22 Blessings of 2022

22 Blessings of 2022 

(Yesterday's post on challenges in black, today the blessings that came from those challenges in red)

1. COVID hit our home, forcing Juan and I to cancel our plane tickets on January 1st to fly to Indiana for Mike's dad's funeral. Actually, since I didn't make it to the funeral, Matt stayed in Warsaw for longer than expected with Mike and David, and Chrissy did her best to keep three little boys entertained on her own in Columbus. One of those days, she ended up at the library, where she randomly met Laurie from New Song Mission and found out they needed a teacher. All while Mike was praying for God to draw MY HEART to Indiana if He wanted us to move there. Like puzzle pieces coming together. 
2. Starting off the year with Mike and David in Indiana for 3 straight weeks, bringing them home in a snowstorm and very icy roads with a trailer full of many of his dad's things. But the blessing is that they made it home SAFELY, just in time for David to head back to school at DBU a day later. I also had a very bonding time with Juan and cherished the opportunity to take care of him through that. 
3. Wrestling through the thoughts of the possibility of moving to Indiana for Mike and I to pursue a business venture/mission opportunity--moving closer to his family and much further away from mine. God very unmistakably called me to New Song Mission. I felt it deep within my soul as soon as I set foot on campus. Now when I talk to people here that are connected to New Song, they always say, "Thank you for answering the call."
4. Finding the right words, timing, opportunity to tell Juan and the rest of my family about the possibility of moving away from them (Still think this in itself was by far my greatest challenge of the year) Juan needed a push to step up and step out. He wants to do everything on his own timetable (don't we all?), even if it means he lets a million opportunities slip by him. This was God's way of forcing him to take responsibility for himself. It may have been exceptionally hard to tell my family, but at the same time, I am grateful that they get to see me working on the mission field God has been preparing me for and that they supported me to follow the call. 
5. Big ice storms in Texas If it weren't for the ice storms, I don't know how I could have managed to find time for daytime phone calls and interviews with New Song. 
6. Working retail as a manager (Mike) with ever-changing schedules It's such an incredible blessing to now work with his brother rather than trying to manage a bunch of associates that really didn't care about doing their job and wanted to call in sick every other day (and then be looked down upon because the work didn't get done with less associates than planned).
7. Being far away from his mom (Mike) while trying to help her navigate life as a widow and make decisions on changes in housing Mike's mom moved out of the old house and closed on a new-to-her home just a few doors down from where Mike and I first lived when we got married. She's so happy to have all her boys in the same state and within driving distance. We've already seen each other often, and hopefully we'll be able to visit more with her once our house doesn't need so much time and work done on it.
8. Finding the right time to resign from my 19-year-teaching-career (in the same school) to give my principal the respect of having time to fill my position yet wanting to respect my own need for privacy (I'm that introvert that would have rather just disappeared over the summer months than to have to be the center of everyone's questions and/or gossip). I was able to resign and my principal kept it quiet for me as long as possible. He also highly praised me both personally and publicly for my quiet leadership and dedication to the school for so many years. 
9. Juan got into an accident and didn't have a car (other than his work truck) for our last several weeks in Texas Juan not having a car for personal use during such a critical time period forced him to have to rely on me to take him places, including the gym and apartment hunting. It actually gave us extra bonding time that we would not have had and gave me a chance to be there with him when he found the apartment where he felt right at home. 
10. Starting out my first summer evening thinking a relaxing night awaited me while Mike, David, and Juan went outside to work on landscaping to get the house ready to sell, only to rush to rescue my cat from a strange fall and get bit by him, landing me in the hospital for two days a week later. So much for just having paid off all my medical bills from my post-covid heart issues the year before. Somehow I felt very calm and at peace as I sat in the ER and heard them tell me they were admitting me for the next 24-48 hours. I had time with David as he stayed by my side in the ER, I had time with my mom when she came to visit, time with a friend who brought me nuts to snack on, and just a lot of time alone in a quiet room, forcing me to rest and just BE shortly before I moved. I was thankful for my sweet cardiologist who saw the infection in my leg and insisted I get seen immediately. Who knows what may have happened if I ignored it one more day, thinking it wasn't that bad. And thankfully the profit we made on the house sale provided extra funds to pay on the new medical bills.
11. Having our first house contract fall through right before we had already arranged to move, leaving us to move anyway without the house funds we hoped to have to help with the move We thought we were all set to close just in time to move, until we realized we'd been taken advantage of, so we had to back out of the deal. The house went back on the market and sold very quickly AFTER we moved, and we closed just hours before our current house and property went on the market. 
12. Moving--especially having to pack a truck (Mike and David) when it was 107 degrees outside and then overloading the truck, making it very difficult to get up hills during the drive, specifically the very LAST hill. We had to call my brother-in-law in the middle of the night (he was up waiting for us, anyway) to bring his excursion to pull us up that last hill to get to his house. Our overloaded truck (too many heavy tools, I think?) and our caravan behind it (David and I each driving a separate vehicle, each with a cat in tow) made it safely to Columbus, IN on the morning of July 10th. About 2:30 in the morning to be exact, once Matt pulled us up the hill. 
13. One of my closest co-workers lost her husband to a lung disease, and then about two weeks after that, my closest friend lost her husband to cancer. Ten weeks later, she was diagnosed with a very rare cancer herself and is fighting her own battle now amidst her grief. The same day she was diagnosed, I found out that another close coworker who had just lost her own husband within the year also lost her son to a heart attack. Knowing your friends are hurting so very deeply is so hard, especially when you are suddenly so far away. I don't want to say any of this is a blessing, but I was very thankful to be able to attend all three of my friends' husbands' funerals, and then to be able to unexpectedly see all three of those dear friends when I went back to Texas for David's emergency. I hope my visit was a comfort to them, but just being able to see them was a real gift to my soul. 
14. Arriving at New Song Mission as the new, long-prayed-for teacher only to find out that we did not have houseparents, meaning we could not house students, meaning we had to delay the start of school for at least the first 9 weeks. (Try explaining that to people who knew you moved away for a very unique teaching position, especially to those who were skeptic about it.) Actually, hearing that I had the first 9 weeks to work in a quiet environment to prepare for the rest of the school year was music to this introvert's ears. And oh, how I loved our team meetings, starting out praying in faith for God to draw a new set of houseparents and bring them in time for the 2nd nine weeks of school. We all faithfully prayed for the ability to have kids back on campus by October 17th. But as the time got closer and the right houseparent fit didn't appear, we started asking God what could be his purpose for yet another delay. We had kids waiting to come, now so disappointed that they weren't going to be able to. Especially my one online student who wanted nothing more than to be in "real school". Thankfully, we added a new expansion to our ministry by putting our energy into hosting a retreat for the moms of our campers/future students by partnering with a ministry in Indianapolis. We quickly saw the reason for God's delay in bringing houseparents, though, reminding us that He saw things we didn't see. First COVID took two of our four person team out for a week, leaving only two of us to host the retreat. And then during the retreat, David had a pretty serious accident that left me no choice but to fly back to Texas in an emergency with no idea how quickly I could return, never imagining I wouldn't be able to come back for three weeks! Also my teammate was asked to join a mission team for one of those weeks to help with hurricane relief because she has skills that are invaluable to such a cause. We all scattered for the month of November, precisely when God drew that special couple from Indianapolis to be the houseparents we'd so faithfully prayed for. And now we are extra prepared and have given the school a more solid foundation and an enhanced curriculum to teach our students. Plus we have an even stronger relationship now with the ministry in Indianapolis that connected us with our students and their moms. 
15. Finally living close to Mike's brother's family, only for them to all be extremely sick with COVID-like symptoms and a cough that lasted for weeks. I had a bad stomach issue that kept me grounded, in close proximity to bathrooms (not sure if it was the water, the probiotics I was taking after so many antibiotics for the cat bite, or just that the antibiotics had torn my stomach apart), but it thankfully passed. Mike and David both got whatever Matt and Chrissy's family had in late August, but have been fine ever since then. Matt and Chrissy's family had another round of sickness and lingering coughs, but everyone seems to finally be on the mend. This has definitely been the year that everyone's sick, all the time. I'm just thankful that this year, as inconvenient and miserable as it is, we're not all fearing for our life.
16. Making yourself at home in a small RV on the beautiful campus at New Song, only to have the AC make a loud noise in the middle of the night and not be able to find a part to fix it for quite a long time. When that AC went out, it was really hot outside! And super hot inside the camper. I tried to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon and woke up soaking wet from sweating. We tried to make do with fans and windows open, but it was just too much. Thankfully, we were able to take the cats and some clothes into the campus center at New Song (right above my classroom) and sleep there. The few days we asked for turned into several weeks, maybe even a month. So we pretty much had moved in. It was actually a beautiful experience, giving us a chance to spread out, hang our clothes in a large walk-in-closet, bathe in a normal size tub and shower, cook in a full-size kitchen, and truly feel at home at New Song. That was the one period of time this year that I did not have to fight for that sacred space and time in the mornings. I either sat at the large kitchen table as I watched the sun rise or I took Boots out on his leash so I could sit on the deck and look over the quiet pond or watch the deer playing just over the hill. And I didn't have far to go to work each day as I walked down the stairs to get to my classroom. We never did fix the AC, but we moved the camper to our own property the day after we closed in early September and moved back in. In Indiana, the weather was perfect by September to sleep with the windows open as fall approached quickly. 
17. David getting the same COVID-like symptom sickness on the day he left to make his first ever 14 hour drive alone from Columbus, IN to Dallas. That independent boy barely said a word about being so sick, though he did ask for some medicine before he headed out that morning. He was determined to prove his independence by making that drive on his own that day, and thankfully he made it safely to DBU, despite being so, so sick. 
18. Torrents of rain that fell on Dallas (after a long drought) on the first day of class at DBU, soaking David's backpack, ruining his laptop that he obviously needed for classes He was sick, and then his laptop stopped working. He'd budgeted enough money for gas, food, and books, but not for a new computer at the start of the semester. So he started that first week in a panic over money, going broke very fast. But between an unexpected gift that came in the mail and the kindness of someone at church, he was blown away at how God blessed him and provided for his needs. Those situations are so hard and stressful, but when you get to see God provide for you, it's always worth the struggle. 
19. Dealing with awful stomach/digestive issues the entire first month I was in Indiana I always made sure there was a bathroom nearby, especially after I ate or drank anything. When my friend in Texas started having a lot of restroom related issues, I had extra empathy for her because I'd just been through my own issues. Sometimes God lets us go through physical ailments just to help us physically understand someone else's pain or discomfort. 
20. Buying an 85-year-old house that needed a LOT of work and complete renovation and then having to wait almost 2 months to close on said house. Then having to live in it while renovating it. God is teaching me a lot about contentment, gratitude, and patience. Backstory: I read through a book earlier in the year about respecting your husband alongside several other women in our marriage group. A chapter that really convicted me was about entering my husband's world and getting involved in things that he enjoys. My husband is a very outdoorsy guy. He likes to work on trucks and then play around in them in the mud. (I HATE mud.) He likes to run equipment, mow the lawn, etc. I knew when I read that chapter that this is an area where I have miserably failed. Moving onto this large property out in the country in a house that needs so much work is completely out of my element, but 100% in his element. This is my chance to respect him by entering his world and at least try to find enjoyment in it. It's also a chance for me to see him in his element and appreciate all he does and can do to transform it and make it better. 
21. David got into a mountain-biking accident, broke both of his arms and dislocated both of his wrists and had to have surgery right away. He would need 24 hour care for several weeks and could not go back to school for the rest of the semester due to not being able to use either of his arms for at least two months. He could not fly for at least two weeks after his surgery, but he had nowhere to go because we had just moved a thousand miles away. It's been complicated, and expensive, for sure. And quite uncomfortable and humbling for David, to say the least. But the way God took care of him and us for those three weeks in Texas, gave me the opportunity to see and visit friends and family, gave Juan an unexpected family birthday celebration, gave David a chance to see progress on the house, spend time with his dad watching Cowboys games and Mavericks games together, and to see his dad in a more freeing atmosphere has been priceless. Everyone has a story, and this is something that God always had planned to weave into David's story for some purpose. It's definitely been a gift to celebrate his birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and soon New Year's with him. God has definitely had a purpose for him to spend a LOT of time in Indiana this year (3 weeks in the beginning of the year with Mike helping clean out the garage and barn in my mother-in-law's old house, a week in March for my interview at New Song, almost 6 weeks in the summer helping with the move and then working with his uncle's business, and now two months to end the year and start the new one before he heads back to start a new semester at DBU while finishing up the semester he had to cut short.) All such unexpected changes to his life, but none without purpose. 
22. Not having anywhere to feel settled and at home, even now 3 1/2 months after purchasing our house and property. Seems pretty minor compared to some of the other challenges, but honestly, not feeling truly at home anywhere is very unsettling. I hate feeling scattered and unsettled. But what a better time than Christmas to remember that Christ left heaven behind to be born in a dark, cold, dirty stable to grow up in a world full of uncomfortable surroundings and situations. But for the joy set before him, he endured it. Mike and Matt have a vision for this house that I haven't always seen. It's forcing me to learn patience and to trust, to be grateful for the little things and for baby steps. It's brought family together and put me in a position where I don't know how to cope or do much of anything, forcing me to rely on family that does know what they're doing. Just like David being put in situations where his independent spirit has to rely on others to aid him with the most basic survival skills, God is doing the same for me. 

Have there been other blessings this year? Of course. But I think these reiterate the point that sometimes you have to go through the ugly parts of life to get to the beautiful parts. Each hardship is also a blessing (or perhaps many blessings) in disguise. So I'm learning to embrace both the good and the bad and to be thankful for it all.