Picking up the pieces

Peaks and valleys, a roller coaster ride, a nightmare or as I like to refer to it and can best describe it.......the past four months have been as if we were in an airplane V E R Y    S   L   O   W   L   Y crashing to earth. 

During this time we watched everything around us slowly fall thousands of feet through the air down to the ground where we CRASH!

Everything falling apart, being destroyed, torn up from the high impact of the crash!!!!! 

Once you land you feel pain, you hurt, your confused and you are MAD as hell! You have done everything in your power to make things work!  How can this be happening to us?!?!  Everything we have worked so hard to build is GONE! 

You want to scream and fight your way out of this mess, but HOW?!?! 

You then look around and find that you have all the things you need and love right there with you.
Besides that you know you have a strong faith! 
You know you have a Mighty God that can do all things!!! 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

So you fight!!!  You fight your way through all the rubble and start picking up the pieces.

And with every fiber of your being you pray!! And put as much trust as you can muster up in your Heavenly Father!!!!!!

And that is the true test! 

It continues to be our daily test.   A test to believe and trust in Him to get us through all this. 

The airplane crash is my story, but I love my amazing husband's story too......a different kind of crash.

His goes like this:
The wave we have been riding has crashed ashore.  Now it is time to swim back out and catch a new one!

It is no secret and quite frankly there is not shame here either.  I am an open book.  Always have been, probably always will be.  For crying out loud I blog about our life!!!!!! 

Brant had a very successful business for 12 years.  Life happened and things started to go down hill.  Things changed, economy changed and the rest is history.

Mark my word people......life is not always cupcakes and FUN Fridays!!!!

You may remember we had wanted to move last summer.  And a time before that.  It just never worked out....until now! 
I had posted a few weeks ago about putting the house on the market. 
It went on the market July 3rd.  Within minutes(literally...the sign was not even in the yard!)we had a call for a showing.  And then our second showing on Thursday, July 5th.  He was very interested our realtor told us!!  Friday he made an offer and ONLY five days of our home being on the market we signed a contract.  It was really happening this time!  And all going so fast!!!!
Had God sent us a buyer?  It sure felt that way! 
Can you say this potential buyer was a  "Godsend"?!  Yes, YES.....I can!!!!

But why did God makes us go through the "crash"?  At this point I have no idea.....maybe one day.  The ups and downs, the highs and lows were torture!  But through it all He was pulling us closer to him!  Trying to teach us to give the whole situation over to Him to deal with. 

At one point during it all I realized that and put all my trust and faith in Him alone.  Once I did that I felt a total peace about the whole thing! 

I was truly able to say, Your will God, not mine!

No, I had no idea if good or bad would come from the sell of our home.  And it didn't matter anymore.  I knew that peaceful feeling meant God was in control and whatever He wanted for our lives would be perfect!

Packing is well underway right now as you've seen in the pictures.  And plans are being made to move six hours down the road.  Six hours back home closer to family. 

We had wanted to move closer to family before, but would have never planned it this way!  God's timing is amazing.

During the past several months I have had many verses I cling to and pray about.  But I keep going back to a book a friend gave me years ago.  I highly recommend it!!!

31 Days of Praise by Ruth Myers

I keep going back to these paragraphs, that have been underlined for years, and try to apply them to our situation now.  I hope they encourage you too if you are going through some hard times.

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Even in troubled circumstances, or when God does not choose to work in spectacular ways, praise can help us view our situation through different lenses. It can help produce within us a restful invigorating inner climate.
True praise in unconditional. It's not an attempt to manipulate God into producing the precise results we hope for. Instead it helps us accept our situation as it is, whether or not He changes it. Continued praise helps us reach the place where we can say,
"Father, I don't want You to remove this problem until You've done all You want to do through it, in me and in others."
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WOW!  For me that is powerful stuff!!!! 

We have no idea what the future holds for this new journey in our life.  But I do know God's plan will be amazing!!

As I pack up a home we built 12 years ago, think about leaving my baby sister and SO many good friends I have made through the years, I rest a little easier knowing God has this!

I'll try to update here and there, but for now I am busy picking up the pieces.
(And packing!!!!!)