Hello Dear Family and Friends!
It's been about a month and a half since my last blog update and in that month or so, we've experienced a LOT. The East side of Washington is known for its many days of sunshine, however, we've been getting quite a bit of rain lately. I've never been a fan of rain - it's gloomy and I just feel icky when everything gets wet. I'm a sunshine girl! As I sit and write, the sunshine is struggling to break through the cloudy sky. Those moments of sunshine bring a smile to my face! The stormy weather lately has been an accurate reflection to life the past few weeks. Ironically, my last blog post was entitled "life is good". Well truth be told, we hit a bit of a rough patch.
On March 5th, Alex and I were enjoying a relaxing Saturday afternoon at home. I was taking a nap and was oddly awakened by the sound of dripping coming from our kitchen. I got up, went to the kitchen and found water dripping from our fire sprinklers. I ran and got the one bucket we own - a tiny empty ice cream bucket. Alex was soon there to help me investigate. We discovered our kitchen floor was pooling with water...from where? The walls. Alex said he had heard fire alarms upstairs. I got our bath towels to start sopping up the floors, but knew it was not nearly enough to stop the flooding. Within minutes we heard a knock on our door and the firemen came in. It was my first encounter with firemen. Alex and I were impressed by how much they were truly built for their job both physically and in demeanor. They were strong, calm, gracious, and helpful. They helped us move our kitchen things into the living room and brought in a large tarp (by this time all the fixtures were leaking). Soon our living room fixture started leaking too and I began discovering more areas of the home flooding. All within a matter of minutes we went from a relaxing afternoon, to a flooded apartment, and firemen/our landlord telling us we needed to move into a different apartment immediately. I hardly knew where to begin, but Alex and I somehow have the personalities to stay calm in the midst of chaos. We packed up for the weekend and moved into the show apartment. You might be asking, "what caused the flood"? Well our dear upstairs neighbor fell asleep while cooking and in the chaos of everything, didn't know how to stop the fire or the flooding. What a day! The following week we lived in limbo, waiting to hear back from insurance agencies (ours, our neighbors, and the apartment's), inspectors, and construction workers about what would happen next. On Thursday they told us we had to move everything out by Friday morning when they would start demolition. Thankfully our bedroom and guest room had been spared so we could store things in there. We didn't have time to ask people to help so I started packing around noon, Alex came home early from work around 3 and we were finished by 11pm. Our dear friend Keith and our pastor came by for a bit to help us move the heavy furniture (THANK YOU). That week we also had issues with our taxes (quite the scare) and our home offer fell through - that's right, we're buying a HOME (yay!!!). In addition to so much adulting - dealing with a flooded apartment, insurance agencies, tax issues, signing papers on our home, and finding out we might not get the home - we had to carry on with normal life: Alex's work, my work (that's right I got a job!!!), youth meetings, youth events, etc. We already had a busy life, and it just got busier! March 14th came, a new Monday, a new week, a new beginning. We were now settled into one apartment, the tax issue was figured out, and I felt things were looking up. Well I got rear-ended on my way to work. Great way to start the week! I drove to Alex's work where I knew he'd be arriving shortly. We called the car insurance agencies and got the ball rolling on that. Afterwords, I just curled up in Alex's lap and wanted to cry. We had been holding it together, but we were wearing thin. We prayed. No longer able to handle it on our own strength. Talk about a storm. Thankfully, we know Jesus (literally and figuratively) is the ONE who can calm the storm.
I don't think it takes very long in this life for us to encounter a storm. I'm sure you've been in the midst of a storm. Feeling overwhelmed and as if the rain just gets heavier and the clouds gloomier. The question that kept running through my mind was, "how am I, as a Christian, supposed to respond in these circumstances?" The truth is we were tired, weary, exhausted, and emotionally drained. Alex and I are naturally very positive people. My dad often told me "Ivy, you're so positive, you could make a funeral a happy place". That's who we are. When tough things happen, Alex and I are the ones who can find the good in it. When things are chaotic, we're the ones who keep a smile on and push through. Well that can only last so long until you come to the reality that you can't do it on your own anymore. Should we just be honest with our true feelings - be grumpy, angry, snappy, cry, complain, give up? Should we hold it all together and act as if we're fine? What are believers to do? If we truly trust in an all-powerful God, then when trials come, we should be just fine, right? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure where the balance is, but I do know the One who we can turn to in times of trouble. We can ask God for His strength in our lack, His wisdom in our major decisions, His favor in our chaos, His hope in our trial.
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, our ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 28:7-8 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one."
Isaiah 40:28-31 "Do you not know? Have you not heard?The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
The good news is, through Christ we can do all things and He does help us through the storm. The sun will soon shine. I think we are coming out of the storm finally. We were able to be a witness to our land lord, the firemen, our neighbor, and all the construction workers. We are so grateful the construction workers are working so hard to repair our apartment so we can move back in soon. We are very excited that everything worked out with the home, and we should be hopefully moving into our first home by the end of April!! The driver who was at fault on the car accident was super willing to work with us and his insurance will take care of all our car repairs. Our busy lives of ministry continue, but we love what we get to do for the Kingdom of God. I'm loving my new job at Crossroads Pregnancy Resource Center as the Development Director! It's truly a gift from God to work there. I want to encourage you if you are in the midst of a storm. Jesus is the One who knows all about calming storms. Give it all to Him; and He is faithful to provide. Be blessed friends and family! Enjoy this Easter weekend as we celebrate our grace-giving Savior!
