Moving (again!)

"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much." 

                                                                                                             --Mother Theresa

I've heard this quotation many times throughout the years, and besides the fact that the Bible doesn't actually say that, the quotation itself is thought-provoking. It communicates sentiment we feel sometimes when we're at the end of our rope. I'm going through one of those times now.

We've been looking for a rental house in the Nashville area because our lease is up at the end of this month.  The house we're currently renting is beautiful (and big!), but it's expensive.  Now that we've been here a year, we have a better understanding of our expenses for living in this area.  We would like to reduce our housing costs in order to focus on paying down our debt with the eventual goal of buying a house here. (We still own our house in Idaho, but that's another story.)

In the process of searching for a rental house, some friends made us an offer we couldn't refuse.  After trying (unsuccessfully) to sell their beautiful townhome for the past year, they offered to rent it to us at a very reduced rate. We jumped at the chance.  They contacted their realtor to take the townhouse off the market, and we were supposed to get the keys and start the process of moving in last week.

We contacted our landlord and gave him our notice of intent to vacate. One hour after e-mailing our current landlord, we received an e-mail from the townhouse owners. Their realtor had called about a potential buyer, so basically their offer for us to rent the townhouse was tabled indefinitely.  I quickly e-mailed our landlord and asked for more time, but he refused.  Instead he pressured us to sign another 1-year lease. 

As home owners ourselves, we completely understand that our friends need to sell their property.  But the bottom line is we were in a really bad position.  We had 20 days to find a new place, not to mention physically pack and move our stuff!

I literally worked myself crazy last week searching property listings, contacting agents, etc. We looked at a bunch of properties, but despite all our efforts, we found NOTHING suitable.

Sunday morning after church, I hit a wall. I reached the end of my rope.  I lost my mind.  As I sat on the floor having a minor nervous breakdown, I thought about the Mother Theresa quote... I had to surrender the situation to God (again!) and just TRUST Him to provide.

Sunday night, we found our house. It's an older home in an established neighborhood in Mt. Juliet, which is east of Nashville. It's much smaller than our current house, and it's a little dated inside, but it has enough space for our family and it's on a beautiful 1.5 acre plot of land.

Once again God proved to me that He always provides our needs.

My prayer throughout the past week has been this:  God give me the strength to see this adversity as an opportunity to trust You, a time to see Your grace at work in my life.

I'm going to keep breathing that prayer throughout the next 2 weeks as we pack and move... AGAIN. This will be our 6th move in 10 years.  I'm over it.

Movin' On Up

Snuggles is movin' on up... to size 18-24 months clothes, that is.  Fall weather brings with it cooler temps, and he can't wear any of his long-sleeved clothes from last year.  After hitting up consignment sales and outlet stores last week, I found some new and new-to-us clothes for Snuggles, which only means one thing... Time to clean out the closet!

The process of cleaning out Snuggles' closet usually entails packing the old stuff into plastic bins and replacing it with the "new" stuff.  [Did I mention my garage is PILED high with plastic bins full of Snuggles' clothes from the past two years?!  Yeah, we can't even park our cars in there.]

I dread the seasonal transition of Snuggles' clothes, for two reasons:

1) I hate shopping.  The search for new stuff wears me out!
2) Cleaning out the closet is an unavoidable walk down Memory Lane.

Okay, I'll be honest.  I'm usually not a sappy person... But when it comes to Snuggles, I'm a blubbering, snot-running-out-the-nose fool.  Transitioning his closet seems to bring me to a grinding halt in front of a sign that says:  YOUR BABY IS GONE!  As I packed away the size 12 months clothes on Saturday, I could literally see Snuggles' babyhood slipping through my fingertips.  And although I want to strangle him sometimes he tries my patience on occasion, part of me doesn't want him to grow up so quickly!

There I sat, on the floor of Snuggles' closet... Everything I touched had a memory associated with it:  He wore the grey, fuzzy sweatshirt on his first wagon ride.  He wore that striped t-shirt on his first trip to the zoo....  Each piece of clothing I held in my hands was like a fabric snapshot of Snuggles' life.

Cleaning out Snuggles' closet to make room for bigger sizes, I found myself torn between celebrating the new phase in life and missing the baby days.  That's when I found it--the white onesie with the lamb on the front and the big yellow stain on the bottom.  That's when I remembered The Blowout.

The Blowout:  We were at a restaurant eating lunch when Snuggles grunted, made the-face-every-mom-dreads, and then proceeded to poop over the back of his diaper, out the side of his onesie, down my leg, and onto the floor.  It was a Level 5 Blowout.

So there I sat last Saturday, on the floor of Snuggles' closet, holding the poop-stained onesie.  In that moment, I realized it's so important to live in the moment.  We've moved on to new adventures now.  And while I'm sure I haven't cleaned the last of Snuggles' poop-stained clothes, I am blessed beyond words.  Every moment with Snuggles is a joy... even the ones that stink.