Tough Cookies

Within the past couple of weeks, a friend of ours used this phrase to describe us.  I often wonder what has caused us to be seen as "tough cookies" in retrospect.  I remember so many events in our lives, individually and in our married life that has formed us to the people we are today--for better or worse.
I know that many, countless times we've had seemingly insurmountable occurrences in our life that had caused us to immediately hit the floor on our knees in a puddle of tears because in our own strength, we could not do "this", whatever "this" was.  Miraculously, as if by only the strength of the Holy Spirit, we stood to dry our tears and put one foot in front of the other.  There were times that many times EACH DAY we were in a puddle of tears, surrendering everything to the Lord, telling Him that we can't do "this" alone, that He's going to have to do "this" for us because in our own power, we're nothing.

With each step we've taken, we often times get to see a few steps ahead.  Other times, we can only see the step we're on currently.  These lessons have been "hard learned" and wrought with heartache, pain, and rivers and rivers of tears.  So, to use the term "tough cookie" to describe us is not as accurate as perhaps someone with the strength of a piece of jello or as sturdy as a river of tears.

That said, the Lord Himself has etched Himself in and through every aspect of our lives, from our finances, to our home and everything in it, our vehicles, our pets, my Mr. G's retirement from corrections and on to his current job, as well as homeschooling, and moving on in to our lives very soon as post homeschooling parents.  Our lives have been filled with trials and triumphs, but only by God's grace.

So, it is only by the strength of the Lord that we rely on daily that we can be remotely compared to "tough cookies."

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,

 for those who are called according to his purpose." 

(Romans 8:26-28)

This verse has become our very own in the past 3 years through the trials we've faced.  We've clung to it tightly when the winds blew so hard and things we thought were "ok" suddenly disintegrated.

We were helped by many folks posting different scripture at just the right time, praying for us and loving on us just to let us "talk it out" and vent.  There have been priceless friendships formed that had those occurrences not happened, we would have missed those friendships.  God brings about things in our lives to bring people together who wouldn't have normally crossed paths.  What a blessing these folks have been to our lives!  They don't even know the true depth and breadth of how much they honestly helped us just by being there for us when we needed them most.  We feel the Lord Himself put them in our lives and we are truly grateful for their friendship.  

Many times, it was only through the gift of music that was able to sooth our aching hearts.  Many times I leaned on these two songs.

The Lord has blessed us, and given us peace so many times through so many ways. 

Praise His Holy Name!

God Bless,

Culture Shock or Culture Love?

Moving on from Pennsylvania has been interesting.  Our main reasons for moving south were to be closer to my husband's family, to get better health care for our son, to get out of debt faster, and to allow my husband to get out of the career mindset he was in while working in the PA state corrections system.  These reasons have not only brought thankfulness, but also challenges of their own.

Currently, we live a few hours from my husband's parents and brother.  We haven't had a chance to go see them yet with 4 animals needing to stay here with a house sitter.  We haven't found a house sitter yet.  We're hoping to find one soon so that we can go down to see them soon.  It has been too long!

Health care for our son has been met with the challenge of a Dr. who is only in our area 3 times per month.  If we needed anything, like a signature for a pre-authorization for medication, we'd have to wait until he came back in to town, otherwise he's unreachable.  Ugh!  So, we're switching Dr's to one that is more reachable.  The advent of more technologically advanced practices down here has been an eye opener.  Some of the Dr's in this practice do a type of Tele-conferencing where you just show up to the office for your appointment and sit in front of a computer screen with the Dr in their office--where ever that may be, and have your appointment with them.  Definitely an interesting change from Pennsylvania!   Fortunately, he is getting the care he needs and we're able to move on and get him in to a program for vocational training.

Originally, our prayer was to be able to buy a house outright, without debt.  But, after looking at countless houses, including foreclosures and HUD homes, we decided that a small mortgage with a 10 year loan from a local bank was the best way to go.  We tried larger banks, but for the small amount we needed, they would not lend to us.  They would not be making much money off our loan, so they would not lend to us.  Go figure!  So, here we are with a modest loan from a local bank, getting ready to pay extra on the principle balance to pay it off early--5 years instead of 10.  Will broach the "why" at a later time.

Our current house has been dropped in our laps, filling our needs quite nicely and many of our wants, in a very quiet little town with a quaint blow of a train whistle about 1/2 mile away a few times a day and once at night (confirmed by my daughter since she hears it at night from her bedroom).  LOL  The challenge, as I'm sure you may have read or heard from me has been that this house, while fitting our needs, has needed quite a bit of work.  The cockroach infestation has been mostly controlled, but we had to wait for a bit to put the kitchen items away for a good 2 weeks, sometimes longer in some cases, due to the infestation.  There is a cupboard that I won't use to this day because when I open it and clean the dead roaches, there inevitably is more once I open it again.  They are getting in from somewhere, but due to the spray my husband put down, they die within a foot or so of being inside the cupboard.  So, I clean them up every so often.  They don't get any further than that, fortunately.

Another issue has been ants!  Not carpenter ants, but the little bitty brown ants.  They've come up through the smallest of holes and gone after the dog food.  One morning Gus was barking at his dish and upon further investigation, the dish had ants marching in it and continuing to it from a tiny crack where the floor met the wall!!!  We had a good laugh, pitched the food, cleaned the dish and within minutes, he had more food and it was relocated.  Another incident with ants inside the house was on the "clean" dishes on the counter.  We followed the trail and found that they had gotten in where the addition meets the main house.  It only takes a small pinhole for these things to get in and they came up through the grout in the kitchen and made a trail to a wooden spoon that was just barely wet from being washed the night before.  Once again, my husband sprayed and they're all contained.  More ants though!  In the vehicles has been the roughest area.  They get in to the engine after the sweet smelling antifreeze, then make their way in to the main part of the vehicle.  If you don't stay on top of things, getting all the trash and wrappers out from a Mega shopping trip, then the next day you have a stream of ants forming a line to some small crumb laying on the floor.  Whew!

Lastly, my husband has been retired from corrections for 6 months now, thankfully.  His spirit is more at ease now.  He is much more relaxed and content.  He now has a new name that the locals gave him, "Mr. C____ from Pennsylvania."  He beamed when he told me.  He is no longer identifying himself in the former job he had, which I will not repeat the name he dubbed of himself which is very demeaning to himself.  He is such a visionary man.  He is a leader when leadership is called for, otherwise he is a Mr. Steady, going with the flow.  These have always been a part of his nature outside of corrections, he just didn't see it.  He was saved on December 30th, 2012 and now he's able to relax, away from the corrections environment, and allow the Holy Spirit to grow him.

As we have met people and talked with them about our lives, they've asked us, "What brings you to Southwestern Georgia?  Work?"  We say, "No, God  brought us here!"  That small statement has opened up so many wonderful conversations about God's work in our lives and His goodness toward us.  What a balm to our soul to find that just about every person we come across has enjoyed hearing about God's work in bringing us here.

We will become members of Sherwood Baptist Church on December 6th.  We have found our church home and look forward to being stretched and challenged by THE Word of God in a hope to continue becoming more like Jesus.  The pruning of our hearts and minds are about to begin.  Yes, pruning hurts, but we truly believe the Lord has brought us here to this point in our lives.  Because of that, our willingness to lay down our "self" and willingly submit to His loving pruning should be cause for celebration.  Thank God for His loving kindness!

In Christ,