Faith and Gratitude Precede the Miracle

So we are still waiting to go to South Korea. Sometimes it seems like we have been waiting forever. We just have some FBI documents to get back and then we can start to get our visas. Probably beginning of July we will get there. We thought it would be the end of May or beginning of June, but we are still here. But one thing that I have learned about this whole experience is that the Lord knows exactly what he is doing. His timing is perfect in every way. My heart is so full of gratitude for all the things that he has given to me and to my family. It's hard to describe in full what our experiences have been. I have been a slacker and haven't posted enough. But I will try to share some of the very special experiences that we have had.

First of all, I can never learn enough about faith and gratitude. My motto for life as of late has been, "Everything will work out." Why do we take the huge leap of faith to take our family half way across the world to a very foreign country? Long story short, it is without a doubt THE thing that we are supposed to do. How do we know? With all the miracles that we have experienced over and over and over again, we would seriously be the biggest sinners in the world if we chose now to not go to S. Korea. We don't know all the reasons, but the only reason we need is that the Lord told us so. The process we have had to take to change and be prepared to go has been quite lengthy really. It started last year and it has taken a lot of prayer and fasting and scripture study and willingness to literally give up our possessions and follow his will. It's almost like I can feel him shaping me and my family and molding us and helping us through this whole process. It took awhile for us to be able to get rid of that attachment to "things." Giving up all our furniture and much of our kitchen stuff and toys for the kids and really a lot of worldly possessions was a hard thing to fathom at first. But after getting rid of most of our things, it really is freeing. We don't have that attachment to them. We pass them to someone else who can get use out of them, we hope. ;)

Let me share one experience I had on Sunday. My good friend, Elynnor, who is in S. Korea has been an amazing help to us through this whole process. She has helped us with everything from jobs, to furniture, to information about passports, visas, background checks. Everything that goes along with moving a family of 7 across the world. We had been looking at places and I had kind of gotten an idea of what I felt like I wanted and what we needed for our family. I wrote it all down on Saturday night. The list included things like how many bedrooms, clean, how much it would cost, how big it should be and so forth. I put it out there to be "spiritually created" so to speak. Sunday morning, I check my e-mail and Elynnor had sent me a link to an apartment she had found and a proposition for her that included her paying for a room and paying more than half the rent. Just to help us out. She didn't realize that this place she sent me had everything on my list and more. And the part she wanted us to pay was only about $100 off of what I had put written down. I was truly amazed beyond description. I knew I would get the place I wanted, but I didn't think it would happen so quickly. What a miracle! Obviously, the Lord knew what I wanted before I even did.

Another miracle that happened has to do with my piano. I was struggling with whether or not to get rid of my piano, store it, or ship it to S. Korea. I feel like my piano is not just a want, it's really a need for my family. Music is an incredible gift and my piano is kind of a part of who I am, because it allows me the opportunity to use the gifts that I have been given. Anyway, as I was struggling over this little dilemma, I shared my thoughts with Elynnor. She had told me it probably wouldn't be a good idea to ship it, because it could get broken. So I was thinking that I would just store it at my sister's house. Well, a few days later, Elynnor e-mailed me a link for a digital piano on Craigslist. She told me he wanted $200 for the piano. It looked like a really nice piano. She was able to get him down to $150 on it and she bought it for us. First of all, yes, she is amazingly awesome! Secondly, the lord provided a piano for me that fast and helped me get to the point where I could sell my piano to my neighbor who happened to really, really, really want one. She gets my piano for $200 bucks and she feels like she's getting a steal. Which, yes, it is a great price for my piano. But see the blessings really go both ways. We can use the money and she can use the piano, so everybody wins. Plus, I get a bonus piano that's already in Korea for a steal! So in the end, did I really lose anything. From my point of view, I actually gained more than I gave away, so what in the world took me so long to figure this concept out? I don't know.

All in all, the whole point of me sharing this super long blurb is to remember how much the Lord has blessed me and to be filled with more gratitude than I can possibly hold in this little body of mine. Can faith move mountains? Well, I've never used my faith to move physical mountains. But for all those spiritual mountains that have come my way, I cannot help but answer with a resounding, "YES!" The Lord cannot help but bless us as his children when we exercise our faith in him. I feel that the Lord loves us so much that one of his greatest desires has to be to give us ALL things that we have FAITH ENOUGH to receive and sometimes a lot more. I wonder sometimes if exercising our spiritual faith muscles is more about learning how to RECEIVE all the blessings that the Father has for us rather than just asking in faith. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I just figured I better get them down before I forget. =)