Satan and the Bees

Three years ago at about this time we were loading up a moving truck to move to Fort Wayne. The majority of our belongings were sitting in Ben's parents garage in boxes. The rest of our stuff was in their house and would be most easily loaded into the truck via the garage.

A week or so before we were ready to load the moving truck we noticed that there were a number of bees in the garage. Then we noticed that this was probably because there was a hive in the garage. Ben's parents did what any good parents would do in this situation, they called an exterminator who informed them that killing the bees wouldn't solve the problem. You had to get rid of the hive or more bees would move into the ready made home. And...killing the bees would also be roughly eleven million dollars...give or take. So, being the super awesome parents that they are, they called some sort of bee whisper lady (the details are a little fuzzy) who could come and coax the queen bee out of the hive and that all the other bees would abandon the hive if their queen was gone. She would then take the hive out. This also cost them roughly eleven million dollars.

Since Ben and I didn't have eleven million dollars and I am guessing his parents didn't either, we opted for option number three. We decided to move our junk out early in the morning when the bees would be less active and pray that we didn't get stung a bunch.

The day of the big move arrived, we picked up the truck, opened the back, opened the garage and....there were no bees. They were just gone. We loaded up our stuff and moved to Fort Wayne.

At the time, the bee situation seemed like such a big deal. It seemed like just another roadblock that Satan was throwing in our path to keep Ben from going to seminary. Over the past three years we have experienced so many instances of Satan throwing road blocks in our path that the whole bee situation seems a bit...well...lame.

What are bees compared to cutting our income in half, moving eleven hours away from our family, totaling a car, car repairs, a miscarriage, and our newborn needing surgery right before we move. Bees, which seemed like such a big deal at the time, are almost laughable to Ben and I know. We sometimes think back on that day and say "Really Satan, bees? Were bees really going to stop this from happening?"

Throughout these three years God has provided so fully for us and taken care of our every need, and even quite a few of our desires. It has taught us to trust. To trust that in the midst of the worst situation we can find joy and comfort in the knowledge that God will take care of us. Joy and comfort in the knowledge that He has already taken care of us in the way that matters the most. He has sent His very own Son to die on the cross for our sins and our salvation. Jesus has redeemed me in the eyes of the Father. Making me worthy of salvation in a way that I could never hope to do on my own.

Pyloric Ste...what?

Elinor is having surgery today. I am happy that they are going to fix her up and make her well, but I also feel sick to my stomach.

I also get this sick feeling in the pit of my gut when I am nervous - before going to the dentist - when I have to tell someone bad news - and apparently, when my daughter has surgery.

Elinor has pyloric stenosis - and if like me, you had never heard about this until now, you can find out about it here.

Please take a moment today to say a prayer for our sweet little girl and for Ben and I. We are new at this whole your kid is having surgery thing and honestly it isn't our favorite.

The most humbling thing that Ben and I have encountered is all the love and support that people have shown us. It is pretty awesome to have such a supportive family and friends. We are also always amazed by the seminary community and how wonderful they are to us.

Production Value

Not to show my age here, but when I was a young girl I really liked the television show Jem. There was singing, lots of eye shadow, punk rockers, and a magical computer that could change Jerika in to Jem. What's not to love.

I've been waiting for the resurgence of Jem for the past several years. I figured like all things from the 80's, it would make a comeback eventually. 

Then this week Ben gave me some amazing news. 

Ben: "Hey nerd...they just added Jem to Netflix." (Okay so he didn't really call me a nerd, but it was kind of implied.)

Me: "Seriously? Add it to our queue. How are we not watching this right now?"

Ben: "I am so not watching this with you." (He totally did). 

So we watched ourselves some Jem, and wow...It has really awful production value. I mean really awful. I can't believe that when I was a kid that it seemed so fabulous to me.Still...the more we watched the more I started to remember the songs and outfits. 

Now to wait for Netflix to release the Legend of Zelda and crash my other hopes and dreams.