And God is still good

Today I was thinking about how we've officially lived in Winterset for a whole year now. And, wow, what a year it's been! When we decided to move here, it was March. When we actually moved here, it was July 31. We attempted to buy five other houses before getting the one we currently own. (Which is by far the best one, in case you were wondering.) That's right, FIVE. And we couldn't even move into said house until the middle of September. But being teachers, we had to get here before August. So we moved into a one-bedroom apartment on the town square above the Ben Franklin store. We lived there for six weeks. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I blogged about that once. And I think I included the part about having to always take the dog out on his leash on the town square at all hours of the day and night. Neat.

Home ownership is always a mixed bag. We are soooo thankful for our home. But sometimes you just wish you could call a landlord to take care of a problem that arises. Ya know?

Like I said, we moved in the second weekend of September and tried to quickly get settled in the midst of marching band season. I was also nearing the third trimester of pregnancy, so I was pretty worthless in the "unpacking and getting organized" department. Not that that's ever really been my forte. Anyway, Henry was born in December and it wasn't long after that the house craziness began. In a matter of two months (give or take) the following occured...but not necessarily in this order: it all started when the furnace broke. then the oven. and then the blender. then the stucco fell of the side of the house, the roof got damaged in a storm, the roof started leaking, the ceiling fell off, the ceiling got redone, the ceiling was not correct so the ceiling got redone again, then the ceiling fell off again, the stucco contractor left us high and dry and the rain came in our windows, we got a new roof, we fired the stucco guy and got a new one, we hired a painter to paint the entire exterior, he painted in the rain and ruined our paint, he spilled window glazing on our new shingles and then stepped on the glazing so our shingles were ruined and then he painted our windows shut, and then he sprayed paint on some of the shingles that he hadn't already ruined, windows were broken (many windows), we fired the painter and hired a new one. Hmmmm....is that it? Probably not. I can't even remember. To sum it up, our house has been under construction since March and it's finally almost finished. In the middle of all that, it felt like we were sinking. This was not something we had planned on dealing with or paying for. Especially when trying to prepare to transition to being a single-income family this fall. But even at our lowest points, when our house was literally falling down around us, God was still there....and He was still bigger than all of it...and He was (as is) still good. Sooooooo good.

If you've known us for any amount of time, you know that this kind of house trouble is pretty much par for the course for us. Remember back in 2007 when we tore of our roof and then that monsoon popped up our of nowhere?? Yeah. But the truth is, there's no guarantee that we won't continue to have this kind of house "drama" for the rest of our house-owning years. Good thing we don't have to find our joy in things and stuff!!!

The Lord totally carried us through and provided for us....and continues to do so! Thank you, Lord, for being so much BIGGER than our stucco, our money, and our worries. And thank you for a place to call home!