The home search has been pretty interesting thus far. We are focusing our attention on homes that have at least 2 acres with them, so we can grow a large garden and hopefully have some chickens and a couple of goats and sheep. There is plenty of properties out there to buy, just need the money to buy them! :) It's very, very important to us that we purchase well within our means. With that all said (or written in this case) we found a home we liked about two weeks ago. We started jumping through the hoops to put an offer in on it and let me tell you, there were a lot of hoops because the house needed a serious amount of work. In the end, we were unable to make an offer on the house because another offer got in first. This really wasn't a huge deal, like I said, we are trusting the Lord in this process. What was discouraging though was we found out we had been misinformed about all the "hoops" we had jumped through and actually we could have done a simple, straightforward offer to start. Hmmm, okay, that would have been helpful to know a week ago before we hired a contractor to come out and give us a bid for the work needing to be done. A contractor who we really liked and appreciate the effort he put in to get us the bid, but who still costs money, several hundred dollars actually. We are watching every penny right now and spending close to $300 because someone else told us wrong info. didn't make me happy. Forget about all the stress all the hoop jumping caused.
Then Monday night our sweet cat Jazz became very sick. He started throwing up all over our basement and was having a hard time breathing. We hoped it was something that would pass by morning, but it did not. By Wednesday, he had gotten so much worse that I took him to the vet. After an x-ray, the vet saw that there was an abstruction in his intestins. He needed surgery. A surgery that was likely going to cost $2500. This would have been on top of the already $300 I spent to have him checked over. There was simply no way we could afford to do this. So the vet encouraged me to take him home and hope that somehow he might pass whatever was causing the problem. I was broken hearted. We love our cat. He's our only pet that actually tolerates our children well and lets them pet him. He's such a sweet old boy and we had just been saying how much we enjoyed him, the day he got sick.
While I haven't been stressed about everything going on because I truly do trust the Lord that everything will work its way out or that He will give us the ability to deal with things that don't turn out as planned, I have been exhausted. I don't like being pulled in so many directions (more on some of these things in the next couple of weeks) and often what happens is I can't work on even one project because all the others keep popping up for one reason or another and distract my mind from doing what it needs to do. The only thing that has been keeping peace in our home is praying to the Lord. My husband and I have started praying together in the morning before he goes to work and I love it. It starts the day on the right foot. We also have been trying to read a small passage in the Bible. Then he heads to work and has his own personal Bible time there (he goes in early to beat traffic) and I have my personal Bible time at home. It truly is a blessed way to start the day.
The last couple of days we've been praying over our cat. Asking for a miracle, for him to be saved. Then yesterday afternoon rolled around and I was going to put the kids down for naps and quiet time. I went to check on our cat first, who had been huckered down under one of the beds. He had refused to come out and no longer wanted to be petted. I knew this was a bad sign. When I went up to check on him, he was laying very still and on his side. I checked to see if he was breathing and didn't see his chest going up and down. I then went to the other side of the bed and his eyes were open, but glazed over and he was starring at nothing. I called his name several times, but nothing. He was dead. I broke down in tears. We had already made an appt. to euthanize that evening, but he couldn't make it that long, which in many ways was good, because I certainly didn't want to have to euthanize him, but we also didn't want to see him in so much pain. I called my husband, unsure what to do and balling at the same time. He left work and came home to help me move our cat from under the bed.
While I waited for my husband to get home, I got the kids ready for naps, all the time trying to explain to my 3 year old why I was so sad and what it means to die. It had been about 20 minutes and I was just walking out into the hall from trying to get my daughter to bed when our cat Jazz walks out of the room he had been in. Um, yes, I about jumped to the ceiling. I was just in aw. What in the world just happened. I quickly called my husband and told him what was going on. He was 5 minutes away. I followed our cat as he walked down two flights of stairs to the basement and went behind the furnace where he likes to hide. When my husband got home we encouraged our cat to come out and to our complete amazement he started purring and rubbing up against our legs. He hadn't done that since this all started Monday evening. He then came back upstairs, fully alert. While it was obvious he still didn't feel good, it was a vast difference than how he had been. Before we knew it, he wanted to go outside and wonder around, then he wanted to be pet more... Guess what, he's still here and walking around the house, he drank water for the first time today and is purring all the time. It's simply amazing, better yet, it's a miracle. We have been praying over this cat asking for the Lord to heal him and I truly believe He has. It will be interesting to see how Jazz continue to progress. If we happen to still loose him, I am happy we at least got some more joyous time with him, but honestly at the moment he seems to much better I am hoping and praying that he'll pull through it.
Now for the second truly awesome blessing. Yesterday we found out we are receiving the money we need to pay off the rest of our credit card. I can't even begin to tell you the joy that this brings to my heart. We have never not had credit card debt since my husband and I have been together. That's 9 years now. It's been such a heavy burden and we've been working very hard to see the debt eliminated. I am just in aw of the Lord right now. He took such a difficult couple of weeks and turned them completely around all in one day. First by healing our cat and second by providing an amazing amount of money through several very, very generous hearts. The Lord is good and He is so faithful!
I feel like we've been praying about so many different things lately, but in the process trying our best to hand our lives over to the Lord. This has meant not fighting the Lord and doing as we desire, but listening to Him and following His lead, cause guess what folks, the Lord DOES talk to US. We just need to learn how to listen and obey. There has been so many times I have prayed over something and nothing has happened or the issue has not resolved itself as I have hoped. Sometimes you can begin to feel like the Lord isn't listening. Yesterday, to me, was like the Lord was saying yes I am listening, but you must TRUST ME, you must OBEY ME and be okay if things don't go the way you think they should, like perhaps with the house. I'm telling you yesterday was simply to surreal between the healing of Jazz and the blessing of the money, to not be from the Lord. It's such an amazing affirming moment/day while mixed with a dozen different emotions.
For those of you who take time to read this post, I encourage you to seek the Lord, hand your life over to Him. Be willing to let Him move and guide you. Be ready and open to what He has in store for you and know that what He has for you might not be what you had for yourself. Be a willing servant of Christ Jesus and give Him GLORY through it all, the good and the bad. He is a truly magnificent Father. He loves us so much and I am beyond thankful that I know Him as my Lord and Savior.
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart."
Psalm 32:8-11
"I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, You know. I have not hidden Your righteousness with in my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation."
Psalm 40: 9-10
"My souls waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken."
Psalm 62:1
"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord id good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."
Psalm 100:1-5
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