Changed By Love

Romans 8:28 I See Some Things Working Together For Our Good

Aug.7,2009

We are still here and still waiting. There are 2 houses that we have applied for. Other people have applied for them, too. I don’t know how they will decide who to rent the house to, but I hope our urgent need will cause someone to give us a higher priority.

We liked both houses pretty well. There are different advantages and drawbacks to each one, but we could make either of them work. The one is bigger, but the subdivision seems more crowded and sterile. The house has some neat decorative touches that I really like. The other seems more homey, and it’s in a small town, but still a subdivision. OH, there’s a walking trail across the street from this house. I would really like that! But I would be happy with either one. I just want to know where we’re going to live next!!!

I think the Lord has kept us in this house a little bit longer for several different reasons. I walked to the fellowship meeting across the street from our subdivision Tuesday night and enjoyed talking with some fellow Christians who really believe in living by faith. The pastor has quit his job and is going to do full-time ministry for the “church” from now on. I hesitate to use the word “church” because I don’t like the way church is usually carried out. This group of believers has the same ideas about living the Christian life as a body of believers as I do. Their vision is to reach out to the lost and share the gospel and also to minister to the needs of hurting people, believers and non-believers. They don’t want to just get together and meet like a social club.

So I got to talk with the pastor and his wife, and I’ve talked with some of the others there, and I really think we could connect with them. If we hadn’t lived here this extra time, I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet them.

We are also getting to know our next-door neighbors better during these final days here. I’ve found out that the lady next door is very sweet. She is so kind and patient with my twins and Emma. She let them water her plants the other day and gave them candy to share with their brothers and sisters. She came over and gave me some clothes yesterday. Its nice to know that we lived next to a nice person all this time. It’s too bad we didn’t know that while we lived here!

Just the last 2 days, I’ve taken advantage of the track that’s very close to where we live, and I’ve walked around it in the morning before the kids get up and before it gets too hot. Why didn’t I do that the whole time we lived here? I was unable to think clearly until now, I guess. Long-lasting Mommy Brain.

But I can see that God kept us here a little longer for several reasons, and I shouldn’t have gotten so upset when things weren’t working out in MY timing.

He works all things together for our good. He’s so good!

Update: Today Things Are Looking Up

Aug.2,2009

The owners came by the house today. As soon as I heard the doorbell ring, I knew it was either them or the sheriff. I opened the door and the man introduced himself as the owner of the house. I told him, “I’ve been trying to get us out of here.” His wife jumped in and said, “We just came to let you know it’s no problem.” I could have kissed her. I invited them in and apologized for the disorder and chaos. They knew that it was because we’re trying to move, so they were fine with it.

They said that their brother-in-law had come by earlier to check things out. He talked to Gary and just said he was a friend of theirs. He must have given them a favorable report, because they came to set our minds at ease about not having to immediately vacate the premises. Their stuff is still on a ship somewhere and they’re staying with their brother-in-law. I was so relieved. I felt like crying. I told them of the problems we’ve had finding another house, and they were very understanding. I did give the wife a hug. They were absolutely amazing about the whole thing. They were grateful that we had been good renters who always paid our rent on time and didn’t tear up their house, so they were happy to give us a little more time.

So now we have 2 more weeks to locate that perfect house that God has in store for us that no city or county or state can keep us out of!

By the way, we did find a house that just came up that looks promising. It looks a lot like the house we’re in with the same square feet. The outside looks almost identical in color to this house. The shape looks similar, too, just with the garage on the opposite side. There’s no basement, but there’s a loft area. Gary and I have been arguing about whether we need a basement. That just might be the answer to our conflict. I want us together more, he wants the extra space. It only has 4 regulation bedrooms, but it’s not in Belleville or O’Fallon, so we might be all right. And the rent is $350 less than we’re paying now.

See the resemblance?!!!

Thank you to all who have been praying for us!

Unbelievable! Is This America?

Aug.2,2009

Now I’ve heard it all. We went to see yet another house yesterday. It has 3000 sq. feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a BIG recreation room, and we could live there quite comfortably. But when I told the realtor that we have 10 children, she quickly said that she would have to ask the city what the occupancy limit was on this house. She said that we might not be able to get it because of the number of kids we have. I said that we have made 4 bedrooms work for years now. I asked the rhetorical question, “Is this America?” We don’t seem to have the freedom to make our own choices of how to live, where to live, what to drive, what to eat or anything basic any more. I told her that it wasn’t fair for the city to decide that for us. She acted like I thought it was her fault, so she got defensive and put the fault back on me. She said, “Your problem is you have 10 kids.” I looked her in the eye and said, “That’s not a problem.” She said something to the effect that she didn’t care how many kids I have, and I told her that I knew she didn’t care. Something was going on under the surface as I looked in her eyes and confronted that spirit of death that wants people to consider children a curse and not a blessing. I held my ground, and she continued to act like I was angry at her. In reality, it had nothing to do with her. I was angry at the regulations these cities are making that are causing people to decide that they can’t afford to have as many children as God wants to give them.

I’m angry that governments are trying to take away our rights to follow God and do what He tells us to do. The systems of this world are set up to make it nearly impossible to live by faith and totally give our lives into God’s hands. We have chosen to obey God rather than man, and the enemy doesn’t like it. He fights us at every turn.

The realtor went on to tell me of a family that has 5 kids that live in a 3 bedroom house that the city has told they better not have any more kids or they won’t be able to live in that house any more. Can you believe that? I’m appalled. This kind of stuff sounds more like China’s policies than America’s.

The socialists have done a number on our country in convincing so many people that we are overpopulated and we’re ruining the planet, and we just need to kill a bunch of people off. I don’t know why they don’t all just volunteer to go first. A world without socialists and socialist propaganda? But then what would we do if we didn’t have all their ungodly, atheistic ideas to defend our country and our children from? Maybe we would have more time and money to actually help the poor and needy, the ones that they pretend to be so concerned about.

When we looked at a house in O’Fallon, another realtor told me that they have occupancy rules that you can only have 2 children per bedroom. She said that if you have more people than that and they find out, they turn your water off and force you to move out.

We think maybe it’s time to leave this area of Belleville and O’Fallon, Illinois. Maybe it’s time to shake the dust off of our feet and move on.

Waiting Til Beyond the Last Minute

Jul.31,2009

Well, I got a phone call from the owner of the house we looked at Wednesday night. Somebody made an offer last night, so he’s selling the house to them. So we’re back to the drawing board. We still don’t have a house to move to. I haven’t heard from the owner of this house yet, but I hope he calls or emails soon.

If not, I just trust God to make things work out so that we don’t have some kind of confrontation with him or the property management group. I’ll just trust God, knowing that all of this is in His hands, and He does things in His own timing- Certainly not mine!

Waiting Til the Last Minute

Jul.30,2009

Well, we are still waiting and it’s only 2 days until Aug. 1, the day we were supposed to be out of this house.

Two days ago, I reached a point of frustration that had me fretting and yelling. I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to find houses for rent. I was really upset, but I kept sensing that I was just supposed to get on my knees and pray. As soon as I hit my knees, I remembered a website and a house that I had emailed about over a month ago. I thought, “I wonder if that house is still available?”

We had done everything we could do to find another house to rent. I was all stressed-out and worried about the owner of this house coming to his house with his moving truck full of his stuff and finding us still here. We haven’t been able to get in touch with him because the management group never gave us his contact number. We found out his name a while back and we knew he was an Air Force captain, but that’s all we knew.

Well, last night we went to look at the house that I emailed about over a month ago. Miraculously, it is still available. It’s out in the country and seems like it will work out really well for us. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs and 4 rooms in the basement that they can’t call bedrooms, but they could easily be used as bedrooms. After we got home from looking at it, I realized that each of our older kids could have his/her own room.

We have to wait and find out if another family who looked at it before we did wants to buy it. They are supposed to let the owner know by tomorrow.

Speaking of the owner, he is a captain in the Air Force. It took a while, but I finally realized that the Lord was telling me to ask him how to get in touch with the owner of this house that we’re in.

This morning I got an email from him that told me that he emailed the captain and gave him my email address and cell phone number and asked him to contact me. So now we will be able to explain to him what happened.

The first time I talked to the owner of the house we looked at last night, I told him what happened with the other house and then he told me that he was planning to get a property manager to handle the rental if his house didn’t sell. We found out that he was planning to hire the same group that we had problems with. He said that he had problems with the same person not getting back in touch with him in a timely manner. So he decided to go with a different property manager.

So we have had lots of connections and serendipities with this man. He said that he has had lots of prospective buyers look at his house and the realtor can’t figure out why it hasn’t sold. We think maybe we know why.

I don’t know why I let myself get all upset about all of this. Each time I prayed, the Lord gave me some instruction that helped us get closer to a solution. All the time I spent thinking and spinning my wheels, and especially the time I spent yelling 🙂 was wasted time. I should have committed this to the Lord even when my plans were going awry. I think the reason I was so upset is that I made such sweet plans and they all got ruined. So that made me mad. I’m not usually a big control freak. But this time I was at least a little one.