The Many Blessings of our Trip to N.C.

1. Time with family. Although it occasionally got crazy and stressful (you gotta expect that in 3 weeks right?), our families blended really well together and got along better than I thought we could.

2. All the work in the new house. We did an amazing amount of work in a very short time. Jim and Kris have an amazing church body that love them to death and are so supportive of them. On a saturday, we had a "drywall party" and had around 15 people show up to help. It was great and such a blessing to get four complete rooms done in a day! They also have an electrian friend who drove 45+ minutes on several different days to help with rewiring and also to change out the electrical panel. God has blessed them with wonderful friends.

3. Experience and life lessons in construction that can only come from getting in there and "doing". Although Zach is Dave's biggest helper, there are things that he was able to learn from our big projects. Learning how to build and work is invaluable. Kris also found out which of her children are interested in learning about such things. Rachel (who is 12) was a very hard worker and did everything asked of her without question or complaint. She was hysterical on the day her and I got to start demo in the kitchen. They had all kinds of trim, chair rails and wallboard that all needed to be removed. She jumped right in with a prybar and hammer and tore into that room with a vengance. It was funny being on the other side of the room because I could hear all kinds and noises and grunts and squeals of delight. Definitely girl power in that room that day.

Kris told me later that Rachel walked around the kitchen in their temporary house and said, Look mom, I know how to get this off the wall, and this, and this too!

4. Zach got to experience an awesome youth group. He went with Rachel on Sun. mornings and Sun. nights. And then on Wed. nights too. He made several friends (keeps up with them on facebook) and is already talking about going back to church when we go back next year.

5. Dave and I got to have a date night one night and then reciprocated for J. and K. on a different night. We went to get barbeque which is a big thing down there and Dave ordered sweet tea. He has come to love sweet tea and has plans for me to make it for him since I learned how:)

6. We spent two nights at their lake house. More on that later, but it was a fun little vacation inside a vacation.

7. Last but not least. We now are the proud owners of a new grill for our Excursion! Our grill was broken by a tow truck after the accident I had last winter so we've been driving around with a hole in our grill for months. Jim has connections, let me tell you. He knows a guy who found a perfectly good grill for our truck and he brought it over like two days after Jim asked him about it. I was amazed. He and Jim worked out the deal so Jim wouldn't let us pay for it, but he said it was a fraction of the price of a new one. What amazes me the most is that God chose to bless us like that when we were hundreds of miles from home. He truly works in mysterious ways.