.... And

I try to update the blog at least twice a week so I knew it was time to write again.  There are so many things swirling in my head I want to write about and after the last post being so serious I have felt like I should write something fun and lively, whoever reads this wants to laugh with you, not hear the other stuff.  Yet, although we do a lot of laughing (in fact last night, Alex's friend was over and at dinner we laughed so hard it was nearly impossible to eat), there are days which are incredibly hard.  And even more so, there are weeks where those days run together.


Just this week (is it really only Wednesday?) 

• .... Hannah heard from her first college and was deferred due to not having grades from the school she is presently attending -  learning about faith and trust again - she has to submit her fall semester grades and will be re-evaluated based on those grades (which are REALLY good) in March and how many spots are still available - this is a piece of reality from moving at the beginning of her senior year and afraid this may be the answer that we get from all of them
• .... After comforting Hannah I checked email and there was an email from the attorney that did the closing on our house - apparently a mistake was made and no one paid property taxes (he was supposed to withhold our portion of taxes from our check and didn't) - so now they are billing us for the taxes plus late fees
• .... Hannah crushed her finger in a phone booth door in Gibraltar over our Christmas trip. She still cannot stand for the finger to be touched, there are blood clots under the nail which we are waiting to fall off, it is still quite swollen, and she cannot bend it. I took her to the doctor today. She absolutely hates doctors and it took all I had to keep her from melting down before we even got there. He said they can't really do anything now because all the blood under the nail is clotted and wouldn't drain if they drilled a hole in it (I guess that is a praise), but we go back next week to have the finger xrayed just to be sure the bone wasn't chipped and to see if the nail has begun to fall off. If not, we'll think about dealing with that.  [the first doctor we saw at this practice previously spoke less English than I speak Spanish so we praised God when Hannah's doctor spoke English.  Although we laughed when I asked "so it will heal?" and he answered "perhaps."  He thought I had asked "so it is ill?"]
• .... And as if I wasn't already laughing, or crying, or just shaking my head, I went to take down laundry yesterday  morning and the persiana (metal blinds on the outside of each window to help keep the heat out in the summer and in during the winter - they are solid) on Alex's window broke - so no taking in or hanging out laundry until Scott fixed because the laundry line is outside his window.  Laundry happens every day during the winter because (thank goodness he was able to quickly fix it after school yesterday) 
• .... In the phone hunt this weekend the sales lady removed the battery from Scott's phone to get some information and somehow that messed up all the alarms on it.  Figured that out this morning, when for the 2nd morning he woke up ten minutes before Alex's bus - crazy way to start a 2nd morning in a row

But we know who holds today and tomorrow.  We are learning that this journey continues to be filled with unexpected curves and valleys and mountains.  We are grateful for the blog and our personal journals to be reminded that God is faithful.  We are learning more than we ever have needed to before, that God IS who He claims to be and capable of all He proclaims.  We our learning that our knees need more callouses from time spent on them with Him and our Bibles need to be a little more worn from time in them and we are being reminded why we are here - because regardless how hard the days are, we know the Giver of Hope and Peace that is beyond circumstances and yet 99% of those around us do not.