Blessings....and cursings.....

Good Morning folks. My apologies for all those who stopped by yesterday only to be completely disappointed not to find my oh-so-intelligent musings! Let me tell you about my day yesterday. Actually I have some REALLY great news and some REALLY not-so-great news! So I'll share the REALLY not-so-great news first so that we can end on a good note!

Tuesday night we had torrential rain. I mean, non-stop down pour for like 12 hours! It was insane! Thunder, lightening, the whole nine yards. It was wonderful to fall asleep to. And then the morning came. Our next door neighbor called Sam's phone at 8am to tell him that she had ankle deep water in her basement - That's just awful. I was glad that I went to check if we had leakage before we went to bed. Nope. Anyway, Sam was on his way out the door to hang out with a friend and pick up said blessing that we will discuss later. And I was ready for work and ran downstairs just to make sure we didn't have any water. Well, I guess Sam had the same thought, because when I got down there, I saw some water and some towels thrown on the floor. And then I looked in Sam's art supply room where there were frames, sitting in water! Oh goodness. So I tried cleaning it up as best I could, collecting towels from all over the house and then I noticed that water from UNDER OUR LAMINATE flooring was pouring out as I stepped across the floor. Oh man. I couldn't really sop it up fast enough. So then I called work. Gonna be late. From there, the events of the day just kind of meld into a pretty much hysterical mess. All I could think of was the $500 laminate we just put down LAST SUMMER - submerged in water! I called Sam. He wasn't going to be home for a while. What do I do??? Well, here's the answer to that question - when there is nothing else to do and your whole house is falling apart - break down in heart wrenching, body wracking sobs! It really makes the world a lot nicer place to live. All you girls - do you agree or what? Think about all the terrible things that have been piling up on you and just let it all out - and especially when you get the wet vac and are sucking up water as fast as you can and you are just about deaf from the noise of it - cry louder! That way that neighbors don't even have to listen to you! I don't know what was pouring out faster, water from under the floor, or water from my eyes! Again, just to reiterate, it was not a pretty sight! I suppose pregnancy hormones don't really help the situation. But anyway, my man finally got home around noon and told me it's all going to be alright. Everything will be alright. Phew. Take a deep breath. He said it, it must be so. Why is everything a thousand times better when your man comes home and hugs you and tells you everything is going to be alright? Why can't I tell myself that - and believe it? Well, I was exhausted. I'd been through quite a bit that morning already. Sambo told me to go and lay down, I probably need a nap. Thank you. Thank you for telling me it will be alright. Thank you for making me lay down and take a nap. Thank you for taking over the sucking of the gallons of water "seeping" into our house. Thank you for loving me despite my exaggerating drama-ness. Thank you for keeping me calm and loving me despite all of it! Now, everyone - go home and thank your man for being the provider and leader and lover of your life!!! Yeah! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, nap, then I got up and we ran a couple of errands in town and came back to even more water in our living room. Ugh.... We figured out a system though. Suck up water, empty into large plastic trashcan at the top of the stairs, which is being siphoned out by water hose into the yard, and pick up sopping towels, take to the washing machine for a run through the spin cycle, replace with newly spun towels, wait 30 minutes and repeat. Simple enough. But at 2am when my man is still sucking up water - well, what can I say? You just got to love that man!!! On a side note, I was praying like crazy that the water would just stop - that the torrential rains would stop and that God would dry up all the landy landy! This morning, I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I went down there, but God is faithful to take care of us. There was water, but it hadn't "grown" quite as much as it could have! Now, I want the wind to come to dry out the land. We don't usually have this problem, but 6 inches of rain in 12 hours is enough to do it to ya! I guess there is this town south west of us who got 12 inches of rain in 4 hours! Can you imagine? So if you would - you are all such amazing pray-ers - hence our volleyball win - now I'm asking for prayers for a dry house! Thank you. I don't know what our long term problems are going to be - mold - warped floors, completely taking up all our laminate and introducing our little one to what it's like to live in a third world country even though they are in America! Whatever! The one thing I know and Sam knows and what I want our little guy to know - beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that we may not have the nicest things in this world - but GOD DOES TAKE CARE OF US BEYOND OUR WILDEST IMAGINATION AND DEFINITELY BEYOND WHAT WE DESERVE! Amen and Amen!

Enough about all that drama - do you want to see how God takes care of us in a practical way? Well, while sometimes it seems like the world is falling down on us all at once, we have to look with purpose for ways to see God working in and around us, cause guess what? He is! Many of you know that our vehicles are not necessarily the nicest in the world and sometimes give us a little problem now and then - our $300 MANVAN has it's own anti-theft system in the sliding door since the door handle has been missing for the last year and a half and you have to open the passenger door to reach back in order to open that door. We think it's pretty clever. It's a 1996 Ford Windstar - the weirdest color green in the world. But it's been good to us. Very good. It's hauled stuff, kids, fishing stuff, kids, camping stuff, kids, art stuff, kids, hunting stuff, kids, taken us across the country to VA and back, up to the UP of Michigan and back. We camped in it. We've off roaded in it. We've on roaded in it. It's hauled family, it's hauled much more than it's allowable amount of people in it at once - the back seat belt got chewed off by one hungry puppy a few years ago on a trip up to NW ND. Oh the memories.... Most kids think it is pretty embarrassing except for the fact that we are very proud of our MANVAN and tell them about how God provides - and now they all have a healthy respect for it. It's been a teaching tool. God has used this car. There are a couple little annoying quirks. Ok, maybe more than a couple - the speedometer doesn't work. Well, it kind of does. But for the most part, it just waivers back and forth. So we make it work. We take the average and assume that's how fast we are going. For a while, we could start it without the key! That was always fun - and I hope after all this description, NO ONE is entertaining the fact that we were ever afraid someone would steal it! Anyway, lately it developed this annoying little habit of beeping incessantly every time you go below 15 mph! So needless to say, we've had some really interesting rides in the MANVAN when Sam is about up to here with the beeping. Can we say - HANG ON!!!!! For fear that this entry is getting entirely too long, let me finish my blessing story. Some good friends of ours, I haven't asked their permission if I can use their name, so I'll leave that out for now, but God provided people to help them purchase a new truck and they were so humbled by God working in their lives like that, they wanted to turn around and bless someone else! Well, after reading my blog entry, entitled Off Roadin', they decided that God was leading them to bless us with their extra car! So they just wanted to give us their car - their All wheel drive, Honda CRV that gets 22 miles to the gallon. And it was all paid off and the mechanic just said there were tons of years left in the life of that thing. They just wanted to GIVE it to us. Did you get that - GIVE it to us? For no reason at all, just because they were obedient to God who had already blessed them so much! I don't know about you - but I was flabbergasted - that is seriously one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to me. So now, we are the proud new owners of a Honda CRV that drives like a dream and we can totally rely on it! Thank you friends, and mostly thank you God! There are about a thousand lessons in this, but just remember to Look for the Lord working in and through you, because He is. And it's awesome!

Well, I should probably wrap this up - since I need to proof-read it still and get some other stuff done today!

Overwhelmed, in a good way, in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah