Since I mentioned in the last post that we were hoping for a miracle to pay for our A/C replacement, I figured I should give an update. Ladies and Gentlemen- we have a miracle.
Saturday I was desperately trying to crunch numbers, weigh all of our options, and continuing to beg God to show His provision. Otha could tell I was in thinking mode simply due to my furrowed forehead all morning. Finally, Otha informed me at 1:40pm that I had until 2:00pm to think/be far, far away in my brain and then I needed to return to reality. To be present. *I am so thankful for my husband!* The best solution I could come up with to sort out my thoughts was to call my dad. He is wise and my parents handle money really well. So I poured out all my thoughts to him over the phone and he helped me come up with a few possibilities to come up with $6500 in the next week with as little interest penalty/debt as possible. By 2:00 I was ready to move forward with some ideas and felt a tad bit more at ease. However I still felt the weight of having to pay off this huge expense over the upcoming months along with somehow paying for other house expenses like our broken water heater.
Maybe an hour and a half later, my parents called. They informed me that there was money left from my Gramps after he died several years ago. In fact, they had been trying to figure out the right time to gift us with $10,000. That's right, $10,000. For some of you that may be a small portion of what you have in savings or even your checking account. But for us, it felt like winning the lottery. I felt completely overwhelmed and once again absolutely blown away by how God provides. I had been praying all week that God would either fix our A/C or flat out give us the money to fix it. Then our comgroup prayed for His provision in this area also. It seems crazy to pray for God to fix your A/C. But it seems ten thousand times crazier to not pray for that and then miss out on how He wants to show His power. I am filled with awe and joy.
Not only is it great to see God blow us away with such a surprise gift, but this has also made Otha and I feel more connected to and thankful for my Nana and Gramps. We are thankful for the way they chose to love future generations. This gets us excited to also invest in future generations spiritually, financially, and any other way that God calls us to leave a kingdom legacy that can be built upon.
So that's that. We prayed. God provided.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Our New Normal
Since we have moved, I feel that my life is completely different. Yet Otha still goes to his same job, groceries still need to be purchased, and Asher still needs to be taken care of. My environment has just changed.
We are currently sleeping in the garage apartment since we had a surprise delay of floor installation in the main house. Thus our kitchen and living room are functional while the rest of the house waits to be completed. When we found out very last minute that the floors would not be installed until June, I was pretty frustrated. Of course people told me "there is probably a reason that the floors won't be in yet". And of course I wanted to roll my eyes and say "Nope, not this time. No reason for this ridiculous, inconvenient circumstance". Yet here I am so thankful that we are not yet fully living in the house. Why? Oh, because our A/C quit working the night we moved everything from our apartment to our house. In fact, our whole A/C system apparently needs to be replaced. So in the meantime we are sleeping in the garage apartment with a fully functional window unit. So thankful! *Not thankful that our A/C has completely died, but thankful that we did not move all our stuff and ourselves into a steaming hot house.
Our friends the Marions also moved in this week into one of our bedrooms. They, on the other hand, are sweating it out in the house being absolute champs about it. Luckily they are some of the most low maintenance roommates and have not slapped us in the face for inviting them to live with us in a sana.
We are hoping for a miracle and also trying to figure out where to go from here. Apparently replacing an entire A/C unit is equivalent in cost to adopting a child domestically. So expensive. Today we will have a second opinion and we will continue expecting and knowing that God will provide for us in one way or another. He always does and I am always delighted to see how He does it. We are confident that He wanted us to buy this house, so we are confident that he is not blown away that our A/C is broken and wants us to learn more about him through this.
A few more initiations into home ownership include a water heater not working, Asher's poop that was flushed in the garage apartment showing up in the main house toilet, and installation fees for basically everything. The adventure has begun.
I have also started cloth diapers this week. I. Hate. Asher's. Poop. On. Cloth. HATE, I tell you. Trying to scrape it off into the toilet without a sprayer or diaper liner resulted in poop on my hands, Asher biting my arm while I was kneeling, and me leaving the diaper insert in the toilet for hours. Sick. Thankfully I have my diaper hero, Courtney Stasny, who provided a sprayer AND liners for us to use while I adjust to this new world.
On a positive note: we have a washer and dryer. After going to the laundry mat for two years dragging my pregnant belly and then out-of-the-womb child with me, I am SO, SO thankful for a washer and dryer. I want to wash everything, all the time, because I can. Wash, wash, wash.
So that's the Graham update. New house, new expenses, new adventures. Loving it.
We are currently sleeping in the garage apartment since we had a surprise delay of floor installation in the main house. Thus our kitchen and living room are functional while the rest of the house waits to be completed. When we found out very last minute that the floors would not be installed until June, I was pretty frustrated. Of course people told me "there is probably a reason that the floors won't be in yet". And of course I wanted to roll my eyes and say "Nope, not this time. No reason for this ridiculous, inconvenient circumstance". Yet here I am so thankful that we are not yet fully living in the house. Why? Oh, because our A/C quit working the night we moved everything from our apartment to our house. In fact, our whole A/C system apparently needs to be replaced. So in the meantime we are sleeping in the garage apartment with a fully functional window unit. So thankful! *Not thankful that our A/C has completely died, but thankful that we did not move all our stuff and ourselves into a steaming hot house.
Our friends the Marions also moved in this week into one of our bedrooms. They, on the other hand, are sweating it out in the house being absolute champs about it. Luckily they are some of the most low maintenance roommates and have not slapped us in the face for inviting them to live with us in a sana.
We are hoping for a miracle and also trying to figure out where to go from here. Apparently replacing an entire A/C unit is equivalent in cost to adopting a child domestically. So expensive. Today we will have a second opinion and we will continue expecting and knowing that God will provide for us in one way or another. He always does and I am always delighted to see how He does it. We are confident that He wanted us to buy this house, so we are confident that he is not blown away that our A/C is broken and wants us to learn more about him through this.
A few more initiations into home ownership include a water heater not working, Asher's poop that was flushed in the garage apartment showing up in the main house toilet, and installation fees for basically everything. The adventure has begun.
I have also started cloth diapers this week. I. Hate. Asher's. Poop. On. Cloth. HATE, I tell you. Trying to scrape it off into the toilet without a sprayer or diaper liner resulted in poop on my hands, Asher biting my arm while I was kneeling, and me leaving the diaper insert in the toilet for hours. Sick. Thankfully I have my diaper hero, Courtney Stasny, who provided a sprayer AND liners for us to use while I adjust to this new world.
On a positive note: we have a washer and dryer. After going to the laundry mat for two years dragging my pregnant belly and then out-of-the-womb child with me, I am SO, SO thankful for a washer and dryer. I want to wash everything, all the time, because I can. Wash, wash, wash.
So that's the Graham update. New house, new expenses, new adventures. Loving it.
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