To laugh or cry...

I can tell you Friday I was laughing, but today, Wednesday, I am crying.  So much has gone on over the last 4 days you wouldn't believe it even if I told you (don't worry I will tell you).  But to put it all together seems to be to much.  I can tell you up until today, it didn't feel that way, today I feel the pressure of all of it.

You see this last weekend we celebrated Matthew's 4th birthday.  So Friday, was the run around and go crazy day, go grocery shopping, out to lunch with in laws (mama had been couped up in the house all week and well we wanted to take Matthew out), then the making of the cake, and don't forget, we are last minute shoppers.  So of course after dinner, I went out to Toys' R Us with my sister to pick up Matthew's bike.

We came home and I started putting the cake together as Pat finished something up.  After finished Pat said, Hey I am going to go out to the car and get the bike so I can get it put together (we would never pay the $10 to have it put together, I mean come on, he has Pat as his dad :-)) I kid you not, 3 minutes later he comes in and says Laura your back window just completely shattered.  I said, yea right!  I mean anyone who know us, knows, that we are constantly harassing and teasing each other.  I just thought this was another one of his pranks.  He said, NO REALLY my hands are cut look.  So after realizing he wasn't kidding, I went down to inspect the damage, sure enough, my back window had just exploded.  If it wasn't for my brother in law being there, and seeing the whole thing happen, Pat and I would have both checked our sanity at the door.  I mean we had used that door several times that day with groceries and other things and it was fine.

For no reason just EXPLODES.

Then being married to the man I am, he wants to fix it himself.  I get that and he would do an awesome job.  However, trying to find the glass was proving difficult and the experience that went with it we could of done without, hindsight.  So after some searching, and help from guys at Pats work, we found a piece in Fredericksburg.

Pat got up early on Sunday and drove down there.  They were wrong, they did not have the glass we needed then to make matters worse, when driving out of the parking lot, he high-centered his car, and then as he was trying to free it, broke the jack!  I mean come on!!!!

So he comes home and we call Geico and get a date and time set up for the new window.  We figure good, were done!

Then Tuesday Pat walks out of work to find his back drivers side tire going flat with a screw in it.  Well he figures I will baby it home and then change.  Nope, got stuck on 28 with a flat tire and the jack that broke on Sunday from going down to get glass from that place in Fredericksburg, barely was useable!  Luckily he was able to get the spare mostly the way on before it broke the rest of the way.  He just muscled the last bit.   

Today, ah, today...I figure stay home day, nothing can happen right.  I mean I am starting to get to the point where I am a little paranoid.

I had called the kids down for lunch and we had sat there talking and eating for 45 mins and then Pat calls.  Were talking, I am cleaning dishes and Maddy mentions the ceiling was bubbling.  I told Pat that the ceiling was bubbling no big deal, probably just tape from the house settling, can be fixed later.  Then the ceiling in the kitchen started to POUR  water!!!!  I told Pat I had to let him go, apparently I never hung the phone up, and he heard it all.  After figuring out what had happened I went to call him but he was already on the line (I think a God thing b/c I can never get a hold of him at work!)  and told him what was going on and he said he was on his way.  
Matthew had been upstairs playing in the bathroom.  He plugged the sink, and left the water on.  It ran for anywhere from an hour to hour and half, guessing from the times he was telling us what he and I was doing.

 Anyway, there is water that poured out 2 places in the kitchen, went into the pantry, not to mention the carpet in front of the bathroom was saturated.  The overflow valve on the sink never took and so out came the water....and down through the ceiling...

So in the last week and half this has been my life:
coffee pot (ok this one was really on Valentines day, but so important to my life, everything else in last 2 weeks!)
Iron
Washer
Pats 2 month old Timberlands: :about a 5 inch part on the side just popped open!
Trailblazers back windshield
Passat jack
Passat tire
Kictchen and water damaged ceiling

I mean look at this list...who does this happen to?!  I mean come on, I give you one, 2 maybe in a month, or every few weeks, but really all in the last 2 mostly, last week and half!!!

I know that nothing happens without it passing through our fathers hands.  I KNOW THIS.   But today I just broke, I feel like my nerves and my SANITY has been grated down to nothing.

The only perk out of all this is, we now have a surgery date for Pat. June 9th at 8 am.  We are both very excited and just keep holding to this.  We firmly believe that someone is not happy with the choices we are making.  Whether its stepping out in this way for our family, the subject manner were walking our lifegroup through (GREAT STUFF on not holding onto offense and learning to forgive, powerful messages that can change the very way we think and mostly REACT.), the ministry opportunity we are walking into, or just the very fact we live a very outward and open life.  I can tell you though, I will NOT BE SHAKEN.  My God is good, my God is LOVE, and HE will work it out.  HE IS A SAVIOR, a REDEEMER!

I know that we are on the path we are meant to be on.  Walking the very will of God in our lives.  But funny things about paths, THEY DON'T HOLD YOU!
It is OBEDIENCE that keeps you there.  And though this is rough and doesn't make sense, we will continue to stay on this path, because OBVIOUSLY its just where we need to be.  You don't encounter this much opposition if your walking outside God's will.

It is in these moments we are refined.  The way gold is refined.  Disruption, chaos, instability, these are the moments in life when the impurities come out and God, the a master craftsman, begins to refine us to be what he is calling us to be.  As this process goes on, the impurities and imperfections come out and we are made new, better, bolder, STRONGER.  I mean at the end of it all, we will have a new Skelton family member, and that is a joy, but there is a whole journey that will get us there, and its in that journey that faith will be built and trust.  So refine us Lord, bring us to where you need us to be.