Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Theo's Surprise 30th Bday gift

A few months ago, Theo flew with Lee to San Diego, CA to pick up a truck that was given to him. They drove down to Ensenada, Mexico, than drove across the country back home to south Florida. Theo was all excited about how great Mexico was and how much he loved eating the mangos on the beach, which were cut like flowers and had fresh lime and salt on them, how beautiful all these different parts of the trip were and how he wished I was there to share it with him. So, since Theo's 30th bday was coming up, I decided to do a big surprise trip with Lee & Sarah.....back to Mexico and with no kids! So after a month of serious planning and several complex details, the day for us to leave, came. On May 24th, we had just gotten home from Virginia & Orlando at 1in the morning. That day I planned on unpacking, repacking and cleaning like a mad woman since I knew was about to happen that evening. Well, we got word that some special prohetic people were going to be at staff meeting and we should both try to go. So, of course I decided to go for just an hour max. Well, 3 1/2 hours later I get home to a completely upside down house and no time to do anything. I half unpacked...just the dirty clothes from the VA trip and replaced it with clean underwear and stuff, lol, then threw the suitcase in the trunk without him seeing it. Steph was flying up from Haiti to be with Stella & Naya for us, as his gift. Well when I got home from staff meeting, I got a call from Kathy that Stephanie's flt was rerouted to Miami at the same time. The plan was for Steph to fly into FLL at 7pm -ish, and our flight took off at 8:22p, so I planned to take Theo on a special 'date' that night, and we were going to pick Steph up at the airport which was the first part of the surprise, and after some hugs and an explaination of what was happening, she was going to get in the van, drop us off at our terminal then go home to be with the girls {who were there with my sister at the time}. So since Steph was now rerouted, I had to quickly think of a back up plan....so Sarah drove with us to our destination which he thought was a {LEO} double date to a Ft. Lauderdale Strikers game, and Lee was planning on meeting us there. So with Theo blindfolded, we pulled up to the airport. We let him out and filled him in on the real 'date'...aka his birthday surprise trip to Mexico then Sarah did me with big favor of driving down to the Miami airport to get Steph. :) Needless to say, he was in total shock! I think even a tear welled up in hi eye. :) And I couldn't believe that I was able to keep this whole thing a secret for a whole month and I could finally let it all out! :)
So that all was the prep work. Now on to the fun part....we boarded our plane and flew to LAX, stayed the night with Andrew and Emily Bowser at their super cute apartment in Hollywood. The next morning we jumped on a train down to San Clemente...which is a cute little surf town. We got to hang with Dave and Julia Weissmann for a few hours....Theo surfed and rode motorcycles with Dave which that alone made him such a happy camper, while Olivia napped and Julia & I caught up. :) Later, we met up with the Cates' then continued our journey down into Mexico! The next 4 days were spent in Ensenada just hangin with our friends, getting reaquinted with YUGO and getting familiar with the surf ministry that happens every Saturday. Meanwhile, we had been praying for some direction from the Lord for a few months now. Our lease is coming to an end and we needed to know where He wanted us. So while at YUGO {Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach}, we had a meeting with the Ensenada directors about the Lord possibly leading us in that direction. The meeting went very well and they informed us how the believe the Lord is really beginning to do something special in that place b/c we are 1 of a handful of new families considering relocating to Ensenada for ministry work with YUGO! :) {Of course that makes this all more exciting!}
We also were looking for possible housing since we knew that if the Lord does indeed move us there, we don't have money to visit again for housing. Well, we ended up meeting an american missionary family whose been living in Mexico for 6 years and the house next to theirs is available! We called to make an appointment to see it and and couldn't believe how beautiful this place was, and with so many advantages that most homes in the area don't have. So after much prayer, talking with Harbour leadership and the YUGO meeting, we are pretty sure it's the Lord guiding us to move to Ensenada! AH! We are super excited and are so grateful to the Lord for His kindness to us. Now, we just have to do all the logistical things of moving a family from south Florida to Baja, California! :) Yaaaay!

2 comments:

  1. Melissa!!! This is crazy!!! I'm excited for you, just be SAFE there, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that! It looks like the Lord might be moving the Varner's to Chicago then perhaps even to the UK!! Miss you guys a lot!! Oh and what an AMAZING birthday present! Way to go super-wife!!! :)

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  2. what an awesome surprise! and awesome that God is leading you in that direction...

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