The house fire was more extensive than we realized at first. But here we are, almost 6 months later, ready to move into the new house in a week or two. Well, not totally new house...the foundation and the four outside brick walls remained. Everything else is totally new! When the house caught on fire, I had H1N1 and pneumonia...apparently I got sick while in Gatlinburg. Definitely not a good way to start the new year.

We had the fire. I was sick. Becky delayed her trip back to California for a few days. John-Paul had just gotten to Florida to visit with his in-laws for the holidays and he came back home to help us. Thanks, Allie, for letting us use your washer and dryer! The dogs were put in a boarding kennel. We were living in a motel trying to make sense of everything and trying to figure out what to do next. It was an unbelievably crazy, chaotic time. But oddly enough, Tim and I had a real sense of peace about us. We never cried or grieved over the loss of our house or the things in the house. Things come. Things go. Things can be replaced. We are so very thankful for God's protection and provision in times of need. He protected us...none of us were hurt - even though Becky did run back in the burning house to rescue Belle, our aged boxer! (and yes, she has been thoroughly scolded for this!!). He protected us, and we have seen His hand of provision and His favor throughout this entire process. Many things came to light through this that we never would have known about otherwise. A lot of good changes have come through this. We've met some wonderful people as a result as well.

Two weeks after the fire, just as I was returning to work, the earthquake hit Haiti and it became instantly overwhelmingly crazy at work! In case you don't know, Tim and I both work for Operation Compassion, an international disaster relief organization. So when there's a disaster somewhere, we respond. This was a huge disaster and our response was huge.

So, here we were...muddling through the process of a house fire; working with insurance people, building contractors, cleaning companies, etc etc etc, trying to get better physically, and working long days at the office to help others going through much more devastating losses than what we had experienced. And in the middle of all the craziness, our building contractor had a quadruple by-pass operation and was off the job for several weeks. Could anything else happen?! But again, at night when we got home we had such a sense of peace. We slept good. We knew God was in control.

The re-building of our house has been a real learning experience. I've learned a lot. It's been a fun, albeit tiring, experience. We moved into a townhouse in February, the house was coming along beautifully and we were looking to move in around the first of May. Tim and I had had a vacation scheduled for a week in April for quite some time and even though we really didn't want to go at that time, we figured we needed the break. So, off we went to Myrtle Beach. We had a great time. Until the end of the week, that is. Tim got sick the last couple of days there. Very sick. We came home, he went to the doctor and was put immediately in the hospital. He had a nasty gall bladder complete with a full set of stones that had to be removed and a rowdy, rambunctious, rebellious gallstone that wouldn't cooperate. It insisted on leaving the gall bladder and getting lodged in the bile duct, causing Tim excruciating pain, toxic build-up, jaundice and a bunch of other problems. He was in the hospital for a week. So, a week in Myrtle Beach, a week in the hospital and a week at home recuperating means Tim missed 3 weeks from work and 3 weeks from staying on top of things at the house.

Still, the peace remains. Life happens a day at a time, hour by hour, and that's how we take it. Tim is back at work, back to keeping up with the house, back to putting out fires and solving problems - which he does amazingly well :o) and almost back to normal. Life won't be back to normal - as we know it - until we're back in the house. Hopefully, that will happen within the week. The house looks great, by the way! The only big thing to be done now is installing appliances and they should be delivered this week! Yay!!!

So, here we are. It is May 18th and looking back, 2010 has not been at all like I thought it would be. But that's ok. God knows the end from the beginining and I trust Him to take me there.

Becky leaves in less than a week for India. I am so amazed at that girl, and so stinkin proud of her! She is following God's call on her life and that makes me proud. I am very thankful that God chose me to be her mother. What a blessing I have been given and entrusted with. How do I feel about her going? This blog would be waaaaay to long to even go there. Just know this...I have a very real peace about it. A God-given peace. No other way to describe it.

Peace, peace, wonderful peace...coming down from the Father above. All is in His hands and I can sleep knowing that He is going with her. I can't go, but I know He is and that makes it good.

Thank God for His peace. The peace that passes understanding. A trite phrase? No indeed...not at all. I do not pretend to understand how we can have peace throughout all we've been through and in seeing Becky go to India. It passes my feeble understanding, but it is very real. His peace. Thank God for His peace!