He is FAITHFUL!

I've had several times in my life where God has stretched my faith...where I've waited, nervous, anxious, on my knees sometimes, but mostly just stressed.  Adam's been there more than I and as many times as we've struggled with God, and He's always come through with amazing results, we still find ourselves at this same door step:  anxiously waiting for an answer, feeling that there was NO way this was going to actually work out. 

So here we are again.  wringing hands, unable to sit still, waiting to sell this, move that, praying that Adam will indeed get this job in Okinawa, Japan.  As of right now, I've quit teaching at Calapooia Middle School and Adam's job at Catherine Freer has ended (along with the whole company) and we are working nonstop on our house to get it ready to rent and we are STILL waiting to get a contract for this new job.  We don't even have this job yet...yikes.  We only have 2 weeks before we leave to California and no secure job yet.  Talk about anxious.

I had a melt down on Saturday night after receiving my final checks from CMS and seeing that I might not actually have insurance for our family in August.  We hit our knees (after getting angry and saying things like "what else can we take right now?" and " Really, God?") and prayed for peace and answers.  Wouldn't you know, God listens!!  Heh heh  Gregg's lesson was all about faithfulness, the faithfulness of God and of us.  Every song lead by Cale had to do with the goodness of God and how He never leaves us.  Needlesstosay, I cried through the whole service.  On Monday, Eva sat in her little high chair and started singing a song I didn't even know she knew, "Jesus, You're my firm foundation.  I know I can secure...I have a living hope, I have a future.  God has a plan for me, of this I'm sure."  She sang the whole thing by herself (of course it was actually "Jethuth for the firtht time ever, I know I can thand thecure") and I thought, "Wow, God...you really do talk to us still!"

So we feel more at peace...more, not totally.  But I don't think it's bad to be nervous at times like this. You know, all those times when you MIGHT have to leave in 2 weeks for another country to live, and you have to get your home ready to rent and move all your stuff either into storage or overseas, and you're not sure if you should tell everyone you're leaving or not worry them because it might not actually happen, but if you don't tell them then you'll be gone before you can say goodbye, and you are unsure about whether you should quit your job and step out on a limb or keep it just in case you don't actually get the job.  I think it's totally normal and human to be a bit nervous right now.  Especially when we have a 2 year old and a mortgage. 

But, God is faithful!

Roofing

     My oh my! We had 7 strong men, two lovely ladies and three strapping young boys come to our house on Sunday and rip our roof off.  What an amazing showing of God's love!!  These families worked so hard to help us and we just stood there in awe after they left feeling blessed and a bit heart sore because we will be leaving them so soon.  Thank you, Jann, Eric and Ryan Bracht, Josh Wise, John Fortes, Mark Johnson, Lorin and Tappian Paul, Jordan Strawn, Logan and Brennan Sorah, and Monte (I didn't get your last name) who was a visiting church member from Abilene, Texas!  Who comes to another state on research and spends a whole Sunday afternoon picking up shingles for someone he doesn't even know???  A man of God, that's who!  What a testimony to God's people.  What would we have done without them all?  Thanks to their effort, we got the tar paper put on JUST IN TIME for rain on Monday night!!  What a disaster that would've been to have a partially bare roof with rain coming down.  Adam adn I just smiled at eachother when the rain started and thanked God for our church family again.

     ALSO...Monday afternoon brought ANOTHER amazing surprise, Gregg and Pam Strawn came for 2 hours and dumped the entire pile of shingles and other trash we had collected into a giant dumpster.  What a true blessing.  I stood just hours before wondering how long it was going to take us to get all of it moved from the ground to the dumpster - I can't believe how hard and fast they worked to get it moved.  Again, God has blessed us so much!  Over and over I am amazed by the goodness (thank you Gregg for the sermon  on it) of the people of Christ. 

    On another note, after showering at Cassie and Alex Rugh's and Lindsay and Josh Wise's house a couple of times, and at Adam's work (hee hee), we finally got to take a bath (not a shower mind you) in our newly tiled tub.  Adam has been working tirelessly to get it finished and it looks awesome! He's hurt himself in numerous ways (he perhaps has no fingerprints anymore) and gone back and forth to Home Depot to get it done.  God bless my hard working husband.  SO glad I married him!

    Pictures will follow :)

    Blessings