I have been asked numerous times how it is going with the house….I am to the point of laughing. Here it is in a nutshell……………………

Second week of November, after going back and forth with counteroffers, we accept an offer on the LR house. All is going great, we put an offer on our favorite house in Columbus (INDIANA not Ohio). The week before Thanksgiving there is a horrible downpour that causes flashflooding around the area.. I wake up the next morning to a flooded lower level. Water in one room was about 2 inches deep. Ugh…..what will happen with the sale?……I immediately call Mike and he leaves that morning to get here ASAP. Within an hour there is a crew of wonderful, servant people in our home cleaning….we get the house dried out, padding replaced, clean the carpets and find out the walls have over 100% moisture….in come the fans and dehumidifier.  We got the moisture levels down to the “normal” range……The Monday immediately before Thanksgiving was the house inspection……Lady decided to withdraw her offer stating “Inspection unsatisfactory to client.” Ugh, what about the other house we are buying? Put on hold…… During inspection it was discovered there is moisture in our downstairs bathroom ceiling. Call the plumber….comes to about $1200 in new plumbing to resolve a problem we didn’t know existed and believed to have been going on the whole time we have been here. Mike had to plan a trip back here to repair the holes the plumber left in the ceiling. In the meantime, Marty, our bugman comes out and resprays because the roaches loved all the water. (He had come the day before the rain did).  Mike arrived this past Tuesday and left today, Sunday. The house was shown 3 times over the weekend before any of the repairs were made. Mike is coming back, again, day after tomorrow and staying until we go back to Indiana for Christmas. Want to know the best part?! The owners of the home in Columbus are allowing us to rent until we are able to close on this house, at which time we will purchase that one! We are using ABF trucking. They are dropping the truck off this coming Thursday and will pick it up on the following Monday 18th.  The kids’ last day of school is the 20th. We get to be here 2 days without furniture…that should be fun….We are picking the kids up from school and heading north. The truck will arrive in Columbus on the 23rd. It will be nice to be settled under one roof. The kids start at their new school on January 9th. (I think). Isaiah will get to do preschool. (Yeah!) Luke will go from full day kindergarten (AR) to only half day in Indiana. He could go full day but it is $75 a WEEK! If appropriate, we will check into bumping him up to first grade. Anyway, lots to do in the next two weeks. Joy to the World the LORD has come.

As this chapter of our life comes to a close I have to step back and say “God is Good!” There are so many lessons I have learned since we have been in Little Rock. It has definately been a learning experience. For sake of trying not to shed tears, I am choosing to look at it kind of like college. We have been here for almost two years and, we have graduated and are moving on. Isn’t each phase of life like that? God wants to teach us something and He won’t let us move on until we have learned it. 

I have wrestled back and forth with, ”we are not missionaries, anymore, so what greater purpose is there?” That is the enemy trying to get me down. If you read scripture closely you will see it. We are to go and make disciples of all nations. (that includes the nation we live in!) My mission field abounds. My primary outreach right now is to my children and their friends.

During a class while still working for FamilyLife, I had to write a life purpose statement. I can’t remember the exact wording but it was the jist to minister to whoever I am with wherever I am……Isn’t that what God is all about….Isn’t that the purpose of a missionary? God is good, all the time, through our trials, through our joys.