Chaos, meet Stress. Now multiply.

God is good, always and forever. Of this I have no doubt. I know fully that He is in control, and I praise Him hourly for that truth. But even living in the knowledge of that truth, life can be chaotic. Oh. My. I don’t want to focus on the insanity of my week and the weeks to come, but I do want to give you a quick update — and explanation of my absence.

I also want to ask for some help.

Update first. Within the past week, my emotions have run the gamut of extreme discouragement to unbelievable high and utter exhaustion. We eliminated several options from our list of potential new homes, started to fall in love with our current house again and then found a house that we LOVE only to discover we may not be able to have it.

The house is PERFECT. Beyond perfect. And on the lower end of our range, so we’re thrilled with that, but they’re not accepting any contingent offers and (needless to say) we’ve not yet sold our house yet, so we can’t make an offer yet. On top of that, they’ve already received two offers, but haven’t accepted either yet. But that’s not what worries me. We discovered that the family is selling because of divorce. This thoroughly breaks my heart. I’ve actually spent more time this weekend praying for their marriage than I have praying that we would get the house. In all honesty, I would rather have their family restored and we live in a dumpy place, than to see another family (whose bookcases were lined with Bibles) torn apart. Three kids … Oh, it just saddens me so!

Saturday morning we cleaned like mad for a house showing. (Remember the possible for-sale-by-owner family?) The minute they left, we got to work deconstructing our first floor. You see, our hardwood needs to be refinished before we list. In order for them to refinish the floors (on Wednesday) we need to have everything out of there: all the furniture, draperies, nicknacks, books … EVERYTHING from the living room, master bedroom and dining room. It has all been tucked Tetris-style into our kitchen, basement and garage. Rick and I have taken Ellie’s room hostage while the kids fight over who gets to sleep on the floor in Zach’s room. (I’m really not sure why we bought him a bed. They both would rather camp out on air mattresses!) After we moved all the furniture, we then stripped the carpet from the bedroom. (PRAISE GOD the hardwood underneath is in good condition!!) We visited two more houses then drove down to Philadelphia to pick up the kids. (My mother-in-law, being the amazing woman that she is, kept the kids for the night so we could work quickly without pinching fingers, toes or hearts.)

Today is Monday and I am wiped out.

Here is where I need your help.

1. Pray for me. And my husband and our marriage and our kids and all of that. I told Rick this weekend that I’m so grateful for him and the strength of our marriage because stuff like this seeps into the tiniest cracks and can create massive damage. I don’t want any cracks. So far we’re doing great, but the Enemy loves us to boast about things like that. He sees it as opportunity. So, yes, I covet your prayers.
2. Be patient with the blog. I have so much to say, but very little time to write these days! I promise to post when I can, but I offer no guarantee of regularity in the next couple weeks.
3. Read with Me girls: Anyone want to take a Friday Check-in post?? I would love to spread this out, at least for the next couple weeks. I’m still reading — in fact, I’m almost caught up in the New Testament! — but I’ve not been able to post our regular check-ins on Friday mornings. Can you take a week for me? Let me know when and I’ll post a schedule so people know where to go. I don’t want our group to fall apart. We’ve come far together and we’ll only complete it if we stay together!

That’s all I have time for right now. Like I said, I have much more to say and I hope to share it with you all soon. Is it weird to say I miss people who live in my computer? Is it too late to worry about how weird you think I am?

Have a nice day.