The LORD provides
Y'all. God is good. So good. He has always shown himself to be faithful. Why do I ever doubt? Ever? He's always faithful to me. Always.
Thursday, June 12. I can't remember what we had going on that day but we were out (most likely hanging outside with the neighbors) and by the time we were going to bed, I smelled this weird burning smell. I immediately unplugged my hair dryer and straightener but the smell was still there. I realized it was coming from my vent so I turned off the system. It was a cool night so I didn't think much of it. By morning, the house was full of smoke and James was completely freaking out. Needless to say, we left he system off for a while and opened all of the windows. Come Sunday, we were ready to turn it back on, and the thermostat didn't work. For reals, the AC is gone. Like, isn't going to turn back on. Bummer. And this week was going to be HOT (think 99ยบ)! We were annoyed but what can you do? We left the windows open and pulled out all 3 fans that we owned and decided to sweat it out. Meanwhile, out paychecks weren't awesome.. we both had taken off time for our birthdays and James doesn't get overtime pay when he doesn't work so his check was just for 40 hours and mine was much less. Thankfully, I had a mini-bonus on mine to make it appear semi-normal. For Father's Day,we decided to build our corn hole boards (when I say "we" I mean I held a board or two while James cut it but then I let him put everything else together). It cost a little less than we had originally calculated so we were pretty excited. While James was building, I went to Walmart and bought fun paint colors and the plan was to paint the boards on Sunday (they still aren't sanded or painted but that will come soon). With mortgage being due, tithe needing to happen (we are SO bad at that!) and corn hole, our bank account was looking less than stellar so fixing the AC was most definitely the last thing on our mind. Oh, and last week the dishwasher broke (or is clogged but same thing right?). James was getting stressed out, as he usually does when we are low on funds, but we were going to eat sandwiches and be ok. We went to lunch on Sunday for Father's Day and hit up Walmart again for "yard shoes" and headed home to do stuff at the house. I was going to cook what we had at the house for dinner or eat left overs. No big deal. We have definitely survived with less money. Just annoying because we aren't huge fans of being poor. Anyway, we are driving home and I'm sleeping because I'm so exhausted, and James wakes me up to say he's just been pulled over for not having our registration up to date. Really? Another thing on our plate? And when I went to take the car to get inspected as soon as we got home, 1. the place was closed and 2. our check engine light is on (meaning it won't pass inspection and we can't renew registration until inspection passes). Basically, we were down a car for 2ish weeks until we can figure out how to get the light off. This was just one more thing to add to our pot of good luck for the weekend. Oh and to top it off, the AC in the big car isn't working either.
Dad texted me about having dinner that Monday and asked if he should come to me or if I could come to him. I've gone to Raleigh the last two times and with the car being out, I told him he had to come to me. No big deal, we usually try to switch off anyway. The kids were supposed to have VBS so originally Dad was going to come by himself but with no way to get them there all week, we decided to just stay home but that meant Mom had to come too. I warned them that my house was an oven and they both assured me that it was fine as they have had to live without AC before and it wasn't a big deal. Mom and the kids had a great time and ate outside where it was a little bit cooler than inside. And they showed up with 3 more fans! Yay! We put the box fan in the boy's room and it really cooled off quickly. All the windows were still open but at least we had a bit of circulation happening. Josh also let us borrow one of his big fans to help get the air moving which was awesome.
Come Tuesday morning, sleep had happened and I actually woke up cold but I get cold easily. It was projected to be 95ish outside and we were dreading it a little. Then Dad stopped by work and hands me an envelope with $300 in it to help get stuff fixed in the house! Are you kidding me? I was shocked! James and I were trying not to complain as it really wasn't the end of the world that we were sweaty but now we could buy window units or something! We actually wanted to get the car up and running first so we were planning on putting the money towards that (probably this weekend). The Lord provides! Such a blessing.
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon. The kids took "naps" and I sat in our pool with the neighbor Elijah. I had to explain it was "adult swim time" meaning no splashing or waves. Basically, I was hot and wanted to cool off for a minute. He was awesome and tried not to move too much lol. Then the little ones woke up and adult swim time was most definitely over haha. My rule with the pool is once you're in, you stay in. If you get out, you're done (to try and keep the grass out of the pool). Peyton was the first out so I was inside drying him off when Bekah's mom, Barbara, walked in my house with two AC window units! WHAT?! TWO?! I couldn't believe she had just gone and bought those for us. What sweet neighbors we have. She changed clothes and quickly helped get them up and running (she and Bekah make a good team haha). And by the time we went to bed, the house had cooled off so much and I woke up FREEZING! I called Mom and she started crying on the phone. The Lord is so good. He has provided so much for us in 2 days!
Is not having AC in the dead of summer crummy? Yes. Is AC a luxury? Most definitely. Would we have survived without it? You bet. Are we thankful our house is cool again? Oh yeah! When everything broke all at once, we were obviously not thrilled with it, but we knew it wasn't the end of the world. We would rather be without AC than without heat (which that might be the case this winter so stay tuned for that!). We aren't afraid of sweat. Can we live without a dishwasher? Duh. My family didn't have a working one for years. And you know what? We both know how to wash dishes by hand (gasp!). Would we have survived without two cars? Yes, we've already done that this year. We still don't have the inspection done but we are hoping to get that taken care of this weekend. We were willing to face this week and next with a smile on our sweaty faces. But God is so gracious and puts the most precious people in our life to come a long side of us and bless us when we need it. We are so so grateful.
Side note. James' job situation is still not good. He has applied to so many different places and nothing has worked out yet. We tried the power company last year and that fell through. Glen has been trying to find him another job and did find one a few months ago but it wasn't going to pay enough so we had to say no. James applied at Walmart (we have a few friends that work at the distribution center in Henderson) and that fell through. Then we thought missions. Our precious friends Tim and Candi are moving to Canada at the end of the year and they joked that we should move with them. James and I have always had a heart for missions so we thought, sure, why not? But we would need jobs up there (we don't have seminary so IMB isn't an option yet so independent funding would have to be the way to go). James' company has a branch in Quebec and we thought maybe he could transfer. He called and everything is in French so that kind of went no where. Then I had lunch with my sweet friend Heather. Her hubs is in the National Guard and she said James should do that. It sounded like a great idea but James pretty much said no immediately. I was little bummed as this could be a good job and give us good benefits. But he said no and I decided not to push it. But just the other day he told me that he felt like the NG was the way he needed to go. He sat down with Jeff (who happens to be a recruiter) this afternoon and the plan is to get him all signed up by next week. Scary? Yes. Am I nervous? No. I'm actually trying to make myself nervous and give myself those doubting butterflies but nothing. Is this the right path? I think so but I don't know yet. I trust James knows what the Lord needs him to be doing . The plan isn't to go into active duty. He would still have to go to basic training and specialty training but he wants to get a job working full time with the NG (mechanic). Deployment is a possibility if something drastic happens with the military but it's not a definite. It's still new and I don't understand half of what is going on but the Lord has been good to us so far and I trust that if this is where James needs to be, He will get James exactly the job he needs to have. Pray for us. Pray that James will get this if the Lord wills. I am selfishly praying that he does as James needs out of his current work situation. Pray for a smooth transition. Pray James will pass the required tests. Pray James will get a high score to get into the job he wants. Pray that he ships to basic soon (the sooner he leaves the sooner he comes home). Pray that this will happen. Thanks!
I'll keep you posted as we find out more. The Lord provides for his children. Such a sweet promise to hold onto. And he is faithful.
