Blessings

It's a beautiful Saturday morning and I have a quiet house for a few hours while Austin and the boys are out exploring somewhere. So I have time to write and think about my week. It's been an up and down week. By the end of the week, I was just plain tired of trying to make the best of things, tired of trying to find my niche, tired of asking hard questions and not finding any answers. But I had an email from a friend that encouraged me to look back at the ways that God was present. So, instead of telling you all the things that got me down this week, I 'm going to think back to the times when God showed up.

We had a really smooth week of school, in fact, when we were talking about things we are thankful for, Jensen said, "school". The weather has been a bit cooler and we haven't had as many power outages during the night. We've gotten a fresh supply of coffee and have been sipping Nicaraguan coffee every morning. The shelf I ordered for my oven to sit on has arrived, so my oven left its humble position of sitting on a dining chair and is now on a nice black iron shelf and I have more shelf space for other things too. April 15 is no longer a deadline and, to my utter amazement, we already have our refund. I have a wonderful husband who is there for me and is willing to wrestle with me through the hard issues. We had out-of-town visitors over for coffee and cookies yesterday and had a wonderful time chatting. Later we took a boat ride across the river and found an isolated spot where the boys could run around. Then we had dinner at a local roof top restaurant. And I was able to hear a story - of a girl who was married off when she was 11 years old, completely ignorant of what was going on. Her first child was born the next year. By the time she was 19, she had 4 little ones. When the youngest was only one month old, her husband died. Her in-laws, who she was living with, told her to leave. So she took her children and went home to her parents and managed to find a job. She has made it through the years by working here and there but it has been very hard for her. Now her children are older, so she doesn't worry quite as much, yet she continues to sacrifice for them. She just picked up her monthly salary and gave it all for a test fee so her daughter could continue her education. You have heard of this lovely woman before if you have been reading my blogs, for she is our helper. She shared this with me after I told her about our 10th anniversary coming up. She only had 8 years with her husband. I am so blessed.