I must say I had quite a few laughs over your comments on my last post.  I’m sorry the picture left some thinking I was playing a game.  Surprise!   I wasn’t this time.  {Emphasis on ‘this time’.}  I thought it was so self-explanatory. I just grabbed a shot of a few boxes.

Aus, your comment about the ‘stupid awards’ you could have your walls full…thanks.  Made this silver-haired mama giggle all morning.  Nice to know other silver-haired folks are equally, ahem, well you-know what I mean.

So here’s the story {or at least part of it} behind our stupidity:

When Emma and I left in September 2011 for Africa we hadn’t realized that I would never be returning to our basically new home we’d built after losing our home to the fire in January of 2009.

Of course, when we landed in Phoenix with Ruby in November we quickly confirmed with the neurosurgeon that we would not be going back to Colorado to live – Ruby needed to be in very close proximity to her neurosurgeon.

It was then that our friend, Stuart, graciously opened his home for us to camp out until we found a place to live.  Such a provision from the Lord!

Then the Lord provided a beautiful rental. We were so blessed.

After our home in Colorado sold, we started looking for a home….and found a home with an amazing back yard for the kids to romp – that we could afford {due to the economy}.  However, again, before long, we found that therapists didn’t want to come out to where that home was located.  No doubt, it was quite out of the way.  

So again, with Ruby’s care foremost in mind, we let go of that sweet home with the amazingly huge backyard.  {We were able to let go legally, because it was a ‘short sale’.}

By this point, almost a year and multiple ‘homes’ later, we were again looking for a permanent home.

 Quite honestly, we just wanted to be settled.  Done.  Kaput.  So over the temporary home thing, we could almost scream. 

And so we happened upon a home that would work.   We were in a hurry.  We didn’t pray much.  We didn’t look at it thinking long term…it just would work.  And so we bought it.

It had a great pool.  It was a great home that had wheelchair capabilities for Miss Ruby.

But we didn’t pay much attention to the fact that it had absolutely nowhere for the kids to play, unless they were swimming, and silly us, as warm and toasty as Phoenix is, swimming is not possible year round, unless you wanna’ heat your pool.

Six weeks later Nehemiah came home.

Now we had 5 kids, all about the same size and no where to play when it wasn’t possible to be swimming. Well except for a little cement stair area in the back.  And I don’t know about you, but 5 kids on three cement stairs about the size of 5′ x 6′ spells only one thing to me: stupid.   I mean, stitches.

We looked at each other and said, “What the heck did we do?  We lived on 3 rolling acres in Colorado and the kids would romp and play all over the place, building forts, pretending to be pioneers or farmers and here we have three cement stairs for 5 kids to play on.  What should we do?”

So this time around, we got on our knees and asked the Lord to forgive our hasty stupidity.  Then we prayed a ton and fasted….and after weighing the options, decided to cut our losses {and yes, we did end up taking a loss}.

But we knew we would only be bringing more kids home and the last thing we could do was remain in the house knowing that these five treasures {and the ones to come} need to be kids – playing outside – if, in His infinite grace, it was possible!

We talked to the kids about it….most of them remember well the large acreage they have romped on over the years…27 acres at one home, 21 acres, 15 acres {all in the Virginia pastorates} and in Colorado 7 acres and then 3 acres….and now we had a little cement piece about the size of 2 picnic tables – with stairs.   They agreed.  As much of a pain in the bee-hind it was about to be, we had to move.

We found an awesome realtor who was so helpful – such a blessing….and we are forever grateful for his kindhearted ways and professional expertise.

We have bought and sold lots of homes over our 34 years, moving all around the states, which has meant lots of home showings over the years with lots of kids living at home.

Personally speaking though, keeping the house sparkling cleaning for house showings is probably my very favoritest thing in the entire universe.  Bar none.  Totally kidding, of course.  It’s a stinkin’ nightmare in my personal opinion, and yes, I cringed {for real} every time I thought about having to have a showing.  Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I, honestly, could hardly bare the thought….but I knew there was no other way, and so I had to daily say to the Lord…reminding Him of His word which says “His grace IS sufficient”….

So with 9 kids living at home, we made our home look as much like a model home as we possibly could and for 20 showings we disappeared while random people snooped around….to see if they could picture their family living there…..

We prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted some more and after those 20 stinkin’ showings, we got an offer.  Thank you Jesus.

And after a speck of negotiations, we all signed the papers.

In the meantime, we prayed, fasted and prayed some more.   And watched the Lord close some doors {literally} and open another….and here we are…and tomorrow I will do a Memorial Box Monday post about how sweet He provided and how this time around, He turned our stupidity into something pretty doggone close to perfect.

He is always faithful {even when we make stupid mistakes}.