When It Rains . . .

As of yesterday, we have all our things moved over to our new house, but most of it is still in our new garage. Although the rooms here are a little bigger and the house is in perfect shape, we have less storage areas here and have to sort through more of what we can do without, and look through the home stores for organization ideas. But we are just going to relax and take things slow for a while because things have been too hectic for too long.

During the last week of our move, we consistently felt overwhelmed with how much we had to do. To save some money we hired a couple of moving men to move only our heaviest things. Well they never showed up and never returned my calls. (stress #1). But another company squeezed me in for the next day. They sent 2 very young men that seemed like they had very little practice at it and I was afraid for their safety when they struggled with our refrigerator. I was as unsure of them as they seemed to to be of themselves (stress #2).
One of Steve's friends let him borrow his truck so we could get a lot moved over ourselves in less trips, and while following him in the car I bumped into the back of it when Steve had to stop suddenly when someone cut him off. The trailer hitch of the truck poked a hole in the front of the car, but it was Steve's work car instead of our good car, and we were relieved it only left a small dent in his friend's bumper, but I felt horrible about it. (stress #3). Then when we were returning the truck, it was dark and a deer popped out of the woods and into the front side of the same car. Of course it shocked me since I didn't even see it come out of the woods, and for a split second I thought it might kill me. But it rolled onto the hood, and as I braked it rolled onto the road ahead of me. For a few seconds it tried frantically to get up, which broke my heart. Then suddenly managed to run back into the woods (stress #4 - and a cry, poor deer). Steve hadn't seen me hit the deer and didn't notice I was no longer following behind him, so when I started down the road again I called his cell phone. After a mile, I realized I should have waited there for the police and I pulled over at a cross road, out in the middle of nowhere (stress #5), until Steve came back to me and called the police. Well, the car is still in the shop, and since we still had stuff to move, we opted for our insurance to pay for a rental. They didn't have any cars, so they gave us a deal if we took a truck (which we really needed anyway) for $5 a day. I ended up finding out from our insurance claims person that we didn't need the extra insurance the rental guy persuaded us to buy, and I think the stresses had my nerves wearing thin, so I confronted him pretty firmly (for me) and insisted he take that charge off our bill for the 7 days we've had the rental so far (I even told him he lied to us, which shocked Steve). I know Steve was embarrassed but in the end he was glad the bill would be $85 cheaper now. So, I DID have to put up with a day of Steve calling me "Iron Lady", making me walk in front of him so I couldn't shove him around, and whenever I seemed agitated with something he asked me not to hit him.

Finally, with only a few days left to finish things up and needing about a week, Steve's mom's boyfriend died from a breathing problem. I took the funeral day off from moving to be with her and our family, and Steve ended up cutting his moving time short to help his mom with a problem. But we were glad to be with his them during their own stressful time.

For most people these interferences wouldn't seem like much, but I'm not used to having stress in my day, I usually avoid it quite well. I know things don't happen unexpectedly to my Heavenly Father. He knows what I'm going to have to deal with daily and that it will all be used to shape who I become. He is an umbrella, protecting me from more than He has prepared me for, and it's good to know He has the power to make things go the way He wants it to.