It's ALWAYS something ...

You know, I know that the moment that you make a decision to right a particular part of your life the enemy comes agianst you. I am seeing this in action today. I have been praying and studying on my words and my propensity to judge/fault-find and have made a decision that we are going to find our church home here in B'ham soon. I am praying for the inner peace that only our Father can grant and practicing "casting my cares".

Well, it was almost comical (the timing not the issue) .. we noticed a small water leak on our ceiling a week or so ago and then yesterday it got MUCH worse after a fairly heavy downpour. I called the people that installed a new attic fan for us a few weeks ago as the timing was a little too close for it to be much else. The guy came out today and the good news is that he found the problem ... the bad news is that the problem is fairly large. Apparently, something has happened to our gutter (it runs the entire length of the house) and it pulled the wood and siding away from the house and it is all dangling as I type. This is where the water is coming in and it has to be repaired ASAP before it rips the siding off the house. Being as how I have never dealt with stuff like this before I called KP in a flat panic and he came home and got up to have a look - it is not good. Everything (siding, soffit, gutter) has to be taken off the house, repairs made and then all reinstalled and this isn't something he can do alone. The quote was a significan chuck of money, and while we have it in savings our savings is dwindling lately (making repairs and purchases that keep coming up have put a drain on it lately) and with me not working this is a real issue. Kevin is BESIDE himself - I knew what the answer was and it wasn't the one we wanted ... (it wasn't enough $$ to warrant a home-owners claim and be worth getting dropped if something else happened and nobody else could come out for a while to even give a quote let alone getting on the schedule for repairs - this has to be addressed immediately as you can see in the attic). It took KP a good while of "mulling" (what he has to do before any big decision) before he reached teh same conclusion, and I had to make the fateful call to schedule the guy to come tomorrow to make the repairs.

Now the funny thing is that this didn't really steal my peace as intended. I did get a little upset when I saw stuff hanging off the house and I didn't like the quote any more than Kevin, did but I never got upset. Nor did I get upset with KP for taking the amount of time he has to take to reach decisions, which I would have typically done. I just kept thinking ... 'andi let the man think - maybe he can find a solution you haven't considered' because most times he will do just that. And I let it be. I just sat there and let the whole thing happen and never got upset or frustrated or lost my peace for one moment. And now that it is all decided I can see that this was a trial to see how I would handle frustration and aggravation in a time-sensitive situation with KP taking his time thinking on it.

I am praying for KEvin to keep it in perspective ... we are all fine, the house is easily repairable and we have the means to do the repairs. Yes, this is not good for our financial stability, BUT our stability should not be derived from his fruits alone - it is something given and provided for by our Father. THIS is what savings is for - rainy days (literally sometimes :)

The upshot is that I am leaving for Atlanta in the morning for Amy's (sister in law) baby shower on Saturday and KP is staying here (and home tomorrow) to study for this huge national management certification exam he has on monday (part of his job is to attain this national certification and he is none too happy about that either). So I won't be here for the fun that will come tomorrow during the repair process - I will just have to fend the subsequent phone calls. I know I shouldn't find this comical but all I can think is that I just got tested and I managed to do fairly well and that is slightly amusing that the enemy's attempts to harm me didn't work. In fact I was just thinking that I am thankful for the test so I could put into practice what I am learning. It only strengthens my resolve to continue on this path.

It is ALWAYS something (to quote Gilda), but then it's a good day when the "somethings" turn out to be blessings in disguise.

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