Monday, May 30, 2011

On wings of eagles

Isaiah 40
29 He gives power to the weak
      and strength to the powerless.
 30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
      and young men will fall in exhaustion.
 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
      They will soar high on wings like eagles.
   They will run and not grow weary.
      They will walk and not faint.

You know, sometimes we're just so blessed that it wears our earthly bodies out! I'm finding myself in that category.

Last week, as I was finishing up the last week of the school year - listening to projects, packing up 13 years of teaching, shedding some tears over the boxes, keeping the house clean for showings, we got word that we had a contract for a sale! And, a close date of June 9th!. Yep, one of those two week closing deals. FANTASTIC!! I mean, really, this is absolutely perfect on so many playing fields: we just got our first interest payment for the construction loan, and we don't have a house payment to pay in addition. No worries about renting out this house! We'll be about a quarter of a mile from our new construction, so we can check continually. School is out so we don't have to commute.

We immediately began taking action toward the move. We found a storage container (one of those big train cars), looked at it & paid, had it moved to our new home site, moved what we had stored upstairs at my in-law's to the storage container, and moved the attic of our house to storage. The beams started going up for walls, so we went to check it out another night.

From last Tuesday when we got the offer to this Thursday, I will have had ten photography appointments (see, I had it planned out that once school was out I would be more "free" to shoot & edit - HA!). I am 10 sessions behind on editing (and have whittled that down to just 5 in the last 6 days), so I've not been getting a lot of sleep.

It's been a emotional week, busy week, and a little stressful. I am relishing in my Lord and His Spirit because I would normally be a complete basket case at this point - completely stressed about getting it all done. But, you know what, I'm waking each morning and praying that He shows me the "one thing" that He wants of me for the day and walking by faith in the rest.

I can't wait to see how perfectly all the pieces are going to fall into place!

Monday, May 2, 2011

The "All Clear"

Yep, that's all that really has to be said. And I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of how and when.

What a terrific opportunity! Well, several opportunities.

First, trust. The simple trust I was able to give to my Lord that He had a plan. I felt the perfect peace that could come only from Him. In the past I've needed my human "entourage" to give me strength and encouragement. There was simply no reason to have my sweet husband hold my hand through the "safety steps" which would have made him miss a wonderful conference in Florida. I was able to give myself over to my Father. He loves me so much!

Second, my Lord is the Great Physician. No one had to go in after anything! I still have a 1 1/2 by 1/2 inch 'lump' in there, but I have been assured it is nothing more than normal tissue. Because He made it that way.

Third, I don't think women share about these things enough. I think of the two dozen people who knew about all of this, at least a dozen have their own lump. Why don't we talk about such things - share the truth of what's really going on versus the 'soccer mom' stories (and I'm a 'soccer mom,' so get over any offense, please). I've spoken with so many women over the course of my short life who have had PPD, miscarriages, and now lumps, but no one talks about the things that matter. God gives us these things in life to allow us to encourage one another and build one another up. Is it pride? Is it vanity? I don't know.

Thankful!