And just when I mentioned how peaceful life was going, things started to get a little tricky.

First it was night after night of Bella crying for 30 minutes every 2 hours.  We finally figured out she had hand, foot and mouth.  Which she successfully passed on to Asher.  Who then lovingly shared it with Amai.  That fun is finally finishing, after a full week of sleepless nights.

And then this weekend our garage door opener stopped working correctly.  So we marched to Home Depot to buy a new one.  We forked over the $200 and winced a little but came home thankful to be able to get it fixed in one day.

But that wasn’t the end of our trouble.  Yesterday our A/C unit was making this loud, high pitched squealing noise that it’s been making (for about a year) and so Chris went out to spray some wd40 into the part that seemed to be squealing.  To make a long story short, the fan never started turning again after that.  And naturally, since I hate being hot more than almost anything else (besides vomiting of course) I couldn’t sleep at all.  Until about 5 am when I only had an hour left available for shut-eye anyway.

So as I type, the a/c guy is outside with Chris discussing matters.  And hopefully fixing the darn thing!

Here’s the thing.  Chris and I just recently re-committed to tithing 10% of our income to our church faithfully.  We’ve been hit or miss about it over the years, mainly because we never have very much money (if any) to spare and to our minds it never seems like it is possible to give the full 10% away and still have enough to cover our expenses.  At times we’ve tithed faithfully- but giving less than 10%, never trusting that God will fully provide for our needs.

The numbers don’t really make sense.  If we tithe 10%, there shouldn’t really be enough to live on.  And this is part of why I’ve felt so strongly over the last month or so that we should tithe exactly that much.  I feel like we haven’t trusted Him fully to really provide for us.  Like we can figure out how to provide for ourselves best.  We are fairly disciplined with our money, but I think more than controlling it- God desires for us to really step out in faith this time.  It shouldn’t make sense right now.  But we’ve taken the leap and aren’t going to look back.

With every fiber of my being, I know for sure that I will have some awesome stories to tell of how God steps in to provide for us.  Kind of like the Christmas when we had so little that we weren’t going to be able to buy any Christmas presents for anyone- not even each other or Amai.  I kept praying, asking God for a way to provide gifts for those we love- and one day a money order in the amount of $200 showed up anonymously in our mail.  And there have been so many instances like that.  So, so many.  I can’t wait to tell of the ways that God is providing for us.

It’s not just a matter of faith either.  It’s a spiritual discipline that we need to learn.

Well, the verdict is in.  It’s going to cost $700, and probably won’t be fixed until tomorrow.  Oh boy- it’s going to be a rough day.  Say a prayer for us if you get the chance.  All 3 kids are home today, thanks to hand-foot-and-mouth.  Holy moly!