 2 of our friends who are getting married. It was a great weekend with wonderful friends! A great way to end out the year.

While I was in Bali, Erik, Chris, and Glenn headed off to hike an active volcano. They had a great time :) 

Last weekend was spent watching a softball tournament. Even though it doesn't feel exactly the same as a ball field in America and even though the results weren't what the guys were hoping for, we still had a great time!

Well, that about does it for now I think. I still can't believe that I am writing our "wrap up" of the year blog. This year flew by. I am counting down the days until I get to wrap my arms around my family and we are both so excited about a break from teaching for awhile. AND we can't wait for the opportunity we have to visit an orphanage in China at the end of the summer {to know more about that please see my blog titled "We're Going to China" that I wrote back in January}. Please keep us in your prayers as we wrap up this year and get ready to head home for the summer. We love you all. 

Bye for now <3