Amazed...

Ok this post is not a rant or a complaint it is completely the opposite. 

The last month has been a whirlwind of ups and downs.  As Christmas gets closer I am reminded everyday of the many memories from childhood that involved my Mom.  I miss her very much and I have days that I get emotional about things that really don't seem to have any connection to her.  Despite that, I know her pain and discomfort are gone and she was welcomed into the arms of her Savior. 

The last month has been crazy enough but the last week has been even more "crazy".  In what has been nothing short of God's direction and His plan Renee and I have seen just how silly our best plans can be compared to the Master's.  Renee's brother Pete got a job awhile ago and back in September they had an opening which I applied for but was filled.  There have been some other moves and openings where he works since then and we have been hopeful for awhile that there might be something there for me.  Nothing happened.  I called and emailed more than a few times and nothing happened, and everyone knows how much I hate the phone.  September turned into October and Mom's condition continued to get worse.  Then November came and there seemed to be a nibble on the job then Mom really took a turn for the worse.  What happens if I get the job?  My Mom was dying and I am waiting on a possible job 3 hours away.  Well nothing happened with the job.  Mom passed away and still it seemed like maybe nothing would come together for the job.

During the last week of October we decided that God was directing us to get serious about looking for a house in the Syracuse area.  We talked to Renee's Mom and one of the men from her church is a house builder and works closely with a specific real estate agent.  I got in touch with him and we started the process of finding a house.  Eventually that lead to this past Monday where Renee and I had made an appointment to see 7 houses that were close by to Renee's parents.  The job was still up in the air the two key people that needed to be involved in any decision took vacation time in back to back weeks leaving things hanging.  So Renee and I came out to Syracuse on Black Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving with Renee's family and to see the houses on Monday.  We sit down with the real estate guy and just as we are ready to talk about the houses he is going to show us he says to us "by the way I found another house that you might be interested in".  So we get talking about the house and we find out that it belongs to one of the other agents at the agency.  The woman has not even listed it yet and when she heard what we were looking for she thought that we could look at her house too.  Well her house is not only on the same street as Renee's parents, it is right next door.  So needless to say I am sitting there thinking, wow, when God does something He does it right.  I think that both Renee and I were sitting there thinking that this was going to be the house even before we saw it.  We saw all the houses.  It came down to 2 houses and there really was no choice.  God's fingerprints were all over it.  We just happened to use the right real agency with the woman that happened to be talking to our agent and said show them my house.  It just happens to have almost everything we are looking for.  It is not just close to Renee's parents it just happens to be in the same neighborhood.  It just happens to be on the same street.  It just happens to be next door.  Yeah my plans pretty much stink compared to Gods.

So anyways thanks to my grandfather and what he left to us we are in the process of buying the house.  In the meantime Pete tells me to go in to his work to see his boss who was back from his vacation.  So yesterday Pete comes home and basically says "you start December 11th if you want the job".  I still need to meet with one other guy and take a drug test but other than that it is a done deal.  So on Monday we found our house and on Friday I got a job.  So as of now we are going to be moving to Syracuse very soon and staying with Renee's parents until our house is ready to move in to.  The people won't be ready to move out until April and we need to complete the financing and paperwork but things are all moving in the same direction.

It is just incredible to look at how God opens and closes doors and how amazing His plans are compared to anything that we might be able to come up with.