Contentment

Tonight is the fifth night that Ansley has been moved into the bedroom with Isaac. It is also the first night that this has gone off without a hitch. This whole situation has gotten me thinking about our life and how far the Lord has brought us the last couple years. So, if you want to learn the long, hard lesson of contentment, do the following:

1. Move to a city in the middle of nowhere, to a state that is so unknown most people will ask you how living in Wyoming is going. Well, actually, we don't live in Wyoming. It's Montana, the big one above Wyoming.

2. Move to that random place (where did you move to again?) having not sold your previous home. DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT sell it for 18 months post-move. You must learn that the Lord will provide renters, and the perfect buyer at the perfect time.

3. Spend the first 6 months living with another family that also has kids and a dog. (You all live together?)

4. Buy a property that is in foreclosure. You MUST...I repeat MUST...find the one that has a prostitute/drug dealer renting the basement who refuses to leave or pay rent.

5. Move into the upstairs of the 'front' house. Refinish all floors. Paint all walls. Fix air conditioner (but DO NOT run it until August...that prostitute in the basement has some weird smells going on and she won't leave until then)

6. Get pregnant while the prostitute (and her weird smells) still lives in the basement. Enjoy the heat of the summer with no air conditioning, except in those precious moments when your pre-natal nausea just might be able to handle the smells.

7. Kick out prostitute...finally. Praise Jesus. A lot.

8. Re-model basement apartment. Floors, cabinets, walls, bathroom. Finally rid yourself of those awful smells. Enjoy your A/C.

9. Answer the door (in your pajamas) to the sight of a US Marshal. "I am looking for Larry Copp..." (he shows you a picture of the prostitute's boyfriend who is missing from a halfway house). "No sir, he hasn't been around for months..."

10. Explain that Larry Copp hasn't been around for months five times. To US Marshals, Bounty hunters ("Fugitive Recovery"), and child-support-something-or-other.

11. 'Back' house basement renter moves out. Re-model that apartment. Find renter.

12. New renter stays out 6 month lease. Leaves. Find renter.

13. Let renter get $2100 behind in rent. Decide: wait for his student loan money or find renter?

14. Switch bedrooms with 3 year old to make room for baby. New arrangement: to get to your side of the bed you must crawl over your spouse. Pregnant.

15. Have baby. Baby sleeps in living room. When there's a guest, she sleeps in the bathroom. (Where else would a baby sleep?)

16. Have gallbladder removed. (Really, who needs one?)

17. Move baby to share room with 3 year old. Let 3 year old nap in your bed. (Haven't you always wanted the sand from his toes in your sheets when you crawl into bed at night?)

But really, all sarcasm aside, the Lord has taught me immeasurably more than I could have ever imagined before we moved here. I am blessed. Not with a big house or a lot of money (or renters that pay on time...or ever). That is not where true blessings come. He has taught me what it means to love Him and live for Him alone. Not a house or an image or a paycheck. Just Jesus, wherever He has me go (even, and especially, in Montana).

"For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-12