God provides...

The old saying is "When it rains...it pours." Well, we have felt like that recently. Recently, we have had our share of car problems. About the time Rusty fixed the GEO a while back...the Fiero decided to go down for the count.

But you know, God ALWAYS takes care of His children. The Fiero went out the night of the TCCS back to school retreat. Rusty was going to the church to pick up Peter when the car lost all power on the road across from the church. Timothy called Rusty to find out where he was and when he found out he was across from the church he grabbed Peter and four friends and they pushed the Fiero up the hill and when the light turned green they pushed him across the street. Then one of the young men got his SUV and pulled the Fiero into a parking spot right under the lights where it would be safe. How good of God to allow the car to breakdown right across the street from church instead of along the road to Liberty. So, Rusty has had the Fiero in pieces in our garage since Labor Day. He is repairing the engine of the car, and had hopes of getting it back together by the first part of this week.

Well...like I said, when it rains it pours:-) And, yesterday I received a call from Rusty. First of all, he asked me how I was feeling as the doctor had ordered me to bed until Monday because of a severe infection and bronchitis. And then he asked "Want to go car shopping tomorrow?" And...I was on my way to Liberty to pick Rusty up and look for a new car.

It seems as though Rusty was on the way home and the car started acting funny. He thought he would pull over at one of the district's buildings while he looked it over. Well...it was amazing to hear him tell the story of how he coasted up to the stoplight and then into the driveway which was downhill and coasted right into a parking spot. He said a friend came out and helped his assess the situation. They found out that the timing belt had broke on the car...which requires pulling the engine to fix. Something he just doesn't have the time to get done this weekend. We simply cannot get by with one car next week.

So...Rusty decided with the ages of our cars it was time to get another car in the family. So today, we went out and purchased another car.

Welcome our new car: 1999 Ford Taurus. We praise the Lord for providing us another car at a price we felt was fair and we could live with. Timothy is already begging to drive it; and in fact, had to have his chance behind the wheel before we ever got it home.

We still plan to fix the Fiero and the GEO. Please pray that Rusty is able to get these on the road soon. With four (soon to be five) drivers in the family, three active teenagers and one college student, a elementary child, and two full time jobs it is important for us to have dependable transportation.

Family Project - Water Garden

After years of dreaming of having a water garden God has provided by giving us a used water garden liner at an unbelievable price. My dream was to have a waterfall and possibly a fountain as I love fountains:-) It looks as though I am going to have both!

This is exciting for me as we have not had any flowerbeds at this house. Our house has beautiful mature scrubs out front, but no real place for a nice flowerbed. Now we will have the perfect place for a beautiful flowerbed. In addition, we hope to use the water garden to help reroute the drainage in the backyard to keep the basement from flooding into the boys bedroom.

This month we went to Mississippi to visit Rusty's folks and while we were there they gave me a frog fountain for our water garden. Saturday we went shopping for a water garden pump and found one that not only operated a fountain but also had the parts for a waterfall!

Andrew, Peter, and Rusty worked hard on Saturday and Monday to dig the hole for water garden. I think it is coming along real nice.

Watch for updates on how the water garden is coming.

God Protects - Sometimes In Mysterious Ways

Ever had one of those things that you did and you really don't know why you did it? Or perhaps you had one of those days when you were running late and didn't know why and then came across an accident that took place about the time you would have been in the area. Perhaps, like Timothy this past August, you went through an accident in your car, at work, or at home and you know that there is no way you should have come out of it alive or without injury...and yet you did. You know that God was the only way that you were protected in that situation. I have a testimony to share with you of how God recently protected our family. I share this giving God the Honor and Glory for His protection and provision!

On December 29 for some reason I unplugged my mixer...now I NEVER unplug my mixer because it bothers me when I try to use it and it is unplugged. However, even when I unplugged it I thought "Why am I doing this? I don't like my mixer unplugged..." but I kept it unplugged and went on with cleaning my house and kitchen.

On December 30, I started a large pot of gumbo. When I make gumbo I fill a 16 quart stock pot to the top. My pot is large and overhangs the burner by a good 1.5-2 inches. I started the pot of gumbo in the morning and allowed it to simmer all day long, because anyone who has ever made gumbo knows that the longer you let it simmer the better it is:-) And, once I had my gumbo started and chili meat started in another pot, I went back to cleaning my house.

Around 4:30 I wore out...and told Rusty "Let's go to the store and look at dishwashers." I knew if I stayed home I would continue to work until I dropped, and I was ready to get a new dishwasher after handwashing dishes for the past 6 months! I was hoping to get a dishwasher and have it installed by the next day - dreaming wasn't I? But, I know our God!

So, we didn't tell the kids where we were going but we left to "go to the store." I didn't want them disappointed if we didn't find a disherwasher at a price we could afford. We drove a good 30 minutes to the Sears Outlet store and looked at dishwashers only to find they had $1200 machines marked down to $800-900 which was well over our budget. So we stopped at Home Depot to look at one we had seen before - we had forgotten to check the price the first time, and then ended up going to Sears in the Mall to "see if they had any good sales today."

God provided us with a beautiful dishwasher with all the features I "wanted" including a stainless steel interior - which was one of those "extras" God provided. This particular disherwasher had been sold, but apparently when it got to its original location there was a large nickle size scratch in the front panel and it was returned to the store. Instead of sending it to the Outlet store as usual they had it on the floor at the mall. They had marked it down a good $250 because of the scratch, and I said "I can cover that with white fingernail polish." (which I did when I got home.) And, since it was at the store without a box, we had to "take it with us." The kids were so pleased when we came home with the new dishwasher.

By now it was about 7:00 and time for a late supper. I went to serve my gumbo and removed the pot from the stove to put it on the table. Nothing fancy that night as Rusty had the dishwasher to install. When I removed the pot from the store we were shocked to see that the power cord from my mixer had slipped under the pot of gumbo and touched the metal ring on the burner. The cord was burned and melted! We immediately praised the Lord for His protection. Had I not unplugged my mixer the day before we would have had an electrical fire in the kitchen. We knew it was possible that a fire could have happened while the kids were home alone. Yes, we have older children, but praise the Lord they nor we had to deal with a house fire. Just this past month we had friends at church have their house burn. We have heard the stories of their damage and working with insurance companies, reconstruction, etc.

We praise the Lord for His protection!