Getting By with a Little Help

When Andrew left three weeks ago, I had anticipated an increase in responsibilities while he was away.  I was all geared up to take on house cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, running errands, doing dishes, taking care of the yard, and becoming a landlord by myself on top of working full time.  I knew I was going to be busy, but I was confident that I could handle everything.  I knew that, for the few weeks we are apart, my role was supportive: bringing in a couple extra paychecks, making sure our tenants got moved in okay, and preparing our house and yard for being left for a few months. 

And yet, along the way, I have found myself multiple times in unexpected circumstances; circumstances I HADN'T prepared for handling without Andrew home.  And I have been humbled to watch the way God had taken my not ideal situations and turned them around for His glory.  Each and every time, He has provided abundantly and assisted me in overcoming the unexpected. 

The biggest of these situations happened a week ago.  I came home after working a really difficult shift and I was very tired.  As I walked into our house, I realized the backyard had undergone a rather significant change as our tall and large oak tree had decided to call it quits and had fallen, landing on our shed.

I felt overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle such a scenario.  Even if I knew how to use a chainsaw, ours is not functioning very well, and this was a cleanup project bigger than I could handle alone.  Too tired to handle anything on Sunday night, I waited until Monday morning to get a better look at our new landscape and work on a solution.  Andrew and I prayed over this, and God provided so abundantly.  Saturday morning, family, college friends, church friends, co-workers, tenants, and even a handful of people I've never met before arrived with chainsaws and willing spirits to take on this project.  They worked so quickly and efficiently that in just over an hour, they had transformed our backyard into something much more appropriate to leave behind when I go to England later this week.  We were so blessed and humbled to have so many folks happily assist us in turning a daunting and overwhelming situation into a quick and easy project.  In addition to this, the shed barely looks any worse than before the tree fell on it!

To everyone who came out to help, thank you so much!  We cannot thank you enough for your help.  God is good, all the time.  We are excited to continue seeing God move and work in these coming months.