God's Laughing

I have often heard the saying “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Well, two weeks ago I told of my plans to get so much done before David got out of school for the summer and God began laughing before the day was out.

First, on Monday two weeks ago as I was speeding through to get some heavy duty packing done I got a call from the school. David was acting up and I needed to pick him up from school—he was suspended for the remainder of that day and the next three days. I could just hear light laughter.

Then, at ten o’clock that same day our nephew called. He announced his engagement to a wonderful girl in late March. The wedding was held the end of May. We had not been able to attend since it was in Manilla, the Philippines. So they had just gotten back in the states that day and would like to visit on their way to New Jersey.

Sure, when would they be going through? Tuesday night and they would be here in time for dinner—the next night. So the meal I had planned and purchased food for would not be enough to serve two extra people and the guest sheets were all packed up. Tuesday began with a revised meal list and a trip to the store. When I got home I washed David’s sheets and had to scrounge for a top sheet since David never liked having one—it was packed also. David has a habit of using pillow cases for toy bags and there never seems to be any on his pillows. So I had to strip our pillows of their pillow cases and wash the whole lot. Then I fixed the meal and waited and waited.

At 6 pm I called their cell and found they would be another two hours at least. They had gotten a late start and gotten lost. So we ate and I sent David to bed in our room on his old mattress with mismatched coverings. Our guests arrived a little after 8:30 and after eating and opening our wedding gifts to them it was almost bed time. This was the first time we had met the bride and we are so glad our nephew has chosen a wonderful bride.

Wednesday we were up bright and early. We waited on our guests to rise...and waited...and waited. Finally our nephew was up and went for a walk while I began making breakfast. I’m not sure if we had breakfast or brunch since it was after 10 when everyone was up and ready to eat. Shortly after breakfast the happy couple had to leave for New Jersey and I began the kitchen clean up. I was right on time to fix lunch and begin dinner for our Wednesday night kids.

I could just hear God’s laughter as we made plans to go into work with Rich the next day and then Friday was filled with calling doctors and hospitals about why they were billing us and not the insurance company for David’s bike accident. They claim they hadn’t received our insurance information. We had given it all to them at the emergency room and they had never passed it along to the doctor’s billing agency.

Somewhere along the way I had a birthday. One of our good friends, Peg, made me bananna pudding and we went to see the matinee of Night at the Museum 2 – Battle of the Smithsonian. It was a wonderful movie and I think I enjoyed it even more than the first movie. Of course, we have seen the sights from the movie first hand and it was fun to see how they incorporated the Washington, DC, Smithsonians into the movie.

That weekend David developed a bad rash on his back—a heat rash and all last week we had to keep him in and bathed in cold water to get rid of it. David does not like to stay inside so this was a constant battle to watch over him.

So for two weeks very little packing has been done. We have also not received our approval and the cottage is still not on the market. I have left messages for the lady handling our approval and she has not been in. So we are at a stand-still and waiting on God.

This week I have been able to work on packing and our kids are out of town so I won’t have to cook for them. Rich has been very busy with work and even though he doesn’t work on Sundays, he had to this past Sunday morning.

I know that David is feeling as if he wants to just get over this whole moving business and on to our new home. He talks about it constantly and the last two weeks he has not gone to sleep until hours after his bedtime.

When he asks us about the move and when it will finally happen we just tell him we don’t know, but God does. It’s all in His hands and we are doing what we can to be prepared—packing, calling about the approval, and keeping in touch with the real estate agent. But, we are not in control and this is a good lesson for David to see lived out.

I can still hear the faint sound of God’s laughter.

I am encouraged by all of you who are sending prayers and thoughts our way. Please pray that we can be an example to David by trusting in God.

P.S. I had a little chuckle myself just now. As I was saving this post, the internet went out on my computer. Luckily, I had saved it just a few minutes before so not much had to be rewritten.