Praises Big and Small

You'll have to forgive me, those of you who have been praying with us for a solution to our house problem, because the Lord has taken care of it in His time and I was so busy with the start of school and then so relieved to have a solution that I forgot to pass along the good news to you!

It actually started the last few minutes before the opening bell of the first day of school - Labor Day Monday - when my mother-in-law, Trudy, Skyped with me to say that she had just come home from showing our house to a potential renter.  Why was she showing our house at 7:00 am?  Well, when her overnight shift at the hospital ended, she took a nurse friend of hers to see our house.  In the next few days that friend confirmed that she liked the house; we then negotiated with her via Skype a bit, sent a lease and she started moving her stuff in.

I can't tell you what a relief it is to know that our house is in good hands.  Also, it is on a two year lease with a possibility of being occupied for the next four.  So, God willing, it will be a long while before we need to concern ourselves with finding new occupants again!

Thank you all again for your prayers concerning the house.  Although sometimes it bothered me to think of leaving Indiana without the house issue settled, we can actually testify to enjoying a "peace that passes understanding" throughout the last two months, knowing that God had a plan for the house.

Other Praises:

Temperature Relief:  As I write this, rain has started to fall and it is a beautiful sight!  I have to admit that the heat is getting to me a bit, especially during the mid-afternoons.  I just drag myself around from about noon to 4 pm or so and feel like I accomplish very little.  So I take encouragement from this rain - it's a reminder that more comfortable days are coming.  People assure us that August and September tend to be the hottest months of the year and October starts a cooling trend. 

Rain Water Pouring from the Front Gutter

Natural Beauty:  We're starting to see posts on Facebook about mums, cool mornings, and pumpkin flavored this-n-that.  Everything is still pretty green around here, but there is ONE tree that has leaves which are turning orange - and it's right outside our bedroom window.  This morning we enjoyed watching the leaves drop from the branches one by one. I can't tell you how many times a day I am stopped in my tracks by the beauty of this country.

Our Autumn Tree

Banana and Coconut Trees are Everywhere You Look

No Mums, But These are in Bloom Right Now

And These Are ALWAYS "in Bloom"

Love from Home:  We have been the grateful recipients of a couple of care packages from friends and family back home.  It was apparent that even the kids have been missing some of the simple conveniences of their former lives when we opened a box from Grandma Trudy and one of the kids squealed, "Bacon bits!!"  I thought, "They never used to squeal when we came back from Kroger with a bag of bacon bits."  When chocolate chips and candy and tortillas and breakfast cereals are in short supply, you appreciate them quite a bit more. 

The same goes for friends you haven't seen for a while:  The kids get equally excited to Skype with folks from back home.  For instance, today we finally had a much-anticipated call from the Combs family and the kids were overjoyed.

Power:  Our Field Director, Brett, was able to find some extra batteries for our invertor and our friend Bud stopped by Thursday evening to connect them together properly.  The invertor charges these big old batteries throughout the day so that when the electricity goes off at 9 pm, the batteries are able to power a few outlets throughout the house and some overhead lights. 

With four batteries, we were sometimes running out of juice before morning came - which meant the fans suddenly stopped in the middle of the night.  And then when Melissa and I would get up at 5 am to get started for the day, we were operating in the dark.  Furthermore, the refrigerator was not one of the appliances wired into the invertor and with it going dead each night, a lot of food has been spoiling much too quickly.  We are excited now to have doubled the batteries and we hope it eliminates some of the power-related frustrations.

Kids are Adjusting Well:  One of my biggest prayer requests before our actual move was for extra grace for the kids as they said goodbye to the familiar and learned a new lifestyle.  Those prayers have certainly been answered.  Yes, they sometimes long for their grandmas, their old friends and Oreo the Dog.  And there have been a few tears shed on particular nights, but the sun comes up on a fresh new day and they take it head on. 

A big part of the relative ease of this adjustment has been having built in friends living right next door.  The Bundy kids have been wonderful companions to ours.  Brett and Angie's four kids are roughly the same ages as ours and each has a unique and fun personality and our kids have to be coaxed and cajoled back into their own house at the end of each day.  We are truly thankful for the way the Lord has brought our two families together.

I finish with a few pictures from the other day.  Not sure where the idea originated but lately our kids and the Bundys' have been seeing who can run the highest up the side of the large tree in front of our house.  They get forty feet of a running start ...

... and then run straight up the side of the tree. Shoes are optional.  The tricky part is the dismount - you need to push away at the top to avoid leaving bits of skin on the bark of the tree on your way down or breaking your ankle by landing on the roots!

Caleb got the best height out of our kids, but ...



Nobody even comes close to Brianna Bundy!



She's a tree running ninja!

Thanks again for all your prayers!  God hears and He has been so very gracious to us.  I was impressed by the reality behind a single verse from Psalm 3 this week: (v.4) "To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill."  Our prayers - though often weak and feeble - reach to the very throne room of heaven!  AND then God answers!  Both sides of that verse are absolutely amazing if you stop to think about it...