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Continuing to Climb

When I go hiking, my goal is to keep up with my husband--at all costs.  I don't let on when I'm tired.  I am determined that I will keep up!  What a strong willed woman I am!  Thankfully, I usually can keep up.  But, when I'm hiking with him I don't rest as often as I might if I were on my own.  The past month has been a lot like hiking for me.


Last Wednesday night, I had the chance to sit down for coffee with a young gal from my church.  I shared with her all that had been going on with my family.  At the end, she queried, "All of that happened in a month?"  I replied, "Yes, my mom arrived October 7th."


It's strange to realize that it has been a marathon of a month.


First my mom arrived.  Within a few days we realized we wanted to move.  We put our house on the market.  We started looking for a new home for all of us.  We put one offer in.  We took it off the table.  We made another offer.  It was accepted.  We offered our home for rent to my mother in law.  She accepted.  We took our house off of the market.  We started the mortgage process....  I think that's it in a nutshell!


It's been a long hike uphill.  But, today... well, today is me sitting down to rest.  I faxed off the forms for our refinance and a weight lifted.  I worked hard this week.  My mom did too.  She helped by taking care of my kids so I could take care of all the things I needed to for the homes and research for my mother in law.  


But, today I am resting.  No homeschooling.  No schedule.  A phone call to follow up on one of the faxes.  An email confirmed the others.  


Sometimes we need that.  In the rest, there is beautiful scenery.  Today, that scenery came in the form of a phone call to a person I thought was a stranger.  Only she wasn't a stranger after all!  This morning my husband had a question about the neighborhood where the house is that we have a contract on.  A friend of mine had mentioned to me earlier this week that she knew someone who lived on that street.  So, I called her this morning.  I was just leaving her a message as she answered.  About 5 minutes into the conversation, I discovered that we did know each other!  She rejoiced to learn that it was my family who had a contract on the home.  She has been praying for some families with children to move into the neighborhood.  Since the house had only been on the market for a week before we had a contract on it, she had just noticed it this week.  We talked for over an hour and it was such a blessing!  I had met her through gymnastics last year when my girls attended at the local rec center.  We only talked for a few minutes each week because her daughter's class was after mine.  But, I enjoyed talking to her each week--even for a few minutes!  I look forward to living a few houses away from her family.


When I hung up the phone, I had tears in my eyes.  It confirmed to me all the more that this is the hill for us to be climbing up.  But, the phone call was also beautiful scenery that renewed my heart and gave me joy.  God answers our prayers in many ways.  What a special thing it is to be the answer to someone else's prayer!

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