birthday

May has been a whirl wind of a month for us at the Rousehouse. Busy busy busy! Thankfully we are holding up well and have experienced the joy, strength and peace that the Lord can give. Thank you for all of you who have been praying for us. KEEP IT UP!!! Let me catch you up on a few prayer points from last month to start…

Decisions on what to do with our home. Rent it or sell it?

After many conversations, prayer, wise council, weighing the options, and moments of grieving we have decided to sell our home. We love our sweet little house and realize that it was given to us by the Lord for this short season to enjoy and that is what we have done. We will always remember this blessing from the Father!

Finishing up fundraising, 100% by June 1st

Almost everyday this past month was filled with meetings, speaking opportunities, and lots of conversations. We are now super close to being at our 100% monthly financial goal!!!! We are in need of just $200 more a month! PTL! If you would like to help get our family across the finish line check out how to partner with us here or email us at spanky.rouse@gmail.com. We do still have some set up cost needs too so any special one time gifts would be very much appreciate as well.

Ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to know the Father’s leading in every plan and decision as we prepare to move

This season has been tough but priceless, for sure. I don’t know that we have every heard from the Lord clearer, seen Him at work, and experienced His presences like we have recently. We are reminded that His plans for us are the BEST and that He desires to care for us more than we could ever imagine or ask. We are learning that you get to experience this part of the Father the most by going through tuff stuff which in the moment isn’t too fun but we are learning is worth it.

Successful silent auction fundraiser and all the planning that goes into it.

Lara killed it! She worked really hard and it paid off! It took a lot of work on her part to put it all together and I am grateful for her! We also had some amazing people that donated a whole lot of awesome gifts and packages for auction. Lara and I wanted to keep all of them for ourselves because they were so great! Thankfully we had many of you come out and bid on them instead. I had a really fun evening with our friends and family celebrating my birthday as well as we were able to raise over $3100 to go towards purchasing plane tickets and vehicles in South Africa. Definitely a great night!

From our family’s prayer card, the letter J – joy: That we may be filled to an overflow of His joy. Romans 15:13

Some fun events this month have been celebrating our 15 year anniversary, Elly’s dance recital and 2 weddings.

I can’t believe that it has been 15 years since we got married! Definitely the best thing that has ever happened to the both of us and yes we are more in love today than ever and have so much fun in together! This is the only way we would choose to do life. We were suppose to go out of town for the week but ended up spending the night and next day sitting under a tree in the grass in the small town of Davidson. It wasn’t the week we had planned but it was just what we needed…it just needed to be much longer!

Elly did awesome at her recital! We could really tell that she has improved from the time she first began a couple years ago. Masterpiece Dance Studio is amazing and we will miss all of them especially Mrs. Jackie! Elly’s favorite dance was the Jazz dance because it is fast and she gets to “shake her booty”. She gets her dance skills from her mom for sure! It was a bittersweet time as well seeing Elly and two of her bff’s dancing together for a special ballet piece. Great memories and we got the DVD so we can watch it over and over and over.

Prayer points for this month:

Visas – we need to be applying this week and praying that there is no issues with the consulate accepting and approving them quickly.
Trip to NYC to apply for visas with the SA consulate
Putting our home on the market and selling the rest of our furniture, cars, etc.
From our family’s prayer card, the letter T – Travel arrangements: purchasing the best plane tickets, cost, routes, etc.
To have 100% of monthly support finalized and one time set up cost in
Strength: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.

Psalms 28:7

Last week was our little princess birthday. I can’t believe that she is already 4 years old! Where does time go?! You would have thought that it was a national holiday around the Rouse House. Not because of Elly but because of the boys (daddy included). Everything for a day was all about her. She got anything she wanted and got to go where ever she wanted to go.

We began breakfast with cinnamon rolls, lunch at Taco Bell (her choice), shopping, McAdenville lights (if you haven’t been there you should go during Christmas. It’s an entire town covered in lights. So awesome!), rode around downtown Charlotte, and then headed to MidWood Smoke House for some mac and mheese (she didn’t even get mac and cheese…girls).

The next day we continued the celebration. At church, while in the hallway, I heard someone say, “whose birthday is it?”. And immediately we all heard Elly’s BFF yell, “it’s Elly’s birthday, my sister’s birthday!” **side note Elly and her BFF, Brinley, actually don’t say they are friends. They call each other sisters. Pretty cute!** We had one of the coolest (it was a Frozen princess party) parties after church. Little girls running around dressed in costumes, its something that I never ever thought would be a Rouse House thing but I am so glad I get to be the father of a princess! One of my favorite things in the entire world.

This little girl is #myblessing! Every December 6th I think about the long ride in a small bus from the jungles of Panama to the airport when God told me that I was having a baby girl one day. After a little snooze I woke up with the thought, ” should we have another baby?”. The next thought was, “it’s a baby girl with blond hair and blue eyes.” WHAT?!?! I remember coming home, walking in my bathroom to see a note wrote in a red marker on the mirror that said, “Welcome home daddy of 3”. I thought that my wife had just added wrong but to be safe I ask, “3?” She sat on our bed smiling from ear to ear! Not sure if I was more surprised to know that we were pregnant with number 3 or that I for sure heard from God earlier that day. Either way…WOW!

Guess what, the baby was a beautiful girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She stole my heart the moment I held her. To this day I know that there is no mistaken that she is a gift from God to remind me that he cares about me and he knows what I truly need (and want) even more than I do! His plans are amazing for me…I can’t seemed to get away from that truth every time I look at my princess!

May 2017 Newsletter Update

Princess for a day