Joy and Pain go together

 These are my babes all outside fighting over who gets the rakes!  PRAISE GOD!  I mean who doesn't want that?  They spent hours cleaning up our yard from all the leaves.  Note:  Ummm.....we have no grass.  Long story short the last people who lived here put in a grass that needs loads of time and attention, and isn't meant to be walked on.  Soooo......you can see how long that lasted in our yard.  ;) 

 Then we got the news that our lines for our septic system lines were no good.  As we were working on "putting it off a little longer" let's just say stuff started coming back up into the downstairs bathroom......yeah.......  So this started happening.   
*As explained earlier- yes it's weird we live in town and have a septic system.  We were told the lines were bad a few weeks back when we got several bad news things.....and thought maybe we could put it off a little longer? 

 What did we do?  To keep my sanity....I hadn't planned on taking Spring Break this week because we typically don't follow the "school schedule".  This was forced decision because I woke up without a voice over the weekend.  Sooo......

 We played, laughed, and danced......

 Created and played some more.

 This is Michael with one of his favorite toys- cars!  Awww......boy through and through! 

 We kept dancing......because you know - why not? 

 We just took some serious break time and hung out, and as you can see my babes grabbed the camera! 

 Yes, this is called self incrimination.  I don't own "yoga pants", but I do own lots of fun colored, pj pants that are very fuzzy.  I know, strange but true.  I wear them anytime I am not having to go anywhere.  YES that means I homeschool in them a lot!!  So drop on by, don't be worried, but don't expect me to be in something formal because that is just not my personality. 

 So when we checked next time out our back door.....this is what we saw!  Yep......  Loads of dirt everywhere. 
(That hot tub......has never been used once by us.  It cost a lot of money to run, and we never used it because we had the pool.  Sorry...just didn't make the time to figure out the chemicals, etc.  So we sold it!  So this should be gone sometime soon!  I am thrilled.)

 This is what our field lines look like....a bunch of black tubes wrapped together to create this.  Just in case you wanted to know. 

 As you can see the "pit was deep! 

 Our poor tree.....

 Seemed like this went on forever!  Oh and just to note our backyard still looks like this today.  We have to wait until an inspector comes around and inspects it.  Then we will have to wait for them to "rake back in the dirt.  Our dog has also lost "his home" and is forced to live in our garage which he is not a fan of. 

Sooo....the run down. 

*Our air conditioner was dead, but we had someone put a patch on it for $60!  YEA!  For now......

*Our dishwasher died as well, but that was under warranty.....fixed for free, a week later......

*Our refrigerator died, and the repair was more costly than the refrigerator was worth...perfect....so we replaced it.  Thank you Lord for a check coming that we weren't even thinking about that helped with this!!!!
Plus my man got a 10% discount, and there was a deal at Lowe's for rebate gift cards, and we got 10% more discount because the refrigerator showed up with a "ding" in the back.  No one looks at the back of your refrigerators anyway!  WAHOOO!!! 

*Our field lines died......total cost a little under $3,000.....no flushing or running water for over 3 whole days....no laundry, only one flush per day (hey at least we have 3 toilets but still), lots of hand sanitizer, no showers (except Jason and I went to my aunt Jane's house at nights)......  Good things- 1) The guy who came to do the work was interested in adoption!  Jason talked with him about adoption and this guy has 5 kids so he gave him our card.  We were able to witness to him and him to us.  He bought our hot tub!  We also got our tax refund literally the day we had to pay this huge chunk of change. 

New things....oh yea you didn't expect that to be all did you? 

*The hose on our washer machine feeds into the pvc pip- that literally popped off, leaving loads of water everywhere in our garage.  Thankfully my hubby was able to fix it.

*When going to take out and rinse off the cartridge for our pool the housing for it broke and we couldn't physically get to the filter.  Hard to explain, but it broke.  New one was ordered at the tune of a few hundred dollars.  Again, Jason found the best deal he could.  It arrived- the pressure gauge was broken!  Seriously!  Jason called, and they are sending a new one.  Jason picked up parts for plumbing to reinstall it himself.

*The solar heating for the pool on our roof- is not working, as in spraying water all over our roof!  :(  So Jason is bypassing it, and will eventually take it off the roof.  :(

*And......drum roll please.......if you have followed this saga on FB I posted we were supposed to have water/waste back up and running.....and then- no.  Didn't happen and we waited for a plumber to come out to get it checked out (almost 24hrs later).  He got the line opened up between the house and the septic tank.  However, he dug up - hey what's a little more right?- a bit more to see that the line from our home to the tank is an old line that is "squished" so to speak.  And may collapse anytime in the next year.  PERFECT!!!!  Because it goes under our deck that also needs to be replaced as well.  That pipe should only cost another $1,000!!! 

If I didn't believe in God.  I would totally curl up in a corner and have a mental breakdown!  As it is both Jason and I have come very very close!  BUT I do believe in God.  I believe HE is sooo much bigger than our stuff!!!! 

 So we continue to play! 

 Be silly! 

Have a lot of fun in the midst of our crisis going on over here.  This morning I reposted from a friend a quote from John Piper.  The quote hit me between the eyes!  Then another friend reposted it, and added a bit more- which I really loved!!!  So I am stealing it and putting it here and I hope that in all your chaos or calm that you are in that you breathe in these words! 

So many times I feel "crazy, insufficient, unprepared, and unqualified" for the ministry of adoption and then I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:9 -- "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

And then John Piper reminds me that I'M never to be sufficient enough! Christ does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called! If I can do anything in my own power, Christ is not exalted...may He be glorified in my weakness!

If you are sufficient for your task, it's too small.
-John Piper

NEXT- I have 2 prayer requests.  1) Is for our family.  Whenever there is an attack from satan this strong we know that there is a reason.  We have gone through some other struggles in our hearts and in our home as well. 

2)  If you have followed my blog for a while you will remember a very special person in our lives Tracie Loux!!!!  She is an amazing momma of many and the one that helped us bring our Joanna and Michael home.  Now we are co-workers and I deeply love this person and her family with all my heart.  

They have a little boy named Mattie.....who had a very very rough start on life.  He is a miracle - actually a million miracles all in one.  He was just sitting up, being silly, making funny faces, singing, and playing a little over a week ago......and now he needs another miracle and a lot more prayers!!!!  

PLEASE PLEASE PRAY!!!  THANK YOU!!!!  Go here to find out more..... and you can look at the last few posts to see a glimpse of what has been happening.......