Monday, June 26, 2006

The Latest in DeHart Drama

I have not blogged for a long time due to the fact that each day is a new drama, and just living life is enough work to keep me from more creative endevors like blogging. Finally, however, I wanted to give an update.

You can get caught up at Will's blog, too, if you haven't read it yet. Anyway, I am getting lots of practice at living one day at a time, and exercising my "faith muscles" in the midst.

This week is a telling week for the possible purchase of our house. Will made a fleece with the Lord that if this isn't the house for us, either the loan or the down payment will not come through. So, the loan has gone through with no hitches (despite being unemployed, homeless, and penniless for all intents and purposes), and now we are waiting on my in-laws for the down payment, which is in process. We are supposed to close this Friday, so we'll see. I am not counting my chicken until it hatches.

The Lord is providing for us in various ways as we walk through this transition. We have been blessed by some money from family at different times, and our church is helping us this week with room and board, and surprisingly, at mystery $99 turned up in the bank account through some kind of math error in the checkbook. So, each day we use what we have, and if we need something we pray about it. The Lord told us pointedly not to use the credit card at all, so we are being faithful not to, and really trusting Him to be faithful to provide.

Each day is scary, exciting, dramatic, and, interestingly, we have a lot of joy. For the last three years the Lord keeps bringing to our attention the verse, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" from Nehemiah. It seems that the whole point of our life right now is to learn what that looks like lived out in a faith walk with Him. When you don't have all the stuff you are used to, you get to practice majoring on the majors.

As a family we are doing well. The kids are great troopers through all this transition, and we are having good family time together in our small quarters. Will and I are getting good at meeting our basic needs for exercise by discovering lots of parks and indoor playplaces for the kids. It is quite hot during the day, so we avoid the park until after 6:30pm or so, and then enjoy the relative cool until the mosquitoes come out at dusk. I'd say we are definately more active and healthy than we were in Palmdale. There just seems to be more to do around here.

We are all loving our church, Glory of Zion. They have a great kids ministry, and I am happy because the kids are on the same track as the adults as far as what they do and learn in their times. We are encouraged every Sunday and Wednesday by what we are learning, and by the worship. We feel so blessed to have a church where we are surrounded by people who understand what the Lord is doing in our lives, and can encourage us to deeper belief and faith in Him and his promises.

So, that is the thumbnail update. I am experiencing a wide gamut of emotions, but even when it's hard I know that the Lord is doing a specific work in us during this time, and my job is to trust and obey him, and worship in the midst of it all.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Words from the Kids

Madeline says...I cannot wait to get my own room in our future house. I have lots of ideas how to decorate it, and I can't wait to paint the walls and put in my furniture. I hope it works out to get the house. My closet is really big in my room, and it has two rods for my clothes. I was thinking about painting horses on the walls, and making a background for them.

I would love to have a dog. If it was a girl, I'd like to name it Hazelnut. But it would be an outside dog. Me and Abigail could take it for walks and feed it, and bathe it. And we could clean up after it. I hope we get a dog.

Our house is really big. (1950 sq ft) We have a nice kitchen, and we can have both our tables in the house. It would be nice to have our own house.

Abigail says...Hello everyone who reads this. I hope everything is going good. My birthday is coming up, it's on July 30th if you forgot.

Hows all the grandmas and grandpas doing? If the person who reads this has kids, I hope they are doing well. Everything is going OK at this place. I've been a hungry hippo since we got to Texas. (Everything's bigger in Texas, including the kids) I hardly ever stop eating. We watch TV more than we did before. My favorite TV station is PBS kids. If you ever see Maya and Miguel, Arther, and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman those are my favorites.

I was less hungry in California than I am here. But I still do have one problem. I am always hungry at bedtime, and mom says, "The kitchen is closed!" And I hate that. If I could have it my way, I would get food whenever I feel like it. I would eat grapes, pizza, and other good foods.

How are everyone's dogs? Are they being nice right now? Write me back on the comments if you want.

I want my room to be rainbow. The sheets are circles like a target. I want to hang four sheets on the walls. By the way, this is what I want. But I might not be able to get it, which makes me sad, but I might too. We will have to buy a lot of the same kind of sheets. It will not have dark colors, meaning like black, because I like colorful and bright colors, like red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Happy Father's Day, and also Mother's Day, even though it already passed. Tell me if you want when you comment back if your kids sent you a little note. I am very curious. Like Curious George.

From Abigail Rose DeHart.