praises

Two big answers to prayer tonight. Maybe more.

I have friends who tell me straight and true and hard and loving things, and I'm so grateful. They also pray...sometimes they only pray. 

What better gift in the world could there be after His saving grace?  

Tomorrow we sign off on the house. Suddenly and quite quickly, tomorrow we sell it to some friends of friends in ministry, who love it like we do and who will love our neighbors well. While we are technically enough people for two houses, we don't need any of the bills, maintenance, and care of two houses any longer, and we are SO THANKFUL for how He's answered our prayers and their prayers in their purchase of our first home in America..

Classic Stacey, I have prayed circles and circles around it's sale, and now that it's selling, I'm teary and sentimental. I love just about everything about that house, and I love the place it was of healing and re-rooting. I love our family of six God gave that house, and I will always miss that kitchen and the sunny corner where I shed so many tears and prayers and burdens and worries and fears.

That house gave us Lady Jane, Mr. Henry, and a slew more friends (none of which, Matt reminds me, we are selling!), and we have so many sweet and hard memories there. 

It was a blessing place, and there we became a family of nine, there we brought Emma home to, there we grew, there we made so many friends, and there He blessed us with a place for the family He is giving us now. So I'm working to give it up joyfully and thankfully...and praising the Lord for bringing us the right people at the right time and removing from us the gift that has been becoming a major burden.  

Since August, we've been promising the kids that when it sold, we would take them to Trampoline World and "jump for joy", so tomorrow we sign and then go check off the last thing on their summer bucket list :). 

Another praise is Beth. She's been telling and telling me that what I really needed was a mother's helper, just a few mornings a week, just to help with laundry and baby and house and school and SANITY. While I readily agreed with her over and over again that that IS what I need, I don't know where you find those, and don't have the money as a volunteer mom, maid, teacher, housekeeper and taxi driver to pay one! 

Well, one day she went home praying for me, and realized that perhaps God was asking HER to give some of her mornings to do exactly what she was confident I needed.

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 she shows up, most often with two gorgeous cups of coffee, and from then 'till noon she joins us in the thick.  Reads to Ben. Matches socks. Reads history with Sofie, or does a science experiment. Bounces the baby, washes some dishes, rotates kiddos and school with me...today even held down the fort so mom could take. a. shower. before we all head out the door at 12:15 for Latin, school pick up, small group, etc...

Bottom line, those two mornings a week and a sister next to me has made SUCH an impact on my week, our week.  We've gone from being always behind to finishing right on time, from crazy mornings to rather calm ones, from neglected projects to completed ones, from getting home late in the afternoon to face dinner to even having some dinner prep done! 

She is a positive, peaceful and practical presence in our homes and lives those six hours a week, and I mean it...those six hours of side-by-side havetaken me from a place of "I'm not sure we're going to make it" to "everything is going to be just fine."  She is praying for us as she goes, and showing us such gracious God's love...simply by BEING the meet-er of a major need she saw, and it has been making the whole week feel entirely different and more manageable. 

I'm so thankful and grateful, I can't even say. It is so easy to see the mess of others, but not easy to step into it and come alongside. Praise the Lord for her testimony in our lives!

Add in the friend who does a school run every Wednesday morning that Matt can't do due to a Bible study,  the friend who does a school run Monday afternoon when I physically can't be three places at once, and the random people (like stranger who handed Matt a casserole at church on Sunday!) that God puts in simply because He loves and sees us, and man.  I feel like our load is both a LOT...and also, graciously shouldered!

Persist in prayer the burdens you carry...

be ready to be the answer to those prayers...

and be grateful for praying friends.  

Like I am for you.