The past few months have been nuts.
In classic Bender fashion, we're cramming as much new and awkward stuff into our lives all at the same time, because… well I don't know. There's probably some personality test thing for couples that Ricky and I could take on Facebook that would tell us why we move as much, have kids as often and let us know why we enjoy making our lives crazy, but it's more fun to find out what lady of comedy you are (Ricky and I are both Leslie Knope.) (Duh.) Like who starts a small business two weeks before they move? This girl.
In any case, it's late so I'm probably a little (hahahahahaha) punchy, so I'll just stick to the facts. (I'm laughing so much in my head right now.)
First, can I just tell you how glad I am that we have people praying for us? Because oh. my. gosh. On our move out here, Ricky and Caleb were in the big ol' moving truck, pulling a trailer with one of our cars on it and I drove the Jeep with the three girls and Caesar. It was a long day. If you've ever moved with kids and animals, you know. And you probably stayed put because you had the sense to stop dragging your kids and all your crap across the country.
We're either gluttons for punishment or just dumb.
So we finally, after 14 hours got almost to our destination. We were twenty minutes away. And one of the tires on the trailer that our car was on just popped off. Like the screws holding the tire onto the trailer broke and it straight up popped off and rolled out into an intersection. Praise God it didn't happen on the freeway, but at 11pm right in front of a gas station. So friends, if you were praying for us while we moved, we owe you one.
Ricky got a job driving for HEB (we are so Texas), which it turns out was also super miraculous and we started the process of having a home built super close to where he works. In the meantime, we have front row seats to God working supernatural grace and patience in the lives of my mom and dad because we've become the house guests who just don't ever leave, and our crew's not small. Or quiet. Or predictable. One of us smells like a big, sweaty dog. But they haven't kicked us out.
They're nice.
We're itchy, so itchy to get moving forward in the process to be foster parents (and from mesquito bites). There's a lot about life right now that just sorta feels like we're in a holding pen, or trying to run on a treadmill with weights in our shoes. Close to everything we own is shut up in two storage units. Most of life is uncomfortable and weird right now for all of us, but I'm praying and hoping that in the midst, God works empathy and compassion in us for kids who have felt like their lives are permanently uncomfortable and in transition.
And God is good. And so very, very faithful.
We've had the most unexpected blessings come from the most unexpected places.
Like friends we've prayed for for years (years) coming to Jesus.
New friends out of nowhere, on days that we just really needed friends to come out of nowhere.
We've met more people out here who were foster kids at some point in their lives than not.
Jesus is always working, amen?
"You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows
and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers
and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the desert overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing."
psalm 65
