The last month has been exciting, frustrating, wonderful, and difficult--a time to grow and depend on our great God more. The month has flown by, and I don't think we could have packed one more thing into it. I know many of you think we are crazy. :-) Me too! Ha ha My sister is here right now with her 2 children and will have 2 weeks with us. I am thrilled, but I just feel badly about all that is going on and will have to go on while she is here. Read on to the bottom for explanation of what the rest of the month holds.
Since I last posted, we had a church planter's ministry summit for SoCal and Nevada pastors and their families. We had a great time! A good friend of ours, Nicole Fortney, watched all of the children at the conference because her husband is overseas as a Marine serving our country. She wanted to have ministry opportunities while he was gone and contacted us to see if we needed help with our church. The ministry summit had just come up, and we found out it would involve the families, not just the pastors, this year. Everything fell into place for Nicole to come and help out, and she was a huge blessing to all of us! She was able to stay with us a few days before and then after the conference, and God gave us a wonderful time of encouragement and fellowship.
Two days after Nicole left, our dear friends, Michael and Jenny Muth, came from MI with their two boys and stayed with us for 10 days. We were so excited that God provided unbelievable prices on airline tickets for them. The Muths are like family to us, and we had the greatest time just hanging out, seeing how their kids are growing and changing, watching our kids interacting with them, etc. We even got to do some fun activities like going to the Aquarium of the Pacific and San Diego's Wild Animal Park. Jenny is a Pampered Chef consultant, and I was able to host a show for her too while they were here. It was awesome, and I LOVE the products that I was able to get because of doing a show! Overall, just being together was so encouraging for all of us. We thank God for great friends!
So the frustrations and difficulties? They have come mostly from the process of trying to buy a house here. We put an offer on a short sale at the end of Dec. We knew it would take quite a bit of time, but there have been unexpected problems along the way, mostly in the last 3 weeks. I won't get into all the confusing details here, but basically the seller has been dishonest and very difficult to work with recently. The listing agent also did some things that were wrong in the last week or so, and all of this has kept us from closing by the end of April and having to pay for another month of rent. We are reminded that none of this took God by surprise, and He is in control of all things. It has been a hassle for us, and we are sad to see people act the way they have, but we are trusting God. Thankfully tonight we had our walk through, and we should have possession of the house by Fri. We will have a lot of trash to clean out of the house and major cleaning, unlike I have ever seen needed. :-( Carpet needs to be replaced as well before we can move in. I can't wait to make it all fresh and new with a good cleaning and painting. Beyond the junk is a beautiful house in good condition! A lot needs to be done, and my sister is here, but hey, we have until the end of May to move in. I need to take one day at a time. God is providing, and I thank Him so much!
