Many people were affected by the tornadoes through the southern states in the past month. We even had some wind damage up here – the Pergola my husband made me for our 4th anniversary collapsed. When I came home and saw it I almost cried – accept that that very afternoon we had heard news that friends in NC had lost their home in the storms. What’s a little pergola when you have gone through the trauma of a tornado totaling your house??? It kinda put things in perspective for me. But that was just part of the story…
You see, the friends who lost their home are a military family. This man – we’ll call him Jay – Jay’s younger sister is a friend of mine and is engaged to be married. The problem was, between her dad and her brother’s current and upcoming deployments, they didn’t have a date and didn’t really know when the the whole family would be together to celebrate a wedding.
Then a tornado came through – blew out all the windows in Jay’s house, and actually lifted the house off it’s foundation slightly – no one was hurt, but it was declared a complete loss. Jay was allowed to come back to the US to care for his wife and son and their household. They thought he was only going to be state side for a few weeks, then found out he’d be here for a few months – suddenly allowing them to go forward with wedding plans!
We are praising God for His protection of Jay’s wife and son, who were in the house when the tornado came through their neighborhood. They recieved a phonecall from from a relative out of town who was watching the weather channel and warned them. If they had not moved to the bathroom from where they had been sitting in the livingroom under the picture window, who knows what would have happened.
A personal blessing came to me out of the storm, as well. As Jay’s family sorted through their belongings, cataloging for the insurance company, they set aside the homeschool curriculum they’d used for their son last year, and sent it north – to me. An entire set of Sonlight’s Kindergarten curriculum. I’m so excited, I can hardly wait till fall when I will start with Jesse!!!
So, whenever I look out back and see the pergola, I find myself thanking God for silver linings. And look forward to a very special wedding next month.
So, you use sonlight, Persuaded? I'm so excited – I'd done some research and wanted to use literature-based curriculum, but sonlight was expensive. I love their slogan, “The way you wish you'd been taught” because that actually WAS how I was taught – before there was all this curriculum and great teacher's editions and book lists, my mom did all the research and created her own unit studies for us each year – I have read many, many of the sonlight books already, and actually own a lot of my own. I'm so grateful for the education I got 'cause it truly gave me a love of learning…
You've discovered the key to joy right there girl… finding the blessing, the “lovely thing” in each and every situation. There always is one, in fact once you start looking it's kind of hard to see hard things anymore. God is so good♥
And hey, speaking of lovely things, it was truly lovely meeting up with you yesterday. I'm already looking forward to our next get together with you are your darling kiddos. And speaking of kiddos, you're gonna have so much fun with Jesse next year. I love Sonlight. I really think it's the best curriculum out there hands down.
What wonderful blessings amidst such heartache….for all those affected!