My Plans, God's Plans

Since January, the theme of my life has been that I can make all the plans I want, but God will direct my steps. I plan; God changes those plans. This week was again one of those weeks.

We were supposed to be heading out to Branson with Wade's parents last Friday through this Friday. However, on Thursday night, in the midst of piling things by the back door to load into the Suburban, Wade's mom called to say that she couldn't go. Long story short, her mom, affectionately known as "GG" to my kids and "Maw" to Wade, had taken a turn for the worse and she didn't want to leave her. Well, we didn't want to go without them, so we decided to reschedule. We wanted to be close by if something to happen to see GG and to support Nancy. GG is Wade's last living grandparent. Even though she will be 91 in August, it will still be difficult to see her go.

So we decided to "vacation" at home. It has been nice to have Wade around all day long and to spend large amounts of time together as a family. Coffee on the back porch in the mornings while the kids sleep in is so nice. We celebrated my dad's 70th birthday on Saturday and the kids have had their cousins over for several days in a row. They don't get to see them as much as they would like to, so they are in heaven.

We have been able to get some projects done around here, too. We don't want this a working vacation, but we did need to get the garden in and the flower bed finished. Those things have been done and it didn't take us long at all.

Now we are staying up way too late (all except Wade), sleeping way too long in the mornings, eating way too much yummy food and just enjoying our time "off." We have a few things planned in the days ahead, but mostly just being together. We have learned some new games which are fun and we were able to go pick up Leah's kitten today.

I will say that I love being home and having vacations like this. I wouldn't have chosen this, but God is good all the time. He knew that He wanted me at my dad's 70th birthday lunch and I would have missed it. He knew that we would want to be near GG at this point in her life. He knew that we would enjoy getting things done around here and just hanging out together.

I am so thankful for my family. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who loves us very much and serves us very selflessly. My kids truly are a gift from the Lord. We are enjoying our times of talking, laughing and playing together with each one of them. It is not necessarily about WHERE we are (vacationing), but more about WHO we are together. Yes, we made plans, but we are so glad God directs our steps for He is good all the time.