The Missing Pieces

A friend emailed and reminded me today that in my last post I left out some key parts of the story of our stay here in Minnesota.

I've mentioned that the company Josh is working for is providing housing for us. What I failed to mention is that, while this place is fully furnished and very beautiful, it is not exactly what you'd call "family friendly." Basically, it's a nice place for wealthy businessmen to stay with all the comforts of home, and none of the inconvenience of motel living.

For some unknown reason, Koch only rented us a one bedroom apartment. Somewhere along the line there was a misunderstanding as to how many children we had. Promenade Oaks thought we only had two. Rather than renting out a multiple bedroom townhouse, they decided to have two roll-aways brought in instead. Since we didn't get the info on the living arrangements here until the very last minute, there was nothing we could do to change it.

There was no way all of us would fit in here, so my sweet in-laws asked if they could take all of the children until we moved into our house. They had Jordan, Dillon, and Nathan for a week, then when we went to Iowa for the 4th of July we switched and left Isaac and brought Nathan back with us. I'm sure they all would have done fine there, but I didn't want Connie to be overwhelmed with all five of them at once.

When we got back from our weekend in Iowa, Josh received notice that Koch had received a nasty letter from the apartment complex saying that they "frowned upon" families living in the apartments, but since we were only going to be here for a few weeks they'd let it slide this time.

Upon further investigation, we realized that they had just recently found out how many children we really had, and thought they were all staying here. In addition to that, since all my mom and dad's mail is being forwarded along with ours, they thought they were living here, too! It was a mess. Once we assured them that there were indeed only four people in here, they backed off. But, my soul. I don't think I've ever met a snootier, more unfriendly, and downright rude bunch of people in all my life.

During this whole fiasco, Josh happened to see a bumper sticker in the parking lot that read, "Uppity Women, UNITE!" That's about right.

We've really been praying that God would show us exactly what His plans are for us at Birch Street Baptist. He keeps confirming in so many little ways that our being there is His will, but we're still hitting roadblocks as to the specifics. On Sunday night the man that prayed that God would lead us here the first Sunday we visited told me that he knew why God had us here. It was crystal clear to him, but it had to come from our hearts so he wouldn't tell me what he thought. At least somebody knows, right? I know that when God wants us to know, He'll show us. I just need to be patient, and not allow myself to become uneasy about it in the meantime.

Speaking of uneasiness....I have a very special prayer request to share with you all. Last week my mom found out that she has a 50/50 chance of having breast cancer. We've known this was a possibility since the first week they were imprisoned. Since then, the tumor has grown to the size of a walnut. We are praying for her appointments with doctors and surgeons to be expedited. She's scheduled for a biopsy, but it is usually a wait of five weeks or more in there. The Lord has been getting her in quickly for everything so far though, and we have faith that He will continue to take great care of her. Please pray that it's benign, and that God will get the glory for whatever His purpose is in allowing this. She's doing super, and hasn't let it get her down. I think she's more concerned about my dad being worried than she is for herself. We know that God has a purpose even in this, and He never makes a mistake. Never.

"For I know what'er befalls me, Jesus doeth all things well."