God's Blessings in Our lives!!

I have been wanting to write down the wonderful blessings that have been happening to Mike and I over the last 6 weeks and have not had the time to do so.  I am sitting here now in Normal, Illinois in the home of our daughter and family listening to the kids play outside..mostly fight!!  Over the last few weeks we have watched God's hand be in everything in our lives...In the BIG things and in the tiny bitty things!!  We know that only God can do these things as we could not do them if we tried....

First off we had orginially moved to Savannah to be near our then little grandkids.  We had wanted them to know their grandma and grandpa.  We think that is very important for children.  Maybe even more so in these days.  We moved in May of 2001.  We had a time at first but God showed up then just like He has done now.

Then in July of this year after living in Savannah for 9 years and loving it our kids and family decided that they needed to move their kids now in the 4th and 6th grades into better schools.  Savannah really does need better schools.  They decided that moving BACK to Illinois would be the best thing for the kids.  Off they moved in July and back to Normal again.

Mike and I then felt like we were alone although we were not as we had a great church, small group and friends.  We prayed that God would step in and move us IF it was what he wanted us to do.

About 3 weeks after the kids left Mike came home from work saying that he had seen a job posting in Bloomington, Illinois in the same position that he was already in. That night he applied on line.  It was very stressful but finally after most of the night he got his resume and cover letter sent to Bloomington.

Just a few days later he got a phone interview from Bloomington.  He found out that two other people were also interviewed!!  We waited as patiently as we could, praying all of the time.  Finally one Sunday after church, we went out to eat.  The phone rang and Mike answered.  He was offered the job and of course said YES!!

We came home that afternoon and began packing. They wanted him at work in Illinois on Saturday, Sept 11th.  That gave us 2 weeks to pack, have a garage sale and then load up the truck.  Also we still had our home in Savannah and it had not sold in 3 years.  We set about trying to figure out what we could do.  We found a friend at our church that takes homes that just will not sell and leases them to a family on a 3 year lease.  This way we could move and he would make sure the house was okay.  When you move 1000 miles from your home how can you make sure it is taken care of!!??  He came the day we were moving and put up tons of signs.

We signed the lease with our friend.  The same weekend a couple stopped by and said that they felt like they needed to turn down our street.  We took them through our home.  We felt like God had sent them..BUT no not this time...He was making us wait again!!

We had our small group people come in that last week we were in Savannah and they plus our good neighbor Tootsie to help us pack (I find notes from her all of the time in our packed boxes)!!  We got all packed and then started setting up the garage sale.  We knew that we had to make enough money for the gas to get to Illinois with the garage sale.  We sold most all of our large furniture for a fraction of what they were worth.  We felt like at this age that we had better try not to take too many heavy articles in this move!!  We are considerably older now and did not need to lift anymore than we just HAD to lift.

We had a wonderful garage sale!! We had wonderful help again from our small group (Thanks Tammy and Tootsie).  They were great in helping us.  We worked hard and made $700.00.  Just enought money for the gas in 3 vehicles.  Also during this time we needed more drivers.  Our son in law, Bill and our granddaughter, Emilyfrom Illlinois flew down to Jacksonville.  They helped us drive.

Another miracle at our garage sale which was a BIG ONE for us...is that we found a home for our outside cat, Sammy!!  Mike was very attached to Sammy.  We knew that we could not take him. We were already taking our inside cat, Annie with us.  Almost at the end of the sale these people walked up and were talking to Sammy.  Mike said, "Do you want a nice cat?"  They thought about it and told us that they had lost their cat of almost 20 years.  Mike said that if they took Sam then he would throw in the porch swing (Sammy's favorite place to sit), his carrier, food and of course papers!!  They were happy and took Sammy with them.  We were both so relieved as we dd not want to just drive away and leave him!!

Our Sammy

We had our Penske truck, our car which we hooked onto the back of the motorhome and Mike's white Dodge to drive back to Illinois.  We took our motorhome out of storage in Savannah.  Now we needed someplace to put it.  We called our daughter back in Normal.  She set about looking for us.  It took a while but finally she found a place where a place had just been cleared out.  They had not had a place for a motor home in over 2 years and now they had one!!  See another answer!!

We were really worrying that the truck that we had rented to move our stuff was going to be too small. We had rented a 16 ft.  We needed to keep that size to save $200.00.  In the end all of our things fit right into it just like they should..Another blessing!!

At the garage sale we had things left over. We were getting ready to box it all up and take it away when a lady drove up and said that she would take it all..GREAT!!  We loaded it all up for her!!  That solved our problem and I hope helped her.

That Saturday night we wanted to go to Saturday night church and try to say good-bye to everyone that we could.  It was hard.  I ended up crying but made it through.  We thought we were going out to eat with Dean and Les but we found out that they were having a going away party for us.  We had a great time and so enjoyed seeing people.  This is the hardest part about mvoing!! They were and are a SUPER GROUP!!

The next morning Sunday,our small group, Tootsie and Pat and more friends came to our home.  We all formed a human chain down our steps and out into the garage.  We cleared out the up stairs really quick doing this.  Plus it was fun!!

Tootsie had came over during the week taking all of our plants; stone figurines and our windmill.  By the end of the week the front of our home was in the front of hers. 
After everyone packed our moving truck, we all formed a circle and everyone prayed for us.  That was just a very special time for us.  I loved it!!  We felt so loved!!  Another blessing!! 

During the week before our move we were sitting watching TV in our living room.  I reached up and felt my front tooth.  It had broken all the way from bottom to top!!  I had to get to the dentist immediately and then get new teeth.  It was just amazing at how quickly I got in and they were able to get new teeth made.  One funny thing happened.  They were to be in on a Wednesday.  The lady at the dentist called me and said that UPS had los them!!  Oh great..lost teeth!!  The next day she called and they had found them.   The dentist and his assistant came in on Friday (their day off) and got me all fixed up with 2 new front teeth!!  I didn't even have to wait until Christmas!!  Another blessing!!

Things just keep going on like this one after the other.  God was working for us by sending his great angels in the form of friends and family!! 

The morning that we were to leave, we got up and started trying to clean up our home.  We were already so tired and HOT!!  Oh were we HOT!!  I think almost every day we went through at least 3-4 shirts!!  WHEW!!  Anyway, we got up and went back into the house to clean.  About that time I heard Dean our small group leader coming in the door with orange juice and doughnuts!!  He stepped right in and started cleaning right along with me.

Dean cleaning!!

Now even after moving we have had so many more blessings.  One very special one was the leasing of our home in Savannah.  Mike had been talking to our friend about leasing and the people that he had been showing the house too.  He said that he thought one person was going to sign a lease soon.  One night I was talking to my friend (and blogging friend) on facebook.  She wondered if I knew this man.  He was the one that was taking care of our home.  I finally called her and wonders of all wonders I found out that SHE and her family were the ONES that were going to be leasing our home!!  How can that be except through God!!  He is the one that makes things happen.  He is the one who knows what is going to happen in our lives and He is the one that we need to learn to wait for and pray for all of our needs.  Not just the BIG ones but those little ones that you think no one ever thinks about except you!!  We have learned so many lessons.  We have learned to have patience and to wait on the Lord!!  These have been great lessons.  We know there are more of these tests, trials and lessons that we will be learing.  But we know now that God cares for us and will see us through.  This is the best place to be in this LIFE.  Right in the middle of God's will..where else does anyone ever want to be???

God is Good all the Time!!

Blessings!!!