Merry Christmas!

It has been an interesting few weeks here.  I'll try to do a quick version for you!

My husband and I decided to take a hotel night on Thanksgiving night and then went shopping for the children's Christmas presents at 4am the next morning.  My mom called us at the hotel to tell us that our youngest was throwing up.  Thus began 2 weeks of the stomach flu!  Ugh.

Then, the following Monday we learned that my husband would temporarily be layed off for 40 days.   We have 7 children.....so this wasn't exciting news...  BUT God's timing is perfect.  By books have been selling great.  Not great enough to replace his income....but still helpful.  We had also saved quite a bit of money for a downpayment on a house that we were hoping to buy.  We won't be buying anything right now...so at we have that to fall back on.  This is probably the first time in our life that we even had money to fall back on!  There are at least 4 other families in our small church that have recently been layed off or without work.  Our church decided to bless three of them last Sunday (ours included).  They collected money and food.  It was way more than I could ever have expected.  We feel very loved and blessed. 

Then I tried to print photo calendars for my parents and my inlaws for Christmas.  I hate printers and printer ink.  I have had nothing but trouble with it.  Needless to say, my mom will be waiting for hers until I talk to the ink company and get some replacement cartridges!

Then our pipes in our main bathroom and laundry room froze 4 days ago....then they burst last night!   We are still without laundry or use of the mainfloor bathroom.  Can you imagine a family of 9 with no laundry being done for 5 days!!!????   I must have 15 loads.    We don't have a laundry mat in our town.  It is only 15 minutes away....but it is Christmas!   Anyways, I will probably load up all the laundry tomorrow am and try to get it done b4 my brother-in-law and family gets here tomorrow.  At least we have 2 other bathrooms up stairs.  Thank God for that! 

Well, Merry Christmas anyways!  I hope you know that no matter what WE are going through, God does not change, nor is He surprised!  And Christmas means oh so much more than what is going on around us right now! 

Carylee