Monday Money Day

First thing's first -- I have to share something funny before I get serious on you. When we get home from a trip, my stuff is nearly always unpacked and put away before I go to bed that night. Sometimes I'm brave enough to go into the boys' rooms and risk waking them up in order to put their things away, too...sometimes I just wait until the morning. Bret's stuff though...Bret's stuff usually sits in the suitcase for a little while. It kinda drives me crazy. He usually says, "Why bother unpacking it? I'll just have to pack it up again soon." Yeah, as in next month. Well, score one for the procrastinater this time. I put my stuff away Saturday night, and started putting the kids' stuff away, too. Nothing happened with it the next morning -- it was Sunday. Yeah, right. Then we got the phone call about PeePaw as we were finishing up lunch. For once, Bret was right. His stuff is already half-packed for this trip. Mine is not...

And on a side note, I was helping Conner with something on the computer and needed a good place to set Joey down for just a quick little minute -- a towel, a blanket, something within quick reach. Yup, Bret's suitcase was there, and it did the trick perfectly...
Now on to Monday Money Day. There are sooo many things to pray for with this church planting thing and upcoming move. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed trying to pray for all of it every day, so I've made a little schedule for myself. There are specific things I pray for each day of the week. I don't know, that may sound way too systematic, but it's working for me -- I'm actually praying about it more instead of just getting overwhelmed with all of it and doing nothing but crying...

I pray for money on Mondays. I'm not praying to get rich or anything, I'm just praying that we will be able to raise enough money to get moved, get started, and still be able to pay the bills - all before a new preacher starts here (but not too much before)... It seems to be going so slowly. We had a big fund raising event scheduled last week that had to be cancelled. We were so hopeful, and then so disappointed. I began praying then that the next Monday Money Day, yesterday, would be a positive one. Well, here's how it went:

• About 11:30 Sunday night (I'm counting that as Monday), we got a phone call. My MeeMaw wants to know if she can request donations to Christ Journey (the church we will be joining to start planting new churches) to help us out, in lieu of flowers for PeePaw. We were speechless. Ummm...yes! What a special, special gift.
• Bret gets a phone call and finds out that there is a church who might be interested in helping us out in some way. They're having a lunch meeting on Sunday...be praying for that!
• Two more people committed to supporting us monthly, bringing our total amount raised to about 26%, and a total of 16 individuals and families who have partnered with us so far.

Monday was a long and weary day for my family who was busy going about making funeral arrangements. It was a long and weary day for me, too -- I'm physically and emotionally exhausted, Bret and the brothers are worn out, too (which means we're all a little extra cranky), and we're frantically planning to leave for a nearly 2 week trip tomorrow (just the boys and me -- Bret is only staying for two days), including the aftermath from the last trip - all the unpacking and sorting through mail and junk.

But, Monday Money Day was a positive day. Thank you, God, for answering a desperate prayer in such an unmistakeable way, undeniable even when the rest of the world seems to be crumbling around us at times. Tuesday prayers are specifically for good schools for the kiddos and a great house at a great price in a great location that will be good for lots of entertaining and home officing. (I'm not asking much, am I?!)

Tomorrow we're off to the airport around 4:30am to catch a 6:30am flight and 11:00am funeral...