So I am trying to figure out how to get back into this blogging thing.

I really did enjoy it when I was doing it, but why do I do it. Yes, I want my friends and family to be kept up to date with all our happenings, but then we get busy and our happenings never get published. Yes, it works as a journal, but as journals go they begin with good intentions and falter to the many things that distract us.

And that is where my thinking has been lately. Isn't it just like Satan to find creative ways to distract us from the things God has called us to do, from the people who are important to us, and most precisely from Him. Looking through pictures of our past school year and pondering this idea of sorting it hit me.

How do I want to be sorted in Christ's eyes? Do I want to be labeled as the best and the brightest or am I seen as dull and not so interesting?

Do I worry about falling into man's "like" category or God's "like" category? Am I striving to stay out of satan's "like" category by staying in Jesus'? Or am I falling into the "don't like" category for God because I am constantly silencing Him, disobeying Him, ignoring Him, and not taking time for Him? Thankfully His grace and blood cover our sins, and He chases after us knowing that we truly long to be ever close to Him. I feel Him grabbing my shoulder on a rough day and giving me a firm Fatherly correction about priorities. I feel Him holding me close and smiling when I defeat satan with a tiny whispered prayer of "God these are your children and I need your wisdom with this situation."

We strive so hard to keep our lives neat and categorized, but really is that what it's all about? Are we really meant to separate school from home, work from family, love from learning, cleaning from teaching, listening from caring, and so on. Our does God want us to shuffle it all together and see how we need one to make the other one work better. He was so creative in making this world and the way things work. Why do we think things need to be so segregated in their own little boxes? We learn through experiences, we love through doing, we listening with family, we care through teaching---it's a beautiful chaos, this life.  

So as I continue to sort through my life and strive to get my priorities in order but yet maintain so semblance of this beautiful chaos called life. I welcome you to join me on this journey. Striving to please God and to show Christ's love to those around me (especially my family).

I am starting this post off with a very familiar song. Blessings by Laura Story. This song has ministered to me in so many ways. Put yourself in my shoes as you read the lyrics or listen to it (Blessings)

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

So I am going to focus this post on the blessings....

The first one we noticed right away was that our then family of five got out safely and we were all together. It has been hard for us but we are together, we are processing this together and we are all safe and sound!

The blessing of a stranger opening their house to us that night. Not knowing who we are, never talked to us before but opening their spare bedroom for us to try to sleep after the evacuation and pointing us in the direction of the closest shelter the next day!

The blessings of a church family to help with the clean up several days after, a month later, just before we moved back, and to help us get the important things done.

The blessing of "TUGGY" the kids sand box. They were worried it floated away since we couldn't move it because of the sand in it. When we checked in the next day, tuggy was still on our property, emptied of its sand, save for 3 toys (one for each kid). We felt truly blessed that God considered our children and saved something for them so they could see His hand. It is little but it was huge to three very scared and upset kids.

The blessing of still having a house! Even if it was a mess and needed some serious fixing it was still standing, which we weren't expecting.

The blessing of an apartment to stay in until our house was livable again. This became known as the little house to the children.

The blessing of quick car insurance. We had our two vehicles towed away less then a week later and a rental for 2-3 weeks until we got a new vehicle. We were also blessed by friends of ours to use their second vehicle for Lowell to use as a work car until we replaced the one we lost.

The huge blessing of not loosing all my home canned goods. We are finding some are bad but most got spared. They stayed on their shelves during the flood. Didn't budge. We do open them with caution, but they were washed and checked for tight seals just after the flood.

The blessing of a friend and a donor to repair our lawn mower which was completely underwater. It is now running wonderfully.

These are just a few of the many many many blessings we have seen since the flood. We have been blessed. Though at times I feel discouraged we are called to "Count our blessing, name them one by one, Count our blessings, see what God has done." The flood was not what we will but it has blessed us in ways we are still learning. We joke that a huge one was the forced hand to declutter. It also forced us to prioritize and to see that the most important things in this world are our loved ones and families, not material possesions. We have seen little things fall together like my in-laws having just returned from the mission field who had an empty freezer to store our frozen items, and extra space to welcome us into their house for a few days. Or having fall coats available for the kids to wear that night when i would have normally had them still stored away. Friends who checked up on us the day after the flood, when we said we were ok, they knew better. It is the little things that show us continually that God's hand was in this. For all this and more we are Blessed and Loved by an amazing God.

Well. It is coming up on a year since our lives got turned upside down. I would be a fool to say that my life has returned to normal and we are recovered and such but that really isn't the truth. Time marches on but memories don't. 

I would have never thought that I would have to evacuate my home at midnight due to flood waters (a fire maybe). So much has happened since those eventful days. After seven months away we moved back into our house (still under construction). We are still in the process of rebuilding. 

I am planning on a series of posts here to share my experience. It was quite deliberate on my part to avoid posting pictures of the flood for numerous reasons, privacy being one of them. Life was so disheveled that it literally became one foot in front of the other. How I got from then to now is really only an act of God's tender mercies. He really did watch over us and protect us. Guide us, Love us and Help us. I am not saying there weren't stresses, fights, tears, panics, or fears and I am not saying it was all blessings, gifts, smiles, triumphs and jubilation. It was a total mixed bag. With that said my goal over the next few posts is to show both the ups and downs and to try my best to be transparent when I know I wasn't earlier. (I guess that is the beauty and terror of the blog-o-sphere).

And so with the beginning of September upon I am left filled with more thoughts then my brain can handle. I usually devote the beginning of Sept. to another anniversary but I will let you rewind through these posts at your leisure this year....2011, 2010, 2008(a), 2008(b), 2008(c), 2008(d), 2008(e), 2008(f), 2008(g), 2008(h)....... And to be honest I am really NOT looking forward to the beginning of September. It is marked with some monumental events that I really never want to happen again, but make up who I am so....I look forward to sharing this journey with you over the next few days and weeks.