Provision

Let me start this off by saying that I am a very conservative woman and I believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God. I believe in what is says - even the "weird" parts ( like Phillip being transported after teaching the eunuch about prophesy concerning Jesus, etc.). That includes parts about giving and spiritual warfare.

A few months ago, my husband and I decided to give temple offering in addition to tithing after reading about it in Exodus. (I believe that the Old Testament lays out that obedience concerning money is important and also spiritual. It ties in with spiritual warfare, because the devil surely doesn't want you to be obedient and receive any blessings from God.)

Anyway, we were hit hard. And when I mean hard, I mean hard. Things were going crazy. And I know sometimes that life can just stink, but there are times when we are in battle - not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. But anyway, everything was going wrong.

Everything broke - currently I have clothes hanging around the house because our dryer is broken and starts sparking and smoking - our monthly bills started to exceed our income (with nothing in our spending actually changing, which was weird), our insurance company upped our deductible to 5k randomly, all our clothes and shoes suddenly wore out, etc. you name it, we faced it.

But, we kept going back to His Word. We said, "if You want us to continue to be faithful, You're going to have to provide" and stepped out on faith. Somehow, someway, we always were able to come up with just enough for our tithing and offering and necessary bills.

However, we had other things coming up. Namely Auds' tuition. We didn't have it. We stretched and budgeted for it, but the money just wasn't there. So, we prayed. We asked God to make a way.

My husband had been praying that we would receive a certain amount by today - the day tuition is due. We were faithful and hopeful and believing God for miracles. Day after day it didn't happen, but we remained steadfast.

Saturday we hosted a fundraiser yard sale for our youth group. Our youth pastor surprised us and told us that anything that wasn't sold afterwards, we could go through and take what we wanted before donating. There were books toys for the kids and tons of new clothes for me and Auds. A huge blessing. We didn't even go through things. Our youth group bagged up things for us that they thought would fit or would bless us and loaded them up. They had no idea of what we're going through or how big of a blessing it was.

Yesterday after church our Pastor told us God had been urging him to give us a certain amount - the exact amount we had been praying for. One day before the deadline. When he told us, we had to do everything to compose ourselves from bawling in front of the entire church (he did tell us privately to the side, not like announced from the pulpit).

So now we're able to pay tuition and buy uniforms. I have clothes to wear that actually fit. Today there has been such an indescribable peace in our house. And a book I've been reading ( Way of the Eagle by John Archivio) has been a reiteration of every sermon we've heard lately from multiple men of God. It's a confirmation that He really does provide. He really is true to His Word - no matter how bad things seem.

He is soo good!

Family Visit

My family, who I haven't seen since there was only one kid, came in for a visit. It was a fun time had by all. Everyone loved playing with the kids and cuddling Drum. It's hard to believe my baby sisters ( I'm the oldest by 13 years) are bigger than I am. I had to wear high heels around them the entire time to be of a similar height.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out, but we did spend a day showing them Cajun life. We took them to a zydeco breakfast ( during which one of the dancers popped a pants button, which flew across the restaurant and hit Auds in the head) and a zydeco dinner. It also happened to be Beau's birthday, which made it extra special.

They've since flown back across country, but hopefully we'll get together more often than every other kid's birth.

There Are Days

There are days that make me develop a nervous eye twitch.

There are days full of wrestling an tackling.

There are days full of opening, spilling, and wasting every liquid substance in the house.

There are days where feeding the toilet tissue and seeing how much it can eat until it throws up are seen as fun.

There are days where words such as "I'll be nice to the baby... For now" are uttered.

There are days where food is thrown, attitudes are given, toys are broken, and privileges are lost.

There are days full of love, but not so much like.

Then there are days full of cuddles.

There are days full of songs.

There are days full of stories.

There are days that are granted by God's grace as a refresher and a reminder of why this job is so worthwhile.

There are days where the cups of both like and love overflow.