You've Got a Friend...

This has been quite an emotional weekend for me. My dearest friend and mentor's husband has taken a job many miles away in the bitter cold Northeast.(It's in Detroit, but I'm a southern girl and anything north of NC is bitter cold.) She has been my buddy for over 10 years. We grew especially close after we both took an incredible leap of faith and adopted children from Liberia, Africa. We have laughed and cried and laughed and cried, but really just laughed ALOT! Mainly at ourselves, but definitely at the crazy lives we find ourselves living. We are living proof that God has an incredible sense of humor.
I cried and hurt last night as I realized that the reality of the situation. My buddy is moving away! Thank goodness for cell phones, because we will need to stay on top of each other's lives. Our husbands will just have to deal with the need to chat.
As I cried to the Lord,I asked, "Why?". Why did he feel the need to take my dear friend so far away? Did He ever hurt and cry as I was doing? God brought to my mind the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. It made me realize that He knew how my heart was breaking because he too had cried with his friends after their brother Lazarus had died. He also reminded me of his tears of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. How, He was having to say goodbye to his closest friends on earth,his disciples, bye to the life of 33 years on earth. How he was having to make a painful choice to fulfill a greater purpose, His Father's plan. My friend Debbie has been praying for God's best as her husband has looked for a job. She truly is a woman after God's own heart and desires to follow God wherever he takes her and her family. God has a greater plan and purpose to fulfill in her life and her family's lives. God's ways are not our ways, even though we want to convince Him, we have some pretty good ideas about how things should be.
I will miss my friend more than she will know. I am not saying goodbye, rather, see ya soon. I know God will bring her family back to Charlotte if, His plan, His perfect plan allows. For now, as I blot my swollen eyes, I will hold on to His promises that He desires the best for us. Only He can know what that is. My job is to follow and surrender, no matter where the path will take me. I love my dear friend and her beautiful heart. Her willingness to die to self, in the most difficult ways. Even when she leaves everything she knows and loves. She will go with dignity and support from all the lives she has invested herself in. Mine will never be the same because of my dear friend, Debbie Alexander!
Love you friend!

How to Handle Life with a Traveling Husband

I have only known marriaged life with a traveling man. Somewhere into our marriage of almost 14 years, I had to come to terms with my resentment of feeling like a single mom when he was gone. I would countdown the days until he would return home and rescue me from my tired,exhausted self. After praying through my feelings and emotions of this lifestyle I found myself in, I heard God calling me to rejoice about it! HUH??? I had to start enjoying the time with my kids and find things about his being gone that were a blessing, not a burden to bear.

So, here's some things I came up with:

• I don't always have to make a "real" dinner (Our treat when Dad is gone is French Toast w/Blueberries).
  
• If I do cook, I can make things my hubby doesn't really enjoy, but I do.
  
• My hubby is a little more structured than I am, so I can kinda let things go and be spontaneous when he travels. Of course, the kids usually get to bed too late when he is gone, but we have fun!!!
  
• I get to have one of my kids sleep w/ me which is a treat for both of us! And, I also get a break from wifely duties.
  
• I also need some time to myself and it just refreshes our relationship to get a breather now and then.

I could go on...but these are my things that I rejoice in. You probably have your personal list as well. I think the hardest part of his erratic schedule is that I can't ever make solid plans at times. But, I know he is working hard to provide a comfortable living for us. He has had to miss some of the kids events, which he loves to go to. He also gives up some of his own personal desires to be with us at home, because he is gone a lot. While it sounds so inviting to a "stay at home" mom to get to travel, eat dinner in a nice restaurant, fly to a far away place and be among other adults, my husband says he would always rather be at home. I know he means it. The grass is always greener.
So, I have made a choice not to resent, feel sorry, burden my husband, or complain about the job God has provided for him. I hope you hear encouraging words and not "lecturing" words. Us "traveling husband" moms need to constantly encourage one another. We also need to thank our husbands for the sacrifice they make as well.

On a funny note: it never fails...like clockwork something always happens when David leaves. Things break, need repair, someone gets sick (me last time) when my schedule is packed and I have to be three places at once, it goes on and on. It's just humorous really, at this point. But, I always seem to manage and thanks to some kind women in my life, I get a hand up when I feel like I'm drowning!

Whatever your faith says that God is, He will be!

I just read my Streams in the Desert devotional this morning. We had a very trying, challenging morning with one of our children. So, when I read the devotional I wasn't ready for what it said. I was to continue to trust God even when the future doesn't seem so bright, when fear would feel like a more logical response than faith. Then, at the end of the devotional I had to gulp. Because, my faith is really based on what I believe about the God I call my Savior. God keeps bringing me around to this subject of Trust. I have put my trust in this invisible God to pay my sin debt and freely give me eternal life. So, why is everyday living out this principle of Trust so tough?? Maybe because eternity is some abstract time in place that will happen "someday".Perhaps believing for one day is easier than just believing God today. Am I really believing God is holding my future in His Hands? Do I know Jeremiah 29:11, "I know the plans I have for you, to give you hope and a future" or is it just a quote that sounds like a good life verse about trust. I am an "authenticity" addict. I don't like "boxed" foods, I prefer the "real" food, that is homemade. I don't own a lot of "knock off" material things. I figure why pretend to have something you can't afford. The only thing I am okay with is costume jewelry. I can't afford real jewels so luckily the look alike costume stuff is actually quite savvy. So, when it comes to living out my faith, I am very black and white in my thinking. I am either walking with the Lord spending time in His presence or not. I can't stand that lukewarm place when I am playing "godliness" but really dissing God daily. I figure it's pretty obvious to most when I have strayed. I have been a believer from a young age and I can act pretty spiritual when needed but God knows even if no one else knows and that is really the whole point!
If I have put my God in a compartment of my life that makes me feel comfortable, then He will only be as big as the compartment I created for him. Gratefully, our infinite God can't be hedged in! My faith will be only as small or as infinite as the God I serve. I questioned this morning whether God really was able to exist outside of my immediate needs. Will he really carry me? Does He have my future securely in His hands. I am choosing to trust that my Incredible God is bigger than my, in comparison, small problem du jour. His ways are not my ways. His mercies are new every morning, and He can do more than I can imagine, think or dream. All He asks is, when my world is crumbling apart, that I remember He is and always will be in control. Not only of my life, but bigger than that, the universe!

You can say, "Ouch or Amen" with me.