How much have we enjoyed sharing our testimony with you all? Sharing God's undeserving grace, goodness, and blessings? SO MUCH. We knew sharing our testimony was part of God's calling. As much as we thought "who cares" "no one cares to read or know" "mind your business"--we knew sharing was apart of the journey and hearing feedback from others about how it encouraged or helped them has made every word, minute, and memories that we have shared worth it.
This is the last part of our testimony but not the end. God continues to work on us as a couple, as parents, and with Zo's career. We will continue to share what God lays on our hearts and I will continue to share my blog with health, life, and fitness with you all. So cheers to part 3 and the future ahead. Thanks for reading and being part of our process these past weeks of sharing.
Part 3…the finale…the praise report is here. So lets get to
it.
So what happened this season in Lithuania?
-The team hit 2nd place in the Lithuanian
league---1st time ever in the history of the team.
-The team received the silver medal (2nd place)
in the Lithuanian cup for the first time in the team’s history.
-Zo broke the league record for assist/turnover ratio.
-Zo made top 10 in 3 different categories in Eurocup.
-The team went to the top 16 in Eurocup. This was a first
for Zo and the team.
-Zo had some of the highest shooting percentages of his
career.
-The team SWEPT the first round of play offs for the first
time in team history.
-The team WON 2nd place in the league finals for
the FIRST time in history.
-The team won the series of semi-final games 3-1, for the
FIRST time in history.
Good happened this season. Coming off of an injury no one
really wanted to take a risk on Zo. “They weren’t sure if I was having a
serious injury, if I was just getting “old”, if I wasn’t ready to play. Teams
wondered why I only played ½ of the season last year, it was really hard.”
(Zo). This team took a risk on Zo and definitely reaped the reward. It was a
win/win. They needed Zo and we really needed that chance. 10 years…it took TEN
years and Zo was able to showcase the best numbers and highest competition of
his career!! ----Let me repeat that real quickly in case you missed it. Zo, in
his TENTH year of his job competed and was given the chance to showcase his
highest numbers and highest competition of his career. All this occurred after
2 seasons of losses, of no one taking a chance on him, of low numbers and low
playing time.
God is good y’all! That’s the bottom line.
When God tested our FAITH---We remembered all the times
before that He never let us down and we continued to be in fast and prayer
trusting He would never fail us. We kept coming back to that verse: “If you
will have faith the size of a mustard seed…” That was it. God just needed us to
have faith that He would make a way, even when it seems there wasn’t one.
When God tested our MARRIAGE—When we wanted to argue, be
upset, point the finger…we didn’t. We just didn’t. We stayed on each other’s
team. When the going gets tough you have to have your team. You are each
other’s best asset and you have to stick together. We didn’t go to bed angry.
Some days were hard, some phone calls were sad, depressing, frustrating, but we
had to work that out before bedtime. We didn’t let feelings stay inside; we let
them out every time we felt them. Not only is our marriage sacred and number 1,
but we have a sweet little boy that’s watching how we treat each other,
and that’s motivation in itself! We want to give Logan great examples; we want
him to always say, “Dada loves mama so much.” We want Logan to see me give dada
hugs and kisses and tell dada I love him…because I do, we do…forever.
When God tested our FINANCES---Who likes to talk about
money? I don’t. God really broke us in this area and tested our faith a lot. Zo
was without a job for almost 12 months total, that’s 12 months without an
income. This isn’t easy, its stressful, its tough. So what did we do? We
adjusted. We didn’t take any cool vacations, we didn’t spend any extra money
for a while, we didn’t really do too much extra, and we couldn’t. We wanted to
make sure that things were going to sustain if Zo didn’t work for another 12,
18, or 24 months. What we DID do is continue giving God His tithes. No matter
what you are going through, no matter how much you think you don’t have…give it
to HIM. It is all His anyways.
When God tested our CIRCLE ---Can I tell you about real
friends and family? Where are they when you’re down, where are they when you
are hurting? Are they still there? Are they behind your back gossiping about
your life? Are they happy to see you failing? Are they wishing for your setback
and not hoping for your comeback?
I strongly believe we have some of the best people in the
world in our circle. Seriously. These 2 years just would not have been possible
without our friends and families help. There is just no way. From anything and everything
they held us together, they helped, they loved, they prayed, they gave; it’s
just incredible. We truly know that God made their hearts extra big these past
two years (even though they already were big hearted). From helping us with
house things—our neighbors know my mom by her first name! To late night dinners—that
are especially good when they are with the Traubers AND a bonus guest room
that fits all 3 of us! (Thankfully!!). Everyone that was praying without ceasing,
loving on us, helping us with Logan, TIME, you name it!
And our friends? Oh man, we’ve got some good ones. Surprise
parties, helping with Logan, inviting us over, praying for us, coming to visit
us and hang out, our church friends that laid hands on us, it was just special.
Those that couldn’t physically be with us still reached out, called, checked on
us, sent us mail, just so much love in our circle we are so grateful. We have
had so much love these past two years I cant even put into words or think about
what we would have done without them all!
When God tested our HEARTS/COMMITMENT ----On the days we
felt like giving up, we remembered to stay committed. It is so easy to praise
Him in the good, but praising in the storm is tough. You have no umbrella,
you’re cold, you’re wet, you’re tired, and you want to just give up. But you
can’t. God prepared us for the storms and He wont let us sink. And even though
at times we thought we were sinking, we really weren’t.
chat soon with updates on next season :)
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