Such wonderful blessings

As I've said before, this has been a year of waiting. Well, a life of waiting, but you get the idea. We are continuing to see progress on our house, pretty much all that's left to do right now is put in the carpet, get the water running (which will be good b/c it seems like every time we go over to look at the house, I have to pee), and do the landscaping.

We close on the house on 6/22, and move in on 6/26. It seems like in the past year or two, the beginning to most sentences is "when we get a house, _______" (fill in the blank). I have been waiting...

waiting to have an organized and more spacious place to live

waiting to have a more fulfilling job

waiting to start a family that I've wanted since I was a little girl

waiting to actually run a clean and efficient home

...you get the picture.

In the past 2 years, especially, I have struggled with an incredible amount of discontent. Now sometimes I'm so perfectly happy and content, and then one thing will send me back into the pit. I've gone thru times when I wouldn't allow myself to read other peoples' blogs because I was jealous of them and what they were doing. It would actually cause my heart to sin. Who knew?

But last June, Mike and I joined a small group through our church, College Park Church. When Mike went to England last year, it hit me that we spend so much time working and sleeping and working that we don't really have a lot of friends who we meet with regularly to share the ups and downs of life. We have friends, but we usually only see them every few weeks, and only take a few minutes to talk and ask how the other is doing.

We have been SO blessed by our small group. We love them so much and always look forward to our meetings. The group consists of 9 couples (18 adults) and 18 children (including 4 Henney babies and 1 Sanders baby who live overseas) so it's a wild and fun bunch. We get together about every other Sunday and talk about the morning's sermon and we also have an opportunity to pray for each other. This is so sweet.

Almost all of the women in our group are stay-at-home moms, and to be honest, I find myself extremely jealous of them at times. They probably think I'm crazy, but being in their state of life, being a wife and a mom, taking care of the home... that's my dream. And they're living it right in front of me. Although, I have discovered that these women have so much knowledge and experience in what I hope to experience myself in the near future, and I look to them as incredible resources and kindred spirits. I know that when the day comes and we start a family, if I have concerns about something, I know that I'll be able to call them and be encouraged. I find myself in conversations at the table about potty-training and breastfeeding, etc and I used to tune it out... but now I listen. There is no baby on the way right now, just to be clear, but it's something that I hope will eventually change. I'm just so blessed to have these women in my life, and know that I'm not the only one who struggles with certain things. Thanks so much for your transparency, ladies!!

AND it's also a nice time to hold and play with precious little ones, and of course see Mike engage with them as well. THAT is downright comical at times.

As I'm sure many of you understand, it's hard to see the blessings in the midst of discontent. Hard to see the big picture... hard to see the forest for the trees, if you will. There are times that I feel (as silly as this sounds) that God has forgotten about me... I pray for a good day at work, and I'm met with more challenges than ever. I find myself in a pile of tears at the end of the day from being exhausted and burned out. The exact opposite of what I prayed for... it is discouraging. But I'm working on looking at the big picture and thank God for the little things in life

like holding off the rain until I get home with my truck full of groceries...

like holding my sweet babies at Riley...

like a fun, swingin' song on my Pandora station...

like giving me a great verse right when I need it...

like having a precious friend write something sweet on my facebook wall...

I'll never understand God and WHY he does things, but I think the idea is that we're not supposed to understand it all. Like Pastor Mark says, "Don't think about the WHY, but the WHO."

Thank you God for such wonderful blessings!