One crazy week! A Blessing yet another opportunity to trust!

The last two weeks in April were quite a blur. As you know from our post before, we were going to start looking for a rental house at the beginning of April. We had a specific area in mind, outside of the city limits about 10miles in a small newer area called Oro Valley on the Northwest side in Tucson. We were looking for a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house and it had to have some very specific qualities because of my health. We needed it to have never have had a cat lived in it, not had recent re-modeling/construction because of my allergies, and be less than 10 years old but not newer than 3 years etc. That is just the start and you can see the needs were pretty specific. Of course, we had our wants too, in fact, the development that we really wanted to live in was Black Horse Ranch, however that was just a wish not a need.

Well, on the third week in April, I (Dawn) was checking the MLS list and saw that there was a house for rent in the Black Horse Development, 4 years old and had not been lived in for 2 years. We called to inquire and sure enough, no previous cat owner either. We went and looked at the house and it was beautiful, 1955 square feet and the views are breathtaking. We put our application in and just left the house in the Lord's hands. We had heard there was another applicant too, so they would be choosing who would best be suited as renters. Something we had against us was that we are getting that puppy. Apparently the idea of a puppy in a newer house is not so appealing to landlords. The reaction I got when I informed them of the coming member of our family was less than enthusiastic.

So we waited and just prayed that the Lord would allow us to get the house if it was His will. As a side note, with how sensitive I am allergy-wise, it's always a step of faith as to if a new environment will bother me. In fact, even going into a house is a bit scary because there are so many what-if's because of the new environment. When we looked in the house I was fine, however we were only in there for about 20 minutes. It's hard to make a judgement so that is why we gave it to God and asked him to clearly show us if this house was His will. On Friday, we received a call letting us know that they indeed had chosen us and asked us for a commitment. We were a bit gun-shy just with our previous past history, however God certainly made it clear that it was our house to have. The other applicant wanted the house so bad they offered to pay the owner $100.00 more a month than us. However, the owner still chose our application. It was evidently clear that God wanted us in that house. We were excited!!

Then comes the trusting part. Once we signed the lease, we went out to our new house and spent some time looking around and enjoying God's blessing. I started getting quite a bit of asthma when I was in the kitchen and our master bathroom. Crazy, crazy! We racked our brains to try to figure out what could be causing it and realized that all the cabinetry in the house is made out of particle board which has a very strong odor/chemical off-gas. In fact, particle board is known for causing allergic reactions because of the high levels of formaldehyde. Obviously from my reaction, I am very allergic to that stuff. So, once again we had a pretty large bump in the road. There were a lot of tears and prayers as to what we could do because there was no way we could get of the lease. Plus, we love this house and besides the cabinetry, it meets all of our needs and then some.

So, we do what we have learned to do best over the last 3 years. Pray, pray and pray and then start moving forward. Brian has taken all the shelving and drawers out of the cabinetry and is airing them out. We bought some plants (we found a article that NASA did on how spider plants actually soak up formaldehyde) and also have been airing out the house. We are going to try a couple other things we found on the internet on how to lessen the off-gas of the cabinetry in the next couple of weeks. However, every step will take hours of work and unfortunately because I react to it so easily, I can't help lighten the load. It once again, all falls on Brian. To be honest, he was pretty overwhelmed at having to tackle this all at the same time as trying to finish college classes, and work two jobs. We were just praying that God would move in some way. Then, today we got a call from my parents and they said they are going to come down to AZ this Saturday and do all of the cleaning etc. for us. We were SO overwhelmed by that gift. It was the blessing we needed and it came at the perfect time! Thanks so much Mom and Dad!!!

So, that is our crazy week. It has been filled with ups and downs/highs and lows which we are slowly beginning to see that this might be our life. lol! God never said the christian life would be a smooth road, however we do have the guarantee that He will be with us in every step we take. The last 3 years have been very challenging spiritually if we have to be quite honest. We wrestle with how much time we have spent asking God for physical healing and it seems we are still having to wait for that answer. We struggle with not being able to attend church and have christian fellowship while wondering how long and if permanently God will leave us in this situation that is so restricted and lonely. However, at the end of asking all those questions, we come to the same conclusion and that is what we reside on. God is God and He is sovereign. We have to trust that His perfect will includes this continuing trial. Even though we are so ready to be done and hope that the end will come soon, we would rather be in the center of God's will walking a difficult road than be estranged from our Heavenly Father.

So once again, we are on the race of endurance. We are fixing our eyes on Jesus and asking Him to sustain us knowing that even if our life continues down the path we are right now, we have the promise of Heaven and it's perfectness as Isaiah 35 so wonderfully describes it. Praise Jesus this is not our home.

Please be praying that the cleaning method will work on this house and that God would do a miracle and that I would not react any longer. We have no way out except for God to work, but there is no other place we would rather be. Blessings to you all!

P.S. Here are some pics of our new house. It is beautiful and every time we are in it, even with the asthma, we are thankful for God's gifts.