Enter Sad Face Here

Today was our big day!  The day we were scheduled to close on our new "used" home! We were so excited to finally be able have a place to call home.  That is until yesterday.  We went for our final walk thru last night and upon arriving at the property we noticed the door had been kicked in and the copper piping was taken from the water heater, furnace and expansion tank.  Oh my...what a dilemma.

But God surely is good.  For He can take the worst of situations and turn them to good!

And He did!

The bank took $2000 off the price of the home bringing it down to the price we had originally wanted to pay.

Amazing! 

While the journey has been bumpy and CRAZY, it continues to show such signs of goodness behind it.

While the closing has been postponed--not to extend past Friday, they say, and while we are definitely anxious to get started on the rehab part of this journey, we also know that in God's timing we must wait and be patient.  For His plans are always better than the ones we could ever imagine.

And although the sad face came many times today, the happy face also made its appearance because through Christ, I find my strength.  And through Him all things are possible--including turning this frown upside down!

Sleepless Nights

It's happening again.  The two hour night shifts.  Do you ever get these?  I've been having them since the arrival of our children.  Maybe it has something to do with the late night feedings.  Crazy thing is, these sleepless hours usually occurred while my babies were asleep.  Never the less, for the past 13 years or so, I go through phases when I wake up in the middle of the night for about 2 hours or so.  It seems crazy to me.  I've tried just about everything to get back to sleep minus actually consuming medication that is!  I can't get myself to actually swallow a pill to help me sleep.  I know they have pills for every ailment we encounter, but it just doesn't seem right.  I've often wondered if this is Jesus calling me.  He must know that it happens to be the best time of the day to find me the least distracted.  No husband to interact with, no children to care for, no laundry to be folded, no food to be cooked, no cleaning to be done--well of course these things linger in my thoughts, but I'm not crazy enough to actually get up and do them!  It is the middle of the night after all!
Anyway, I believe the intimacy the our Father craves to have with us doesn't always occur between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.  I have a feeling  He is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and I believe He wants to remind me of this every so often.  I can't tell you the number of problems I have been able to get answers to during these ridiculous night shifts.  Certainly, it hasn't been a cure for cancer or a way to end world hunger, but in my minuscule section of this planet, I have found some really great answers to life's questions. So even though I wish I were sleeping soundly next to the man that rocks my world, I cherish these hours spent catching up on the world's events, shopping for great home finds, looking for Christmas gift ideas, adding crazy posts to my blog, and most importantly learning what my creator wants from me while I travel the earth in expectation of one day returning home!  Thank you Jesus for caring so deeply for me that you want to spend time together.

Robot Fun

 Today, Caleb used the money he received from his Grandma last Sunday to buy this...

As soon as we got home from running our errands, he got started...

 About midway through it looked like this...

About an hour after working diligently he ended up with this...a moving robot...now if only it would really clean up all those legos he leaves out!

'Ema's Little Daddy'

For Labor Day we headed to our friends for a wonderful bbq.  As the sun set, the temperature started to drop.  Emaleigh was off with her friends playing, but had left her sweatshirt with her dad.  It wasn't long before we saw this:

Awww...look!  It's Ema's Little Daddy!

Can You Believe This?

So last Sunday while we were at dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's,  Grandpa handed Caleb a jacket.  He re-acquired this jacket while visiting his brother in Wisconsin a couple of weeks back.  The funny thing about this jacket is that Grandpa wore it when  he was serving in the Air Force during his early 20's.  Who knew that his 10 year old grandson would one day wear it, and that it would almost fit!  A small man in stature, but certainly a grand man in our eyes!