Two Stories

Story #1
We ended up closing on our house yesterday instead of Monday due to the bank not getting the paperwork finished in time. (Surprise, surprise that it got pushed back two days!) Anyway, all the papers are signed and we have officially started the ripping of wallpaper. YAY!!!

However, yesterday we had a little drama after the closing. Here's what happened:

We were in separate vehicles at the bank because I had to meet them from school. As I was putting Kendall in the car and Evan was trying to get the stroller loaded, I saw that he put the folder with all our papers, home warranty, etc, on the hood of the car. I thought to myself, "That is not a good place for that." (Did I mention that the folder also contained the check we got back and closing AND a gift card to Home Depot from our realtors?) In the process of my noticing that, I bumped Kendall's head on the car and she starts screaming hysterically (more out of being tired and hungry than pain) and I guess I didn't say anything to Evan about the folder. We drive home in 5:00 traffic only to realize that neither of us picked up the folder. Evan jets out of the house as fast as he could as I get down on my knees and start praying.

He gets to the bank parking lot and no luck. We just knew it fell off the car somewhere when I was pulling out, because neither of us saw papers flying all over the place. At this point, Evan goes on to church and I stay home (mainly because I'm just tired of driving all over creation). I then call my best prayer warriors and ask them to pray. Miranda, my sweet accountability partner from AR, prayed with me right there on the phone. (I loved her words of, "God, you know where that folder is and we just pray you will return it to Evan and Leah without anything missing." ) We knew that the worst case scenario would be that we would have to stop payment on the check, recopy all the papers, and just loose the gift-card, but we also knew and believed that God was bigger than that. I was pretty much praying continually throughout the evening, Evan and I prayed together and then I read/prayed through the "worry" verses in Matthew 6 and went on to sleep.

Surprisingly, we were both able to sleep pretty well last night.

This morning, I woke up, got on my knees again. I just had hope that everything was going to be okay. Around 8:30 this morning, I got an email from Evan that said "THE FOLDER HAS BEEN FOUND!!!" A bank employee found it in the parking lot and gave it to our loan officer!

God is so faithful!

I've been thinking all day about the lessons learned from this situation. First, I know part of the lesson is to slow down and pay attention! We were so busy and excited about finally closing that we were getting too anxious and careless. Second, I also know that God has already proven his dependability to me, but he continually reminds me how faithful He is. He will always hear us when we cry out. I am so thankful. Last, I think God just wanted to remind me that my satisfaction and contentment will ALWAYS be from him alone. Not from a new house, decorating, paint colors, more square footage, etc. This is something that I've had to remind myself a lot along the way...that just because we are getting more space and I have new projects, I still need to remain faithful to Him and spending time daily in prayer and in the Word. I could just see Evan and I coming home from that closing talking about renovation projects, what we would do with that gift card money, more paint color/furniture buying talk (which I don't think any of that is bad at all) and clearly, last night, God wanted us focused on Him, as we should be ALWAYS.

He is so good. If only we would truly believe that all the time.


Story #2
Today is one of those days that I would have gladly quit my job. I'm not sure if my kiddos were on a day-after-a-field-trip high or if they just had the Thursday crazies, but EVERY ONE of them pushed every button on me today! I promise you, if I said "Stop talking" or heard "Mrs. Smith, I don't have a pencil/paper" one time today, I heard it 500 times, along with a plethora of other whines and cries. At one point, in my next-to-last period class, I said, "I am so tired of putting out fires today..." and the whole class starts in with, "Where was a fire?" "Who caught something on fire?" "You had to put out a fire, really?" When that all started, I just bent down over ever-so slightly and hung down my head for a minute. I just needed to "check out" for a moment. The longer I stood there bent over the kids started in with, "What's wrong, Mrs. Smith? Are you throwing up? Are you crying? What's wrong?" To which my sweet little George yells out, "No, she's pushing out a fart!"



Oh, the joys of middle school!!!! Will I get an extra jewel in my heavenly crown?!?!?!?!