overwhelmed (in a good way)

Before I get to the overwhelmed in a good way part, let me first say that I have been overwhelmed in a bad way for the last few days. I got back to town on Monday after a wonderful 10-day trip visiting Best Friend, Best Friend's Husband, and Best Friend's 4 Adorable Children in beautiful Arizona, then a few days in Tampa to go to a friend's wedding and hang out with another friend and hubby. Really good times.

But traveling always leaves me tired and I have arrived home to a house in disaster mode (J returned from a solo camping trip on Monday), loads and piles of work, and the shocking realization that we have to pack up the house and wrap up our life in Boston in less than a month. (I get onto a plane to Oregon on Aug 1, and when we return in mid-Sept we will be living on the North Shore.) I have a book to finish (that I confess I have done exactly nothing on in the past month). I have friends to see and family to call and so many friends/family who have been ignored lately. We have a million things to sort out, from car insurance to health insurance to cross-country road trip to two very worthy causes (Zimbabwe shoe drive and Uganda orphans) which are taking loads of times. The weather here has been crappy, cool and pouring rain, which has left me feeling really crappy. I turn into this little old lady whose bones and joints ache, and it is hard to get anything done.

And as I was moaning to a friend just last night, I have no idea how we are going to pay for our lives next year while J is in school (tuition bills plus car we need, etc.) Money has had me stressed. Once again it feels like we are stumbling into the unknown.

Except-- once again-- God reminds me that it is all known to Him. And that He delights to meet our needs. Last night J got home from small group (which I had skipped due to feeling crappy) and told me that our dear friends who are moving to Dubai in August are going to GIVE us their 2000 Corolla. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that someone would just give us their perfectly good car!! I am still amazed. We are now trying to figure out how to ship it from Boston to Oregon in time for us to start our road trip going the other direction (which we don't want to abandon), but who cares if it costs us a little money, we have a free car and no car payment to worry about next year! Hallelujah!

J has already been accepted into one fellowship at Gordon Conwell that basically matches any donations that people make towards his tuition, and last night we fell asleep talking about this other fellowship program that he badly wanted into. It's a little bit of money, but after meeting with the director what he was really excited about it not because of the money but because of the experience-- basically it is a mentored ministry thing in which he'll be leading a small group on campus as well as meeting with all the other small group leaders regularly. The only problem is that he's only going to be at Gordon Conwell next year, and the director didn't sound very positive about J's prospects for being accepted since he was only going to be on campus one more year. But miracle of miracles, he just found out that he WAS accepted!!

When J started seminary (a number of years ago) he told God he didn't want to borrow any money to do it. This has meant a very long and often very trying road for him. When we made the decision for him to go full-time next year we decided that we would stay that course even if we did have to borrow some. Quite honestly, I have thought that there was no way we wouldn't have to borrow for either tuition or the car, so I (the "realist", ha ha) have had this $10,000 figure kicking around in my head. But in the meantime I have picked up a very nicely paying consultancy gig whose timeline keeps lengthening (probably going through at least November), and now we have these other two little miracles. Wouldn't it be incredible if we didn't have to borrow at all? Oh me of little faith.