Blessings

LAURA STORY - "BLESSINGS"
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

Touching song, isn’t it? It has been a couple of months of honest-to-goodness trials for our family, and although we’ve been shakey, our Lord has been solid as a rock, unchanging, the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob all those years ago.

I’ve been getting more and more good news. All of the complications/setbacks are resolving, and we expect that I will now be spending most of my time in Waco instead of Dallas-a big flip flop. This is wonderful and comes with new transitions as well. I’m a bit nervous about keeping the children swept and the house fed. Oh, shoot. Well, it certainly didn’t always happen before all of this, either! Actually, I am looking forward to being the nurturer again. It will be great, and I’m kicking out as many helpers as I can.

I will tell you what I do not like. I do not like Puppy Dog Eyes. These are the eyes of people who spot me or stare at me in a store or library or wherever and look with pity and then seek to have a conversation. Sometimes the comments are truly strange, and I don’t know how to handle it. I am shy by nature, and I am completely socially inept after being away from the public for months, so these situations are really awkward. I am finding though, that if I wait long enough, they’ll quit asking me personal questions (which I now feel okay about being vague) and tell me about their friend/family member that is dealing with some kind of health issue—which is what they really wanted to get off their chest. They are seeking someone with whom they can identify. I’ve had a person break down in the MIDDLE of the main aisle in Target, and then a daughter whisked them away before I had much of a chance to respond at all or go to the side and pray. I have no idea what to do with this, so I continue to be awkward, pray for them after the fact, and study my grocery list.

That said, I had a good laugh at my awkward self a few days ago. I was navigating a very nice, cramped neighborhood in Van’s Ford F150 with a giant iced tea. I was so thirsty after dehydrating myself for a 4.5 hour locked-to-the-machine treatment. Well, the cup split down the side, but not all the way. It was slowly filling up Van’s cup holder, and I was leaning over at stoplights using the straw as fast as I could while cute little convertibles and every nice car you can think of was picking up their child from school and probably wondering what was that person in the giant truck doing? Are they having problems? Should I call the authorities? Do they need an ambulance? Too funny. I had one paper towel, and not a drop was spilt!

Because my apartment time and nice cramped neighborhood time is drawing to a rapid close, so is my project time! (Not sure when I’ll be officially out, but I won’t be there hardly at all next week—just some driving?) Most of the time, we have endless cycles of dishes and laundry, so it is really nice to have a completion. In bits and pieces I’ve been able to take care of some little things that have piled up over the years such as repairing Van’s grandmother’s tattered tablecloth, organizing CDs, repairing toys and mending costumes. I also was surprised to get purple chewing gum out of Cade’s white fuzzy baby blanket that he had in the NICU. Goo Gone is AMAZING. I would be a spokesperson for them after trying so many other methods. Next, I’m going to attack the back seat of the minivan with it. I'm not sure what Zane has done with it!

I have a few hours today and tomorrow to pin together Van’s T-shirt quilt that I started forever ago. It wasn’t entirely my fault that I procrastinated! I’ve asked for one more shirt for the corner for the last 7 years, and I got it two days ago. I won’t have time to sew it together completely, but the hardest part of making something large is the children sitting/sliding/sledding on it when it is supposed to be flat on the floor and I’m measuring and cutting. It won’t be the awesomest ever, but it will be special to him, and it is backed with really soft material. It has football shirts from high school, Boy's State, some vacation shirts and one from med school. Also, I’m 2/3 finished with making very simple (but hemmed and washable) bible costumes for my friend’s VBS class in July. There will be 12 in all, and they are turning out pretty cute. My IV pole runs very smoothly at the sewing machine-it likes it!, and the new sewing machine has not even given me a hiccup, so it has been very enjoyable. It reminds me of The Three Amigos, “Sew! Sew like the wind!”

Kiddos are doing very well. Cade and Zane are having morning vacation bible school (complete with half of Cade’s kindergarten class and teacher “but she’s not my teacher at vbs” (brief sad face). Sweet thing.) and swim lessons in the late afternoon. I booked the grandparents nicely, didn’t I? Avi is content to go to Home Depot with Papa.

Next week is full of “CarlyDanielandElise.” These are the cousins that better get over their cold so they can come and entertain my children who have been asking every ten minutes when they will arrive. I’m hoping to get to spend a lot of time with the whole crew and my sister. It is guaranteed to be crazy fun.