Latest update on IL :)

I know I said I'd write about how our trip went to IL...but tonight it's late so a summary will have to do until I post more tomorrow :)  The deacons/search committee were unanimous, the congregation was unanimous, our family was unanimous..YES :) :)  This means we will return for an "official" candidating visit soon!  Some proposed that they just vote us in without making us come back!  Makes you feel nice though :)  More news in the morning!

Friends and other blessings

This week I am thankful for many things including Rick's unemployment!  I'm grateful to God because:
1.  When I came down with the stomach flu just 24 hours after our arrival back from IL, Rick was home to help.
2.  I'm thankful our student from India could share a meal with us this week.
3.  I'm glad that we have some freedom in our schedule to do some amazing things.
4.  I am grateful for the encouragement we received while volunteering for the Show Hope table at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert this week.  We were blessed to see some friends there who we had missed and grateful for their kind gift when they gave us a copy of Mary Beth Chapman's book "Choosing to See"  I have found it to be inspiring to look at the way God has helped her through a deep time of darkness in her life.  It was also just an overall encouraging concert..to be around other adoptive families and share our stories, to talk about God's faithfulness in hard times and to sing "It is Well with my Soul" at the end of the concert..just amazing.  At this concert, God used the encouraging words of friends to remind me that it is the little things that seem so insignificant in life that matter so much...and He used these friends to remind us of the impact He had allowed us to make here in Columbus.  I am so thankful!
5.  I was grateful for a fun family day at a local Korean culture camp.  The kids were all excited to learn more about Korea, eat Korean food and hang out with other Korean adoptees.  We ran into our former social worker who gave Caleb a neat shirt she had bought for her son in Korea but it was too small..she had thought of our family.
6.  I'm grateful for little things...$7.99 rebate from Staples that I had forgotten was coming, a $5 Walmart gift card that came in the mail due to a grand reopening of our local store, a great supply of hand picked apples that we have from our apple picking trip last week and all of God's encouragement this week.

Our trip to Illinois is worthy of another post which I will write very soon :)

Computer Blessing

This week my touchpad and nearby buttons have been crazy and not working right.  In addition my computer refuses to wake up from sleep mode (me too..but that's due to Zyrtec I think!) and keeps locking up.  Tonight we decided to call DELL to see what if anything was still under warranty.  We were able to run some tests at home, find out the hard drive and the touchpad are bad and....DELL is sending a technician out to our house to fix/replace both!!!  That is pretty exciting to me and just another blessing for us!

Today I also had the joy of remembering dear friends...when our friends said goodbye to us at our previous church, there was a picnic and several families blessed us with gift cards and other money to help our family.  I was able to use 3 of those gift cards today for groceries and other items.  It made me smile to thank God for each one and to be excited at His provision for us in this way for this week.  Gives new meaning to the concept of daily bread ..it is so nice to see how God takes care of us!

Why God is amazing

He isn't amazing because of what He does but because of who He is...however He sure does some amazing things!!!!  Today we received a gift that combined w/ last week's surprise gifts totals very close to one week salary..just in time for the day of the week when we would have received a paycheck...GOD IS GOOD!

Today Rick had a good interview at Nationwide..he will know in 2 weeks whether they will offer him that job or not.

We just finished day 7 of having a student from India stay with us. It has been a joy and privilege to be his new "family" while he studies at OSU.  He has now moved to his new apartment on campus. God is so wonderful to give us the desires of our hearts ..to be around international students while we wait on Him.  It was such a joy in this first week of unemployment to have a clear focus in helping this student.  Now Rick is shifting gears and preparing his sermons for the upcoming weekend in IL.

We also heard from another church in PA that wants to do a phone interview soon with Rick.

A friend provided dinner last night; another will host our family for dinner on Friday night.  We are so grateful. Because of His great love, we are not consumed....

Perspective

I am not the only one going through suffering.

My trial is a trial to me..one that threatens to undo me some days if I loose my focus on God, who loves me and who is more about His glory than my comfort.  But I am not the only one.  Plenty of people everywhere are going through things that are intensely painful to them at that time.  Tonight we shared prayer and praises at the church we call "home" right now.  Some are at the end of their trials and reflecting back..some loved ones were healed of cancer..some died and entered into the presence of their Savior.  Some are still in the midst and angry, others can say that God taught them through their pain about Himself.  It cannot be, for me, about just surviving this trial because others will come.  There has to be a decision to make much of Jesus in the midst of the suffering, not just thank Him when and if it all works out in the end.  Job said you give and you take away, blessed be the name of the Lord.  I cannot be about just looking back and thanking Him for the end result.  It has to be about realizing that I need to embrace suffering as part of taking up my cross and following Him today.  It isn't about putting on a happy face when you are hurting, but sincerely saying THANK YOU Lord for allowing this... for allowing my husband to be unemployed, for allowing us to lose our church family, for allowing us to be all alone and scared...because you receive glory when by your strength I proclaim your goodness day by day..not just for what you do..but simply for who you are.

Blessings with our budget

There have been many ways in which God blesses us with help!  One of those funny ways this summer was when we went into our local Walgreens to look for a sale item and found that the manager of this particular Walgreens had taped tons of coupons on some of the sale items!  Exercising some restraint...we ended up purchasing 20 plus boxes of Cheerios for $1 each, Nutrigrain and granola bars for under $1.50 each and some other goodies.  We often walk into stores and find amazing deals that we did not plan on that bless our family with the ability to stock up on things!  Another of my favorite times was finding blueberries for $1 a pint at our Aldis store! We enjoy finding sale items then thinking of things to make with them.

Just a few weeks ago, we had a 30% off Kohls coupon and Chelsea and I found amazing bargains on the clearance racks...for about $20 we were able to buy pieces or entire outfits to make 4 new outfits for us for church!

Last week I had been praying to find some more cloth napkins (our family switched to many cloth products while we were waiting for Corey to come home and saving money) and I was able to visit a local thrift store and get many cloth napkins for 20 cents to 59 cents a piece!  I was also thankful that we have a teen son who loves the thrill of thrift store shopping.  After an unfortunate "ink pen in the wash" incident which destroyed his church pants, we prayed we could find a few things for him.  He ended up with 2 nice belts, a pair of Florsheim black church shoes, 2 pairs of pants for church for $20..about the price of a new pair of pants at the store.  God is so amazing..to provide clothing in just the right sizes for a growing boy at just the right time!

Mercies this week

This is our first week of unemployment and God has been blessing in so many ways..day by day giving us hope and encouragement.  Here is just a little of what HE has done:

*Given us the chance to have a student from India stay with us for temporary housing
*Sent a love offering from a group of ladies in PA
*Given Rick a job interview at Nationwide Insurance ...Sept 7th
*Had another friend express their love and concern for our family by giving us a gift to help financially
*A friend anonymously called our mechanic and paid for our van's repair
*Rick has had 2 phone interviews at 2 churches this past week
*He is preparing sermons for a preaching/interview weekend in IL on Sept 12th
*We have been shown love and concern from our current new church family locally...yesterday when the pastor  and wife found out we had a student from India, they offered to bring us an authentic Indian dish for our student to eat!

Thank you Lord for all you have done!

New Beginnings

I begin this blog just as a journal and reminder of God's unfailing love and goodness to our family.  I invite friends and family to read along as they want while I consider God's goodness and choose thankfulness in difficult circumstances.

I am thankful that in hard times, God never leaves us without hope.  It would be inconsistent with His character and His promises to ever leave me or forsake me..therefore He is always WITH me even when I don't feel that He is there.

My life has taken turns I did not plan on...my dreams have been replaced with following God daily...learning what it means to take up my cross and follow Him when you can only see today in front of you.  I am so glad He is writing my story and that although I don't know the next chapter,  I know the story ends well...whether in this life or in the one that is to come.  I am choosing thankfulness..looking for the little ways God shows Himself to be there each day and praying I'll be faithful in the storms of life.  Thanks for reading!