Where God guides, He will provide

I saw that on a church sign the other day and it really hit home for me. We've had such a hard year, my illness & surgery and related medical bills; Bill's accident with his ankle; the rent house has sat empty for two months - but we still have to make mortgage payments on it. Stuff like that. Normal life I guess, but just a lot of it at once.

And then I realized that God has guided us AND He has provided for us. I think I needed to realize that yes, we have been able to afford both mortgage payments and the medical bills have all been set up with payment plans for the big ones and the small ones have been paid off. Bill was hurt bad enough, but it could have been worse - the achilles tendon could have been cut and that would have been catastrophic. Otter's healthy, she's had fewer and fewer asthma episodes as time goes by. We paid off my car 6 months early. We have food on the table, a roof over said table and clothes to wear. And we have quite a few extras as well. We have been blessed, we just don't always realize it. One of the biggest blessings is our family - all sides of it and every member of it.

So I've quit feeling sorry for myself and complaining. However, I have not totally put my soapbox away and I can drag it out to stand on at any moment! So expect me to be spouting off about something of the other at any time - you can't say you weren't warned! :)

I don't think I posted this after Tuesday, but maybe I did. So it might be a rerun. Well, it's rerun season on tv so I'm not going to worry about it! Anyway, at karate on Tuesday Otter earned her next belt test. It's on Saturday the 22nd. She will test for the brown belt. After the brown belt there is only one left - THE BIG ONE! There is a mid-step belt, black with a red stripe which is the intermediate step and nearly all of the kids have to go to the striped one before earing the actual Black Belt, but she's nearly there. It's still going to take several months, they don't rush the kids on the belts and they especially take time when they are close to earning the Black Belt. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one, and it's shining very brightly. She is really good at karate. So any boys who express an interest in dating her (and there have been several already, but she's not allowed yet) won't only have to be worried about dealing with her father if they get out of line with her! Maybe I should insist that she wear the Black Belt when she goes on dates! Yeah, that's a good idea. I think I'll suggest it to her - you'll probably hear her yelling at me!

The rent house is rented. I just heard from our agent, it's a done deal. That is also a blessing, by the way.