Memorial Box Monday

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God hears our prayers.

What? You knew that already? Yeah I did too. But there is still something so awe inspiring when you see it first hand.

Years ago when I had a little girl I could hardly wait for her to do all of the girly things. One thing I was so excited about was ballet.

I also had a husband that had a lot of baggage. This is a fact: When you marry a man with a previous marriage, you get all of him, baggage and all. They will more than likely come with their point of views about certain things. The only problem was that his point of view came from an ex-wife and an ex-marriage. Divorce is ugly all the way around. God can bring beauty from ashes, but you will be finding ash in everything over the years. Just like when you play with glitter. You can seriously be finding that stuff for years and years. Same thing with the ash. You will find bits and pieces of it for a long time. It will pop up in the most unusual spots. But God eventually turns that bit of ash into bits of beauty.

Back to my story. My husband has 3 boys. Well, they are men now, but one time they were boys. They played every sport imaginable, including gymnastics. This makes me smile because two of them are in the Marine Corps. I can just imagine their drill instructor getting a hold of this information. Anyway. They played a lot of sports. Sometimes two sports at a time. This made for 3 busy boys. Luckily they had grandparents that would pitch in and help take them to games and all of the hundreds of practices.

My husband worked a lot. He was self employed. He worked out in the hot Florida weather every single day. He missed a lot of their games. Now, I could get into all of the details about why my husband had to work so many hours. It had a lot to do with credit card bills that would mysteriously show up in the mail box. Sometimes they would show up in his in-laws mailbox. He wouldn't know about these for a long time. Needless to say, he had to make a certain amount of money to keep the family in the green. He was shamed over and over again for missing games and practices. He is still haunted by the memories of dissapointing his boys.

Fast forward several years. My daughter takes a huge interest in ballet. She dances around the house at only 2 years old. Most girls do this. My husband is very against the idea of enrolling her in class. Or any sport for that matter. Ouch, I just got some ash in my eye. Where did that come from?

Well, I knew that arguing would not matter. I accepted his verdict. My parents and sister kept pestering me about putting her in class. What do I say? I try to keep it neutral and explain to them that she won't be taking ballet classes at this time. NOW QUIT BRINGING IT UP!

I prayed a lot about this. I knew God could change his heart. I just didn't know if He would. It took 2.5 years. Then not too long ago, out of the blue he said he wanted her to take ballet class. I think I was standing in the kitchen. I tried not to let the surprise show on my face. I calmly agreed with him and was profusely praising God in my heart at the same time. God was softening my husband's hard, hard heart. He turned that bit of ash into some beauty. The result? My girl will go to her very first ballet class today at 4pm.

She is over the moon. And my husband? Well, he has been working overtime like crazy. And most of it is mandatory. He doesn't have a choice. Some of it he does choose to work. I have assured him over and over again that he is not required to come to ballet practice. And if he misses her first recital I will take lots of pictures and video and he will not be shamed.

God is turning my husband's ashes into beauty as well. Even after almost 10 years of marriage, he is learning that he is safe. That I love him. And God continues to soften his heart. The other day he asked me why he has turned into such a cry baby. This former marine with a hard heart has cried more this past year than he has his whole life. The only answer I could give him was that God was softening his heart. The very thing I had been praying for years.

Thank you Lord for answering prayers.

Ballet pictures to come soon.

Memorial Box Monday

For more stories about God's faithfulness,visit A Place Called Simplicity

***Edited: My husband came home today without a job. How much more this story blesses my soul. Will you join me in prayer for our incredible God to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine?***

Its been so long since I've posted one of the these. I must be the worst blogger in the world. God is just so faithful in the small things and I need to mention this. My girl will start kindergarten in a few weeks. We homeschool and I am very excited. The bad thing is that we have zero extra money right now for curriculum. I found some books that I wanted to use and it would have cost around $50. We plan on utilizing the library a lot.
I feel like I should back up and say that we have money in savings. We are not destitute. We are trying not to touch that money because if we spend it, we are essentially homeless next year after our lease is up here. That money is for our small house we are building. The Lord is good and I'm so thankful that we have that money there anyway. So we are trying to live off my husband's paycheck and it just doesn't cover it.
Back to these books. I know $50 is not a lot. Especially for homeschool material. But this is kindergarten and really how much will I need? So I had my list and my husband said wait until payday to order it. My fingers itched and itched to just go ahead and order it, but I held off.
We are at church Sunday night and this lady comes up to me and tells me that some of the ladies have put together a basket of books for us. She says its probably everything I will need for kindergarten. Say what?!?!? She even included some supplies. Now, I don't know whats in this basket. The books may be old, used or not what I was planning on using. But the Lord knows better than me. He knows whats in there because He told them what to put in there.
We've only been at this church 5 weeks. My husband slightly longer since he was attending here while we were in Tennessee. But they really don't know us. But they took the time to put together some things for us.
The way we came to this church is another God story by itself. Only by His will did we come here. And without this church we would probably be in pretty bad shape spiritually. We have a preacher who preaches the truth.
We are doing so good. And thanks be to God for His goodness to our family.

Memorial Box Monday

I love Mondays! I love to thinking about God's Faithfulness and I love to read about it too. Please visit A Place Called Simplicity for more stories of God's goodness.

Today's story is just another chapter in this great adventure. It is short, but powerful.

We have a house that we have been trying to sell since April. It is a mobile home and it sits on borrowed property. We have lowered the price and lowered the price. Lots of inquiry, but no bites. It is almost as if the Lord was saying,"wait on Me."

Of course we still listed it, because, duh, we are trying to sell it.

Once upon a time I felt the need to give it away. Yes, I said give it away. Give away an asset that would secure our future. Give away a profit that would ensure the funds to finish our house. I know how outrageous that sounds. I was scared of the idea, but excited at the same time. But, I'm the woman and I don't get the last say so. And that is well and perfect for me. I talked with a super cool chick about my grand idea and she prayed over me. Then I talked to my husband. Hahahahaha! Picture me laughing right now. It didn't go well. While my husband is a true follower of Christ, he declares he is not without his senses. He totally opposes the idea and I stand firm, but step aside. He is my husband and the Lord has put authority in him.

Let me back up a minute and tell you that I wanted to give it to a missions pastor and his family to live in. They are incredibly in love with Jesus and were very much without a home.

I wanted to just give it to them in the name of Jesus Christ and allow God to bless that in whatever way He wanted.

But it wasn't to be. So we have been trying and trying to sell it.

On one of the "on" weekends we get visits from my husband we were worshiping in church together one Sunday. This particular Sunday the church was taking a final offering to retire their mortgage early. It had been a huge campaign to pay off a huge debt that only a huge God would pull off. The pastor called for everyone to make a sacrificial offering. We took it to heart and placed a check in the offering plate. I was very excited because before the service I asked my husband if we would and he said yes. He threw out a number that matched the number in my own mind. I was initially shocked because I thought my number would be too high for him. God had spoke to both of us. Love it!

Three days later we get an email stating that someone from our Florida church wanted to buy our mobile home and give it to the church under the condition that this missions pastor could live in it for 2 years. Even as I type this, it astounds me. I had told a total of 3 people of my wanting to give our home away. One person thought my idea was crazy, one person lives across the country and one person was my best friend who doesn't talk about our conversations with others. Only God could orchestrate that plan. He knew in my heart that I wanted our home for this particular family. And He made it happen.

Now, my heart turns in 2 directions here. I am so excited that our home will sell and we will get the cash we need to proceed and hopefully finish building. But I am a little sad that someone will get this blessing. Yes, we are getting the blessing of income. I know this. But I wanted the blessing of sacrifice. I wanted to give it away so the Lord could stretch our faith. But He still works. He heard my heart. I feel like there are 2 blessings in this story. And I want to remember that check we put in the offering plate and how the Lord saw it and blessed us with the sale of our home. And I want to put a picture of our home in my (non-existent) memorial box to remind myself and my family that the Lord gives back to those who give away.

But I also want to remember that the Lord answered my prayers for this family to get my home. And to me, that is the biggest blessing of all!

Memorial Box Monday

Today is Monday and I havn't done a MBM post in a while. I havnt done much of any posting in awhile. Forgive me for this being quick, but I just wanted to share it.
Last week was particularly frustrating for many reasons. I won't go into them because I have already gotten into them at one time or another on here.

As I was laying in bed waiting to fall asleep I felt the Lord tell me to fast tomorrow. Now, I'm new to this whole fasting thing. The most I've ever fasted was one meal. I was very afraid. I asked the Lord if I could fast until 5pm. It would have ended up about 23 hours of not eating. This includes sleep time which kinda doesn't count. But 2 meals is a big deal for me.

I prayed the next morning instead of enjoying my daily cup of coffee. Oh my word.

About 10am my husband texts me and says he is in a meeting with his boss over something that was found on his background check. He's been an employee almost 2 months mind you. And they are just now finding something from over 20 years ago. Immediately I knew why the Lord had me fast that day.

I prayed all day for this situation and for all the other things that we need answers to.

The Lord worked everything out for our good. The boss lady was very familiar with wayward young Marines and was willing to overlook this incident. My husband still has a job, Praise the Lord.

How cool is God that He would put this woman in our path? That she would understand that young Marines get into a lot of trouble? That she would be so willing to overlook this and let him keep his job? (This company has very very specific regulations for their employees.)

I was so thankful that the Lord's favor was over my husband.

I am going to put a small Marine Corps emblem in my Memorial Box. When I get one!

Do you have anything to put in your Memorial Box?

I know this post is full of grammatical and possibly spelling errors. Forgive me?

For more fabulous stories visit A Place Called Simplicity.

Memorial Box Monday-Hot off the Press

This Memorial Box is only about 12 hours old. The story is far from being finished, which I think is so cool!

Over the past 2 months my husband has been unemployed, he has probably applied for well over 50 jobs. He is a worker and a hard one at that. He can do just about anything so he didn't care what the job was, he just wanted one.

He was starting to become very discouraged. Especially after a trip up to the Virginia Workforce place. They basically told him he wouldn't make more than 8 or 9 dollars an hour. Talk about a let down. He came home and just kept at it. Finally one day we got a call for an interview. My husband was so ecstatic! He went up to the interview and it went fantastic. This was his first interview since he lost his job and he tried not to get his hopes up. But he couldn't help it. The interviewer was very encouraging and basically got his hopes up for him.

He said we would hear something within 2 days. Oh how foolish we were to believe that! Ha! Every time that phone rang, we dove for it and were let down time again. When were they going to call???
A WEEK later we were both beside ourselves. We knew we would hear something either way and the suspense was not working for us. Last Tuesday morning we woke up and both knew that we would hear something. We were both on edge all day. Its funny because we didn't talk about it until later. We were so tired of talking about it that we didn't even mention that we both thought it would be that day. Every time I walked by the cell phone my stomach did funny flips. Ahhhh!


Then the phone rang.


My husband walked back into the bedroom and answered it.


Then he gave me a thumbs up.


Ah, sweet relief. Tears immediately came to my eyes at God's faithfulness. He had given us just the right job. The income was more than we thought we would get. He didn't allow my husband to interview for a million jobs and be turned down. God is so good. He knew what we could handle and what we couldn't.

My husband started his job at 7:30 this morning. We are so blessed.

But, that is NOT what I wanted to write about. This Memorial Box Monday post goes a lot more in depth than that!!

My husband needed a place to stay up there for only one month. Our plan was to buy a camper for our property this month so we wouldn't waste money on rent. Not ideal because we don't like debt. And this would put us in debt for a long time and we don't even have a vehicle to pull the thing with.

My husband ended up renting a room from a man who had had a stroke 7 months ago. He has been in rehab and his house has sat empty. He was coming home in a few days and was moving out of this house by the end of the month. He only wanted someone there for the month of April. (My guess is to just have someone be there. The poor man spent 3 days on the floor before someone found him) Coincidence? Yeah, right!!

My husband went yesterday to meet this gentleman. They had a good talk and I believe both felt comfortable with each other.

Now, let me just say that this house is over 4,000 sq.ft. It sits on the edge of a ridge and has an amazing view. My husband spent the evening last night watching deer behind the house. His favorite thing to do! He agreed to pay $500 to stay in the house this month. A lot in my opinion, but its such a huge house and probably well worth it. So, the man asked my husband if he would help him pack some things up before the move he could stay for free!!!! That's $500 of savings we can use elsewhere. Thank you Lord!! Being the worker that he is, and the servant, he agreed.

This gets even longer. I know! This gentleman has a friend. Barely a friend actually. This other man, we'll call him Burt (watching sesame street, can you tell?) owns the property next to this fabulous house. He's the one who found this man after his stoke and has been sort of like a son to him. Making sure his bills are paid, looking after the house, even paying some of his bills to help him out. Talk about a servant!!!

We'll Burt is trying to find a rental for this man to live in. The one he found would be perfect but it's too expensive. The man won't be able to go back to work for several more months and would need a tenant until then. Enter my husband. Did I mention that we would only need a place to stay (the camper) for a few months until our house is built?

Burt (still taking care of specifics for this man) offered my husband and our family the main part of the house for less than $300 per month. The man would live in the finished basement and would only need meals and light cleaning.

$300 would be about the same as a camper payment (not including a down payment.) It would also mean we wouldn't be in debt for the next 10 years. It would mean we could stay in a nice house instead of a camper. It would mean we would get a chance to witness to this man and Burt also. It would mean we could store our belongings in the basement instead of a storage unit. It would mean a lot of good for our family.

How cool is God that He would be at work on behalf of our family? How awesome that He would orchestrate these events before my husband even got to Virginia? I am so in awe of what He is doing to take care of us. Seeing His hand at work for us is so humbling.

This story isn't over yet. It has only just begun. I can't wait to get up there and live out this God ordained circumstance. There is nothing better than living inside of the will of God.

Yall, I have less than a week left here and then I am moving. I will spend the month of April with my parents. In one month, I will be in Virginia. The place we have dreamed about for so long. To say that my heart is overflowing is a huge understatement.

I am so happy to share this story with you. Please come back and see what else God has in store for us. It is sure to be exciting!!!!

Memorial Box Monday

This is a very recent story. I hope you enjoy it and are encouraged by God's perfect timing.
It has been nearly two months since my husband lost his job. Right afterward I suggested that we go up north and spend some time with my husband's family. They really don't get equal time compared to my parents since my parents make trips south to see us often.
I knew that we could take our time traveling and even just go with the flow once we got there. It was sure to be a change from our hectic drive and spend a few days and drive again. My husband thought it would be nice but didn't want to spend the gas money for this 10 hour trip. I knew it was no use trying to convince him. (Have you ever noticed that it has to be their idea? Sometimes I know for sure that we are supposed to do something but he never listens. I've learned to let it go. It will eventually come around again if indeed God is in it. And the next time around, they will be all for it. Uhhh!!)
Fast forward a month. We "splurged" after church a few weeks ago at Micky D's since they had a great deal on their cheese burgers. We were enjoying "eating out" and my husband just casually mentions that he thinks we should go up to see his family. Here we go. I agree and we start to make plans. We seriously would have left the next day if it weren't for a prior engagement. It kept us in town one more week and we set off the next Sunday. One a side note even though it is slightly stressful that my husband is not employed I have truly enjoyed the flexibility with having him home all the time. It will be so sad when he does get a job and has to go back to a schedule.
God's timing couldn't have been more perfect. We left in the early hours of Sunday morning with no real set plan.

We stopped off in the beautiful state of Virginia to visit our property.
It still sits with the very beginnings of a foundation.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that we still had a lot of old snow on our property.


We had a blast playing in it since it had been years since we had seen any at all.

We took our time getting up to West Virginia where my husband's family lives. We got in late Sunday night. Monday morning we got up and walked down the street to visit my husband's very sick grandmother. We call her Mom. Mom and Pops. Mom had just gotten home from the hospital. She was in stage 4 cancer and just needed some blood. She lay very very still on the couch while we visited. It was still a great visit. Before we got to their house my husband walked down first. He truly felt led to speak with Mom about her salvation. Mom had been a hard lady. At one point she was walking with the Lord, but that had been a long time ago. My husband spoke with her and she gently reassured him that she had trusted the Lord with all her heart.
This was especially good because of some questionable practices by their church. I may be naive, but apparently they believe that your name must be on the church roll to get into heaven. Mom had been a member once many many years ago, but took her name off somewhere along the line. The preacher and some of the deacons were concerned for her salvation because she was not a member. My husband was borderline irate that they wanted her to come to church and join. This lady could barely move off the couch. I was borderline irate.
Let me just stop and say this. Jesus says in the Bible that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Him. Period. Nothing else will get you to heaven. Jesus is the only way. And trust me, He's the only thing worth having.
Praise God that we all had such a wonderful visit with Mom. Two days later her wobbly legs gave out on her and she fell very hard against the gas stove, hitting her head. She passed away five minutes after arriving at the ER.

God allowed us to be there just the right time. Not only to get to see her one last time alive, but that my husband had the opportunity to speak to her about her salvation.
Had we gone when I wanted to it would have been a month too soon. Had my husband not had a prior commitment that kept us in town another week, it would have been a week too soon. I am so grateful that God cared enough about our family to get us there in perfect timing.

Sometimes it is hard to see His hand at work in our lives. But I am so thankful that He lets us get even just a glimpse to remind us that He is with us.
When we actually get a memorial box something will go in there with the word "mom" on it. It will remind us that God's timing is incredibly perfect.

Won't you head over to A Place called Simplicity and read other story's of God's greatness?

Memorial Box Monday

Today I'd like to tell you about my battle with infertility. The battle wasn't as long as some women's. We started trying to have a baby right after September 11, 2001. I'm not sure if that had any significant meaning. My cycles had always been a little on the erratic side, but I didn't realize how this might affect my ability to get pregnant right away. I also feel the need to say that I was slightly overweight during this time. I'd like to think that this had something to do with it also, but I am reminded of how God's timing is perfect. It just so happened that the time when I had lost a lot of weight is the same time I became pregnant.
Those years of my marriage don't hold up well in my memory. Thankful I kept a journal. I'd like to just let you read parts of my entries and let that tell you the story.
(Apparently either I didn't journal during this time, or its lost. But in Feb. 2002 I had a very early miscarriage. Early or not, it was still extremely devastating for me.)

3.2.02
The cry of my heart. Lord, I want children. I want to be a mommy. I want a life growing inside me. Please hear my prayers for a baby girl.

4.5.02
Lord,
Please hear my prayers and cries for motherhood. Lord, I'm really trying to lose weight. I want to be healthy when the pregnancy begins. Please honor that. Your timing is perfect.

1.23.03
I have felt this heavy depression on me. I'm guessing it's not being pregnant yet. Thats really been affecting me lately. And why wouldn't it? It's devastating. Sometimes I'm just like, "So, God, it's not gonna happen is it?"
Sometimes I just picture my insides being gone. That's exactly how empty I feel. I just want someone to hold me and tell me it's going to be ok.

1.24.03
Looking back on the past few years of this journal, I can see that motherhood has been a prayer from the start. Sixteen months. Month after month of lost, useless hope.

There was a time that I stopped journaling about wanting to be pregnant. I lost my insurance and made myself stop thinking about it.

8.25.03
I just really pray I can get pregnant this month. What a joyful celebration. What a happy time that would be. Is this the month? I don't want to get my hopes up, but I am so excited to think this could actually happen.

8.27.03
I just wonder how it would feel to have a baby growing inside me. Will I be in constant praise? Will the problems of everyday life be so minor compared to my miracle? After waiting so long and praying so hard, will my faith be multiplied by 1,000 when it finally happens? Will the entire 9 months be filled with continuous joy? The moment when my baby is born, will I praise God outloud? Will my baby's eyes still be sparkling from the very touch of Jesus's hand in my womb? Will holding my baby close bring me close to the fingerprints of God? Afterall, God was holding and forming and pefecting my baby for 9 months. His fingerprints will be fresh on my baby's soft skin. Oh my Lord, I long for Your hands in my womb forming and wonderfully making my baby.

4.12.04
I'm pregnant! God has been so faithful to hear the cries of my heart for the last couple of years. I'm fully blessed that I can experience this wonderful miracle growing inside of me. Thank you Jesus for Your continued faithfulness in my life. Your joy overwhelms me.

6.30.04
A girl! God's faithfulness is never ending.

In my memorial box (honestly, I don't have one, but this is the first thing we will get when we start to furnish our new house.) I will put a dollar. After many years of wasting money on those expensive pregnancy tests, the one that I used when I found out was from the DOLLAR STORE! Who knew?

I remember that I had felt so irritable in those days. More than usual. Ha! I had a fight with my husband and left to go meet my mom because she was coming in from out of state. I mentioned to her that I was late (nothing new) and that I wanted to get a test while we were out. The very thought alone made her day. We were in the dollar store and she showed me the test. I said whatever. I knew that if was negative that I would have just went out and bought a name brand one. We bought 2 just in case. I was so anxious when we got home that evening that I couldn't not take the test. My mom wasn't any help either. She urged me into the bathroom immediately. It was positive. I took the other test. Positive. I went 20 minutes to the nearest store and bought more. Both positive. I couldn't believe it.
The rest is history.

Memorial Box Monday cont.

I thought I'd stretch this out. I felt like I typed forever and didn't want you too bored.
So my husband was laid off a few weeks back. The best part was that we didn't freak out. We had seen God's hand enough in our marriage that this wasn't a huge deal. our biggest decision was whether we would stay put or move our tail ends up to the mountains where our hearts were already residing. Common sense says to stay here. We have no house payments of any kind. But, what about a job? We decided to look for a job in Virginia while staying here. The internet makes that extremely easy with their online applications and all that. Although, in a lot of ways technology makes things harder. Ya know? I could spend 30 minutes writing a letter to a friend with actual pen and paper. (I actually did that not too long ago! It was so old-school!) Or I could spend 3 hours trying to figure out what the hecks wrong with my email so I can drop a 2 line note to someone.
It's only been a few weeks and not long enough to where we could hear something yet. Our prayers are fervent for a well-paying job that suits my husbands needs and wants.

God has provided for our every need. And He will continue to do so. And I believe that we won't have to touch our savings. I believe this because God is for us. He wants good things for us. And we tithe. The Bible is very clear about how God feels about tithing. We are to test Him. Can you outgive God? I don't believe you can.

Our story hasn't been finished yet. The Lord is still working on it. But our peace is truly unbelievable. We KNOW we will be cared for. Will we have enough to make our house exactly how we wanted it? I don't know. But we are willing to cut corners. I may not get the countertops I want, but I'll have a kitchen.

God Himself says His ways are not our ways. I have to believe this. I've caught myself several times these past few weeks wanting my way. I always (try, at least) remember this verse. Yes, I want my ways, but I know His ways are always better. So my prayer has been that He will make my desires look like His desires.

I feel like I've rambled about this. Bottom line is that we are on an exciting ride. It does get exhausting sometimes. Our eyes are on the finish line. I don't know how we will get there, or what it will look like, but I know its there. And it gives me hope.

Want to see God at work in our lives? Check back in a few times over the next few months. You'll be sure to see His hand.

And if you feel so inclined, please remember our family in your prayers. We believe in the prayers of the righteous. The Bible says they are powerful and effective. Thank you.

Memorial Box Monday

I didn't mean to abandon my blog. Truthfully I've abandoned just about everything lately. When your husband is home, things just seem to get thrown off schedule. In a good way!

Today's Memorial Box Monday is about my husband losing his job on Feb. 2, 2010. I suppose it isn't a finished story because I don't know what the ending is going to be.

I want to start out by saying that we are very faithful tithers. After all these years of tithing, though, I still feel like there is a lot to learn. Having said that, I must tell you that God has always provided for us. Never have we been without. Never.

When we were married, I had one small student loan. That was the only debt I carried with me. My husband, having been divorced, had a nice sized child support payment and he was extremely behind on his taxes (he was self-employed.) Since he owned his own business, we never knew when the money was going to come in. I didn't have a set schedule to when my bills were paid. When the money came in, I paid whatever bills had been waiting the longest. Not a good scenario. I was 20 though and not very financially sound. Thinking about this, I was probably more financially sound than most 20 year olds. I'm just guessing.

We liked to go out to eat a lot. I liked to buy new clothes. Nothing in extreme or overly pricey, but money was going out the window fast. Clearly I didn't like the saying, "A penny saved is a penny earned."

Fast foward a few years. I realize that this could be long and drawn-out.

We had accumulated a bunch of credit card debt, a loan, 2 truck payments, and some hefty lawyer bills from an ex-wife who just wouldn't GO AWAY!! We were in over our heads. But the Lord was still showing up. Don't ask me why He chose to still bless us in our financial irresponsibility. But He always made sure we had what we needed. At one point we had attended a seminar based off of a well known financial guru. We both heard the Lord speak to us about our debt and went home that very night to cut up our credit cards. We made a schedule to pay off our debt in 3 years. We were pumped and excited. We knew we could do it.

Then we got more lawyer bills in the mail we weren't expecting. That did it for us. We were deflated. We were defeated. We filed for bankruptcy. I'll never forget going to my pastor's wife sobbing over signing those papers. Bankruptcy is a horrible thing. But again, for some reason, God chose to bless us through our irresponsibility.

Immediately we started to see the hand of God working in our lives. We bought old clunkers with cash. And they lasted. They were good vehicles. We had 3 more cars given to us. FOR FREE! We sold our our house and property and made a huge profit. We should not have sold that house. After 5 years, I doubt that more than 2 houses have sold in our neighborhood since. We used the profit to buy a small mobile home and moved it onto our church property after getting an invitation to do this. We have lived without a house payment for 5 years. We were able to save 20,000 to buy our dream property in the mountains. We have saved even more than that to start building. We had a plan to save for another year and a half and then move to Virginia. We would have more than enough money to build a small, but beautiful house on our land. It was all working out beautifully.

Then my husband lost his job...To Be Continued...

Memorial Box Monday

Ok, I just had to check and make sure it was actually Monday. When you don't work I think you lose all sense of time!! (Work...I know, keeping a house and a husband happy. Homeschooling in the midst of it. Yes, fun stuff, but work nonetheless!)

My first Memorial Box Monday post. Linn, over at A place Called Simplicity started this. You tell about what cool thing God has done for you. Or about His incredible faithfulness. You find something that represents this story and display it in your house. Ideally you would use a memorial box, but I don't have one yet.

Today's post has a lot to do with sponsoring Mu. I wonder if I made myself clear when I talked about how cool it was that we are doing this. I don't want to say that my husband is a scrooge. He has a big heart. But it is his tendency to save. He is 41 and isn't even really "settled" yet. We are working on this in building our house. But he just wants to get this done. Money is to be saved.

So in doing this, I believe it is an act of obedience. And since Friday night I have had more peace than I have had in a long time. I believe it comes from being obedient. I also have had an excitement about what God is going to do from here. I don't have a clue what His plans are. And He reminded me last night that His ways are not my ways, not are my thoughts His thoughts. But I do know that He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widows. And if we are willing to be used, then He will use us.

This isn't a traditional Memorial Box Monday post from what I've seen. But this story tells of God's faithfulness in our lives. This is the start of something beautiful.
My husband would probably think I was nuts for going on and on about this. I just don't think he knows the magnitude of this in our lives yet. Because our God is big. And His plans are big. And we get to be included in them. And that is exciting.