Look at these two girls and tell me they aren't the sweetest girls you have seen, at least today. On Wednesday we woke up and got ready for the day. We had to actually get ready because we had company coming to lunch. It was a beautiful warm day so we put on FaithLyn's little capri set my Mom sent for Christmas. FaithLyn said, "Mom, can Elise wear hers, too, and we can be matchy-matchy?" How could I say no? Then we went to get everyones hair done and in a moment of divine inspiration I desided to coax FL into letting me braid her hair. She was just to cute! Since Elise wants to look, say, and do everything exactly like FL we braided her's, too.
Why all the fuss? We had an interview lunch with the couple Dan and I are hoping to come and replace us here at the Springs. I didn't really think much about this until Tuesday morning when I went down into the basement for something and I realized they were probably going to want to see the house. This house will be there home if they take the position. It would be a good idea for everyone to walk through their home every once in a while and try to look at it like you have never been there before. Because when I did this, remembering that Joe and Heike(like Nike) would be coming, I was sent into a panic! Now let's take a small break to say that I was definitely over reacting. I am known to be a bit dramatic. But it was enough to enlist the help of the girls to do some quick tidying up.
I love this house! Unfortunately, I have learned that if you live in a large space, no matter how much or how little stuff you start out with, you will end up filling up the space you have! My house isn't cluttered, but when you have room to store things. . .well, you do. I found so much junk down in the basement. When I say junk I mean plastic bags and baby gift bags and lots of JUNK! We then moved upstairs and I cleaned off all the cluttered flat areas and then moved to my bookshelves. Our house has these two great big, really nice, built in book shelves. We own one small 3 foot book shelf. Enough said. But I did experience another break through while I was going through the books on the shelves. I realized that it was time to get rid of my college English and Speech books. As hard as it was for me to admit, I don't need them and who knows when or if I ever will again. Sniff. It was a sad moment but I recovered quite quickly. Purging is always so freeing for me. Anyway, All this to say I got a little crazy. The last effort I made to make the house more presentable was to wash off all of the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. We had all kinds of unidentifiable. . . um, stuff dripping down those cabinets! The saddest thing about looking at my house with a new set of eyes was that it seemed dirty. Not just we didn't clean this week dirty, but "how do you people live like this" dirty. It's amazing how just a few hours of work remedied that situation. It's the little things that make a big difference.
Moving on, the day of the interview came and lunch was great. Dan and I were able to answer all of their questions honestly and openly. They looked at the house and made comments like, "Wow! These rooms are so big!" "I can't believe how big this house is!" "It sure is going to be hard for you guys to move to an apartment." They never mentioned the stained carpet, the walls needing a new coat of paint, the trashy flower beds, or any of the other things I couldn't get to before they came. I am really excited about this couple. My only regret is that we won't get to serve here with them. God willing, they will bring some great things to this ministry that Dan and I couldn't.
Some of you might be wondering why I freaked out about the state of the house. Let me explain. When we moved to the Springs to serve we lived in a suite on the second floor of the hotel. We had to use the hotel kitchen downstairs and we couldn't watch movies when people were staying in the hotel. One of the closets was going to be FaithLyn's nursery. It was prepared for her arrival. (Don't get me wrong, there were LOTS of great things about living in the hotel. But that's not what I am talking about.) Two weeks before FaithLyn's birth we were offered to move in here at "The Meadows". The family that lived here before us took very good care of this home and it was in excellent shape for us. This home has been one of God's perfectly timed blessings for us. I wasn't worried that Joe and Heike would discover my poor housekeeping skills. I was afraid they wouldn't see the tremendous amount of God's blessings that would be passed on to them through this house. I shouldn't have been worried. I am not the vehicle for ditribution of that blessing. The house speaks for itself. I also was afraid that my unexplainable gratitude and love for this house would not be seen if it didn't look cared for. A house is a big responsibility. A house the size of ours is a HUGE responsibility. I don't know why God chose to bless Dan and I with a house like this for our starter house but I do know that we have learned so much and I will never forget this blessing. I am comforted in knowing that if this is how God has blessed us here then I can't wait to see
what is around the corner.
The whole two day interview process was very long and emotional for me. I was very niave about how it would affect me. The thing that took me most by surprise though was the fact that this event started in motion a grieving process for everyone. I knew I would grieve in leaving this place. I thought everyone else would wait until we left to say goodbye. I am not sure if I am being overly sensitive or not but I feel a little tension with the other ministry team members. Perhaps it is just me trying to let go so that I am ready to leave or vice versa. But either way it has already begun. Dan is numb to this process that is so new to me. My only prayer is that in learning how to connect and disconnect in order to move with military life I hope I do not limit my relationships and emotions. I don't want to protect myself so well that I miss the deeper blessings that these hardships bring. I know God can turn everything that Satan means for harm into someting good and beautiful. Beauty from ashes, right? Well, I am willing to step into the purifying flames because I know Jesus is there waiting to walk with me through them.
Ok, I got a little overly dramatic again but, hey, that's just me!
Now it is Easter weekend!! Enough of this talk about endings. This weekend is about beginings! I never truly understood the beauty of Easter until we lived here. Why don't we make a bigger deal about it? This is the BIG ONE! Life everlasting, Christ ressurected, ALIVE!! Man, it makes me excited! I have goosebumps. Do you have goosebumps? HE IS ALIVE! Do you realize that? How long has it been since you really thought about what that means? WOW! HAPPY EASTER, ALL!
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