Cupcakes

The other night while sitting at the computer I was thinking of all we've done since last summer. We've been through a lot.
Here is a portion of what I thought of-
*Travis moved to Ft. Worth by himself (starting a new job, living in a microapartment)- leaving the girls and I in OH (it was terrible really. Terrible doesn't describe it. I saw a picture of the girls and I during that time the other day and I felt sick)
*Packing up, cleaning up, and getting the girls and I out of our house by myself (I still think back and know God had to be there secretly feeding me energy bars) and to AR
*Moving away from friends that we had worked extremly hard to make in OH
*Getting our new house broken into less than a week after we moved in
*Finding all new dance, gymnastics, stores, and a place to get our car repaired
*Having all the normal stressors of moving in- extra expenses, exhaustion, the whole figuring out how to live together again thing, etc
*Packing up and traveling for three weeks during Christmas- I know we always do it, but it is crazy and tiring and a huge blessing all at the same time
*Getting back to TX after Christmas to us all being really sick- two weeks of sickness is not my idea of a good time
*Trying to get back to homeschooling Olivia so she doesn't miss kindergarten totally :)
*My dad having a major heart attack a couple of weeks ago
*Living with fire ants in our house- I grow more angry at them daily. I do not like having to keep the vacuum plugged up so I can vacuum everytime I take a shower-although, hopefully we are going to see the end of them soon- "They'll be gone in three weeks ma'am. If not, give me a call." And it's been three weeks now. Guess who is getting a call tomorrow?

And the list goes on, but while thinking about all of this- I see God smoothed over all of those things. Seriously- reading those things makes me feel overwhelmed, but I did not feel that way in the middle of them at all (well, maybe in the whole moving us out of our house in OH). Making them each doable and not overly stressful. I am grateful for how he has used the past few years to change us, make our marriage better, and to make us more like him- and open my eyes to still how crazy far we have to go. We are so blessed. Amazingly blessed. We just got to visit the apartment complex of some refugees last weekend (more to come on that!) and it was amazing to see how little they have and how much we have to be thankful for. I am pretty sure living in the desert for years and then traveling to a new continent is a little more difficult than anything I have or will ever face. They'd probably happily shake fire ants off of their towels and vacuum them up- if they had a vacuum. I am so grateful for God's abundant provision and regardless of the situation we are in- I am thankful that I know it won't last forever!