Thankful!!

That is the best word I am feeling at this point in July. I know that seems to completely contradict what my last post was about, however, when I fill you in, you will understand. I wrote that post and as I am aware, God knows our thoughts and the deepest pain in our heart.
So, I woke up the following morning, hoping that God would speak to me in church with words from someone else who had actually listened to Him that week, and what I got was a double.
In sunday school class, which by the way, I love!!!, we started a new section and it was about acknowledging Jesus for who He is. We, of all things, took a look at one chapter in Revelation and didn't talk about end times. We talked about the fact that it says who He is and what He is worthy of. And that He is the answer for all of our situations. That was a softener for what Bruce had to say. His focus was on the fact that Satan is a thief and Jesus is our shepherd. That Satan wants to distract us from hearing what God wants to speak in our lives. If we are going through a difficult time, God is closer than ever to guide us, but we have to chose to listen to his voice. Satan knows that if he can distract us with all the little things that we will lose our joy and not be able to hear what God is saying because we are tuning Him out by seeing all the things Satan is pointing out to keep us away from the message of love that God speaks in all circumstances. It was an awesome morning. I walked away feeling like a new person, like everyone had made Jesus a little more real to me and that my situation isn't more than God can see and that actually, He has a message to teach me, if I would just look to see it and not all the inconveniences.
We then got a call from Chris' parents that they were in the area and wanted to do lunch and help us however we needed. In the process of that day, Lorna had written a very heartfelt note about her past and how she had struggled with keeping focused on Jesus when things dont go the way you wish. It was a good visit with them. Chris and his dad worked until really late on the storage shed. Then, Monday, Misty offered to take the kids for the afternoon so that I could do some more work and the kids could get a break. I was truly grateful for that. She also invited Chris and I over for hot dogs for supper. It was a wonderful day and Chris and I got 2 more loads from storage. Our fellowship with them that evening was a God-send.
On Wednesday, I woke up to hear about my cousin who had her second baby at home. I couldn't imagine the fear and uncomfortablity of going through that, but to hear that she and her new daughter were fine was a true blessing. My goal that day was to send something to her and to get my shower gift to Tim and Heidi out in the mail, as well as the insurance claim. However, on the way, our tire blew. Here was my big chance to see how I was going to handle inconvenience this week. :-) At first, my thought was of frustration. I couldn't remember the last time I had changed a tire, but it had been a while. Also, I was seeing Nathaniel turning green before my eyes due to the extreme heat. I muttered that if anyone came by and offered us $100 for our car, I would gladly take it. Then it occured to me that I needed to ask God for his help. Genius, I know. So, to keep the kids distracted, I asked them to tell me some memory verses they knew to help me get the lugnuts off. As they quoted some Psalms, I managed to get 4 of the 5 off. By the second set of verses, a man wearing an apron and military pants walked up and offered some help. In about 15 seconds, he had pulled the tire and put on the donut. He also suggested a good way to get to a place where I could buy a new tire. I thanked him and the kids crawled into the car. I told them we should thank God for sending help and as we did, I was glad I hadn't blown up. When we were done praying, the man had mysteriously disappeared, just as he had just walked up, he walked away. I am not for sure where he came from, but the kids are sure he was an angel sent by God.
Anyways, we got the tire replaced and spent the afternoon with Clyde, Violet, Noel and Lorna before they headed back to Texas. Another good day. And I did get my mail sent!! (Tim and Heidi, I hope you were showered with mail last week. That was the goal us sisters had anyways!!)
Thursday I visited with Karen and that was a great time. We, the kids and I, did some more storage work. When we woke up Friday morning, Mom and Dad arrived to help finish up our move. Dad and Chris looked at how to repair the uneven, unshingled storage shed and made a list of supplies. Mom and I set it in our minds we would hit storage as best as we could. So, a trip to Norman and 3 vehicles full of stuff later, we all were very busy. The roof and building were secured thanks to my Dad's wonderful knowledge and patience, and many items and my kids were taken care of thanks to my Mom, including a really nice pork dinner!!
Friday night, unknown to us until Saturday, my mom had an episode where she thought a blood clot was moving up her leg toward her heart. My dad said he hadn't seen her in that much pain ever. She took 4 asprin and made a turnique(sp?) out of Dad's belt and waited it out. Now, a little history, she has had clots before and her father passed away with something to do with that kind of history, so it wasn't just an oh well thing. She made some phone calls Saturday morning to decide what she wanted to do, since she felt better, but didn't want to get up and do a lot and have something bad happen, so dad and I worked on the storage shed for a while and the kids watched tv. Then we all headed to Norman to take her to the ER to get her leg checked. We loaded up more storage and it was found that the clot had dissolved and that she needed to continue asprin until she could see her regular physician and to "be a good girl".
We blew up fire works and watched tv that night.
Sunday, we went to church and then got back to work. The shed was completely finished by 6:30pm and it was set in Dad's mind that there would be no big items in storage by the time they went home, so one more trip left, we took care of that and they headed back, leaving us with a much more at-home feeling, and very thankful that Mom was alright and that Dad had given so much of himself.
Today we took the last of the boxes out of storage and met Misty in Newcastle for storytime. After a great visit, we met Chris at Cici's for supper and came home to finish up cleaning up the yard from the debris of storage dump:-)
We are headed to Bridge Creek tomorrow morning to let the kids play on the playground and to see when they need to get registered for school. I am just so thankful that in all things, God is in control and on the throne, just like I know He is all the time!! He truly is so good!!!
Living in His wonderful care until next time...!