Counting my blessings...

These have all happened within the last 30 days

1) I got to go on a trip to go see my family in Florida.

2) Paul did a great job painting our bedroom & bathroom while I was gone.

3) Noah's bathtub got fixed (it was out of commission for about 5 months, so he was taking baths in the basement tub.) Our shower leak also got fixed.

4) The blood work test we have been wanting to do was on sale in January.

5) Our garage door got fixed (it is so nice to park in the garage again esp. in the winter).

6) Paul's brother gave him his painting truck, since they got a mini-van.

7) Paul also did a wonderful job painting the dining room, hall bathroom, and basement bathroom.

8) We got a gift certificate in the mail to one of our favorite resturants from a long-distance friend.

9) We got a new roof for FREE because of hail damage, and our insurance covered it. We even got an upgrade since the owner is a family friend of Paul's family. (They did the whole thing in one day... when it was in the 60's.)

10) We changed banks to Bank of Blue Valley, and we are now earning 5.5% interest on our checking account.

11) I got to see Harrison make a basket at the one game I was able to go to (due to Noah's nap schedule).

12) We joined the Jewish Community Center to work out and got half price discount for the year because Paul's cousin's wife works there. Also for $10.00 a month they watch Noah for up to 2 hours each time we go. We have been loving it and try to go 3 times a week.

13) We have a new niece, Cailin Joy Blake. If you want to see pictures, you can click on the link http://myjoyfulnoise.blogspot.com/

14) Noah has called me MaMa twice!! Normally he calls me Papa.

15) We had our first meeting with Rabbi and Susan about our community's role at Adat Yeshua, and it went well.

16) Paul has started a discussion group with some people taking the Jewish Roots class for the first time.

17) Two couples in our community got engaged.

18) I was able to book a trip to go to Chicago in late March. Paul is watching Noah so that I can go have some girl time. I will get to see Art's mom, my mom, the Olson family including little AJ, and Sarah Robertson who is a good friend from college who moved their last year.

19) I also booked a trip for Paul, Harrison, Noah and I to go to Florida at the beginning of May to see my parents, my sister's family and my gram! YEAH!

20) WE SOLD THE RED BRIDGE HOUSE!!!



I bought the Red Bridge house in 2005 with the idea to rent it out to women who are in crisis who need a place to get refreshed like I did after Art had gone to be with the Lord. We rented it primarily to a widow with kids and single moms with kids. Then we felt like it was time to sell. So we put it on the market in July and waited. In late October I was praying to see if we should take it off the market and try renting again since it wouldn't sell, but each time we would ask the Lord we felt like He said sell. Then a couple of weeks ago we found out that a couple had called Rhonda who has a ministry called Harvest Home. They said that back in late October the Lord had in the middle of the night impressed on the wife's heart that they were to buy our Red Bridge house and donate it to Harvest Home to be used for their women in crisis homes. For the last couple of months they had been praying about if this was really the Lord and they both felt like it was despite the loss in the economy right now. What an example of the Lord's faithfulness partnering with man's willingness to obey selflessly for the sake of others. We closed on the house on Friday! I am always amazed at how God does things. He is so good.