Even the little things we don't pray for

Most of you know how many times Eric and I have moved over the last 25 years. Moving creates its own stress let alone the reason why moving has to happen. Eric and I spent our first 5 years of marriage living in Ames in married housing. We moved to Winterset for his first job and literally exploded into our park house. I still don't know how we lived in that tiny apartment with three small kids. But I never remember grumbling or complaining. Life was simple and God helped us enjoy it. Our first park house is full of wonderful memories. God provided that house for us for almost 5 years. Brady and Brenden both started kindergarten in that house. We brought Laramy home there and had 11 puppies there. We also started our family game with our trampoline called trampoline tag.

I don't remember praying for our next house but God provided the W. Jefferson house quickly and simply. I loved living there even though it was built in 1890 and the upstairs floor was a little swayed...okay..a lot swayed. In that house, I remember Brady screaming and hollering at the top of his lungs because I was taking all of his toys that he "put away" under his bed. We brought Ayden home to that house and I loved snuggling up with my five sons while Eric traveled.

Watching our next house be built was quite a learning experience for the whole family. Brady even helped with the electric at 11 years old. I started homeschooling in that house. I fell rollerblading in that garage and whacked my head. They (my family) say I've never been the same since. We also did some red-neck rabbit hunting out the kitchen window to save our peas.

We really learned the most invaluable lesson in the next house. God provided the second Pammel Park house when we didn't even know it existed. We moved there after Eric lost his job. It was a devastating time. Before we moved we knelt as a family around our bed and prayed for God to take care of us. Little did we know how He would do that in every way.

With every move, I have a problem.... toilet seats. I just want my own new toilet seats. But when we moved back to Pammel Park we were broke. And there was no money for toilet seats. I ended up buying two very cheap $5 seats about a month after we moved. A bit obsessive, I know, but it is my obsession and I am owning it. They were awful! They would dent in if you tried to sit on them. But they were mine. I didn't pray about them. I didn't think twice about toilet seats again. I'm sure I said outloud how I wished I had real new toilet seats. Eric came home from work one day with TWO BRAND NEW in the package toilet seats. They were being thrown out at work because they weren't what they wanted.

If God cares about my toilet seats...He most certainly cares about bigger things in my life. I have wonderful and horrible memories in that house. But I will never forget my toilet seat lesson from God.

So this deployment is much bigger than toilet seats. God knows what He is doing and has it all under control. Watch for those things in your life and just prepare to be truly amazed.

Prayer Requests:
Please pray for my brother-in-law, Larry, as he is having complications from his surgery last week. Pray for healing and no more complications. And rest for the family, too.

Continue to pray for a laptop for Eric. I want to be able to keep my laptop so that I can take it with me when I travel, etc. and be accessible to Eric whenever he is available.

Pray for melting snow and no complications this spring with flooding. We have so much to do before graduation that water in the basement would not be good.

Pray we purchase the right car for me before Eric leaves. We are looking and will be trading in our silver van, selling the purple van, and possibly selling one or two of the other vehicles so that we don't have a lot to take care and park through the year.

Matthew 6: 25 & 26 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat , or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

Love,
Monica