August 8, 2016
We have passports!!
Not to say it has been an easy process. The enemy has been on a full scale attack going after every possible detail. We left yesterday evening only for me to realize I had left the confirmation number at home. The automated appointment service is quite adamant that you must have that number in order to keep your appointment so we turned around and went back to get it. Then I couldn’t find where it was written down!
We packed up every possible notebook it could be in and got back on the road an hour later. Grace started flipping through notebooks one page at a time as I proceeded to make 5 calls to the automated line trying to make another appointment just in case. Of course Grace found the original conformation number the same moment I was writing down the new one. So frustrating!
For a person that trust the Lord so easily in the big things I struggle with the small. Maybe because I feel like those are small things I should be able to control and when they crumble so do I. I kept reminding myself that God’s timing is perfect so I shouldn’t be bothered but honestly, I struggle.
We made it to the hotel by midnight but it took another hour to get the kids down. That was about the time that I remembered I still needed to fill in the passport forms. Finally Tim and I crashed about 2:00 am with our alarms set for 6:00 since we needed to be at the passport agency before 8:00.
Thankfully, the kids got up and moving this morning without too much fuss and we made our appointment. God certainly paved the way for our passport process. It was tedious but smooth. We had no trouble dropping our documentation off and were out the door before 9:00! We killed time waiting for the passport books to be made by stopping at Starbucks, IKEA & Tin Lizzy’s for lunch.
I had another fun hiccup leaving IKEA. As we were walking out the door neither Tim nor I had the keys to the car. Both of us were convinced the other one had them last. Thankfully they were not locked in the car – I actually managed to leave the keys on the back bumper parked right by the front door where everyone had to pass by. Obviously that could have been very bad. I am so thankful the Lord protected us from that disaster. But it still didn’t help our tired, stressed out moods.
We finally made our way back to the passport agency at 2:00 pm and had the passports by 3:00. We probably would have had them a lot sooner but I forgot to check in when we returned to let them know we were waiting. So we sat, and sat, and sat. Once we were finally done Kayleigh really wanted us to stay another night to just hang out but we were oh so ready to come home. We did make a quick pit stop in Heflin to visit some of Kayleigh’s friends. I must say, she has picked up some awesome friends along the way. We very much enjoyed visiting with the Alabama State Troopers. She tried hard to talk them into giving her a taser but thankfully they held strong. One did however let her know they have pretty purple tasers at Bass Pro. So we spent the last 2.5 hours of the ride home listening to Kayleigh’s reasons she needs a taser. Heaven help us!
I must say, I like writing positive encouraging posts much more than this kind. I like feeling and being positive and encouraging much more as well. But this blog is my open forum for what God is really doing in our lives. And today is a day for you all to see that I’m just a hot mess too, just like everyone else. I am so thankful that most days God blesses me with encouraging words of wisdom but honestly, I’m thankful for this hot mess day too. Because now you get to see the real me. The me that walks tall with the burden of brain cancer but can be crippled by something as trivial as a trip to Atlanta.
The enemy is a crafty foe. He goes for our soft spots. He knows he cannot have us so his hope is only to hinder us, burden us, and do anything possible to make us ineffective. I could have easily omitted all the stuff that made me look bad in this story, but then you wouldn’t have had a very real picture of me. So, thank you Lord for even the crummy day, because testimonies are about real life and this is as real as it gets.
Days like today help me understand what Paul was saying in Romans 7 about struggling with sin and doing what he knew he shouldn’t. If you are unfamiliar with the verses I have copied them below or maybe you just need a refresher or maybe you’re like me and today hasn’t been your best day either. Just remember tomorrow is a new day and Gods mercies are new every morning. Let’s both choose to have a better day tomorrow!
Lamentations 3:23-24
23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
Romans 7:14-25
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Until Tomorrow,
‘Carrow💜
