Life is Exciting – Almost Too Exciting

Wow!! Life is moving at 100 miles per hour right now. On Friday Judy and I along with Adam, who flew in from NY, Laura, Luke, Gabe, Ana, and Sam loaded up two cars, placed sleeping children in their car seats and left NC at 0400 to drive to our cabin in central NY. 14 hours later we drove into the NY driveway for a ‘relaxing’ week at the lake. Andy needed to work and will join us later.

We arrived to a cabin partly under construction. We are converting the attic into more usable space. The carpenters and painters are great – efficient and friendly. On Sunday night Adam took the Megabus back to NYC. Well, he booked a seat on the bus but it never showed up. He ended up getting a ride from another passenger and got to his apartment at 0400 on Monday morning. Good thing he had Monday off. Also on Monday Leah and Harrison, Jacob (about 3) and Hannah Grace (less than 1 year old) drove up to spend a few days with us. The work is still going on in the cabin. Now we have 6 little ones with us.

Today it rained a lot. We took a trip to Sauder’s, a Mennonite-run grocery store. We drove through some heavy rain and got lost because I was working on email on my phone. The dryer stopped working. I needed to replumb the vent. A new mattress arrived. Judy and I needed to go to Walmart to buy a bed frame. The boys wanted to fish so Grandpa bought them a box of Canadian night crawlers (not sure why Canadian worms are better but at least they weren’t from China). Harrison is quite the carnivore and gourmet cook. He slow-cooked a pork shoulder and we ate till we almost passed out. Good food, but bar-b-que is a job to clean up after. Hannah Grace expressed her appreciation for the food with shouts (no, shrieks) of joy. Sam was energized, bouncing off the walls and all over the new mattress because when Lita and Grandpa took him with them to buy the bed frame he fell asleep in the car for about an hour. Great, we thought. No!!! If he has a nap during the day it is literally almost hell to get him to sleep at night. Our grandparent’s learning curve just got steeper. Right after dinner one of the kids did a backflip on the new stairs they are building in the cabin and tumbled down four steps. These kids are tough. Didn’t hardly cry.

In the middle of all of this today Judy and I got an offer on the condo, had to communicate with the realtor about price, sign a bunch of documents (Docu sign is great), begin talking with moving companies, and started talking about how to make the move from Texas to NC. On top of that we had to work with the realtor in NC about what items we wanted fixed in the NC home we are hoping to buy. I didn’t know that the sellers in NC (selling us their house) and the buyer in Texas (buying our condo) knew each other. They must.  They both picked July 15 as their closing date. Go figure.

The weather is forecast to be sunny today (Wednesday). It is still raining. But the rain is not all bad. The fish are biting. Luke and Gabe went fishing on Tuesday afternoon with the worms I bought. With Grandpa’s help, of course. They both caught respectable fish – sunnies, perch, rock bass, and catfish. The last fish Luke caught on a worm with a bobber was a 12″ catfish. Bent the rod in a big bow. Before he could get the fish on shore the line broke between the reel and bobber. As we stood on the shore we watched the bobber slowly move out of the little cove we were fishing in. Reminded me of the movie ‘Jaws”. Remember when the barrel on the surface of the ocean marked the movement of the shark? I was holding Gabe’s rod (it was raining hard and he had just gone up to the house) and it still had the worm on the hook. I cast his bait just in front of the moving bobber and holy smokes that fish ate his bait as well. We landed that greedy fish and got Luke’s hook and bobber back. Threw the catfish back in the water.

Bath time at the end of the day was pandemonium. Judy kept Sam in our bedroom trying to calm him down. Penance for letting him nap. Finally, all in bed. I sat and listened to Laura, Leah, and Harrison talk about parenting, disciplining and how stubborn children can be, concern about what their children will grow up to become, God in their lives, how they pray for their children, and the things they love in each child. I sat and marveled at how much better parents they are than I was and how deeply ingrained Jesus is in their lives as parents and spouses (which is the reason why they are better parents).

I got up at 0230 to spend some time with Jesus and startled Laura who was in the hallway (she is sleeping on the new mattress). When I asked her what she was doing up, wasn’t the mattress comfortable, she told me that Ana and Gabe had thrown up and she had to get them into dry clothes, taken off all the sheets, put them in the washer, and was now running the dryer. Good thing I got it fixed. Ana is now sleeping with Mama and has thrown up only a little on the new mattress.

Oh, we bought a new stove. I found today that I have a mental illness- I am compulsive about keeping the stove clean. I cleaned it for over an hour after dinner. Alone. Ah, peace.

I stand in awe of Laura and Andy, Leah and Harrison, and all the young mom’s and dad’s I know back in Houston. This was a normal or near-normal day for them. Somehow Laura, Leah, and Harrison remained calm, even joyful. And always parenting with control. How do they do it? I know that there are times of desperation and even fear. But still, they are doing so much better than their parents did. I wish they could know how great they are.

Today was a crazy, mile-a minute day. But what a great blessing. We are alive!!! God is moving in us and among us. We didn’t stop and hold hands to pray. I know I didn’t pray – well, I did a little when I saw that fish get away. But still, God was working in our hearts, giving us patience, energy, and wisdom. Growing us into His likeness. We grew in holiness today and didn’t even know it. We all enjoyed each other and loved our children a little bit more. We learned. All of our hearts were open to God and we received His love all day long. He blessed us in the madness and turned what would normally be overwhelming (or has the potential to overwhelm) into an opportunity to sink deeper into His arms, even though we may not have realized that was what was happening. Today was  another day in the Kingdom of God, filled with little miracles, and God’s provision for each minute. The cool thing is, while Leah, Laura, and Harrison were in the midst of the melee and the events unfolding around them were foremost in their mind, they were subconsciously being drawn deeper into God’s heart. This is life. This is how our walk with Jesus often works out. Not in the big miracles, but in the small stuff that we deal with all the time.

This doesn’t just happen. These young parents have placed God and Jesus at the center of their lives with their children and one another. They are walking in the Kingdom of God because they have chosen to walk through the door that Jesus opened when He died on the cross. This is not a once-in- a- lifetime choice; they make it minute-by-minute. They can cope because of His sacrifice. And they know that they have access to His power and authority. Jesus in alive and present in my cabin in Central NY. And it is exciting. Hallelujah.