9-8-12 A Surprise From Down Under

I ended my last post by saying that the rest of this month should be pretty uneventful and I hopefully wouldn't need to blog as much so I could get ahead in school....HA! For one, I don't know what I was thinking because the race is coming up next week and will definitely be keeping you guys informed on how that goes. AND TWO, God had something crazy up His sleeve which is what I will be telling you guys about today. Most of you have probably seen pictures on facebook, but this is the story behind the pictures.

I just got back from a run. On this run I thought about life. I thought about how God is this amazing author who writes the stories of all of His characters and how He delights in intertwining all of His characters stories so that, like a puzzle, they all fit together into this beautiful picture. This beautiful novel of a story that will take us all of eternity to discover. I was immensely blessed by God this week. Most weeks I just go about my life, living my story, but this week God gave me a glimpse of how HUGE the story is that I'm living.

I blogged about my day on Thurs. about the letter, with the check that came in the mail and about going to Landon's appointment. It was such a long day. I wasn't able to get very much school worked on during the day so I made a cup of coffee at 9PM and buckled down to get stuff done. Ryan was cleaning the apartment, washing dishes, folding laundry, picking up toys. I told him to stop cleaning and just relax, that I would clean the next day, but he insisted that he wanted to and that I just needed to keep working on my assignments. So I did. Around 12AM I was getting tired and wanted to go to bed, but Ryan told me to just finish one more chapter. "Yes, sir." I said mockingly. I was secretly glad that Ryan was being tough on me because I knew that I would feel so much better if I got a little more done. I was still studying at 12:45AM when Ryan told me that he forgot something out in the car and was going to go get it. I didn't think much of it, but told him to be careful. I went back to my book and was trying to concentrate when I heard loud voices outside. I was a little worried and wondered if I should go out on the balcony to make sure it wasn't Ryan getting mugged or something (I worry way too much). I tried to ignore it and keep reading. A little while later I heard the door (this was when it started to get weird), I thought it was Ryan, but then I heard a woman's voice. I froze. This was one of those moments when you have a ton of thoughts in like 30 nano seconds. Thoughts like these, OH no, a drunk crazy lady just came into our apartment! What do I do! Scream and tell her to get out? Run and get the decorative sword we have in our bedroom and threaten to stab her if she doesn't? My thought process was interrupted when my best friend walked around the corner and said, "hey, can I stay here a couple nights??" I was in SHOCK!! "Anna! What are you doing here? WHAT!!!" I couldn't believe she was standing in my living room at 1AM. I don't really remember much after that. I hugged her, told her she was crazy. Frankly I don't think I said very much. Ryan came inside and asked how I like my surprise? I punched him on the arm. I couldn't believe he kept such a big secret from me. We were standing in the entry way when Anna, told me that there was another surprise outside the door that she brought with her. I assumed right away that it was another friend because I had seen that they were talking on facebook about coming to see me. I opened the door completely expecting to see my other girlfriend, but I didn't....... I saw my brother. I whispered loudly (yes, you can whisper loudly) "what!!" and then I burst into tears.

I can't explain that moment. I was not expecting to see my brother for another year. I've mentioned him a little on here before, but for those of you who don't know, he lives in Australia. He works with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) there. He left last October and committed to staying there for 2 years so we all understood that we wouldn't see him for that long. My brother is my only sibling and we couldn't be closer. He is my best friend. This past year was so hard, but something that made it even harder was not having him here. Not being able to pick up the phone and cry with him. Not having him there when Landon was born or going through his surgeries. Just this past week, after another week went by without talking to him, I told Ryan that I don't think I will get to talk to my brother for another year. He's so busy, I'm so busy, the time difference, it just never works out to skype. "We'll talk to him soon" Ryan said. I didn't think anything of this comment. I just thought he meant we would figure out a way to connect through skype. So when my brother walked through our door I was witnessing the impossible and it was overwhelming. I just cried and kept saying "how are you here?" Thankfully Ryan grabbed the camera, but for some reason only got one picture. It's not my best, but I think it portrays how I was feeling in that moment. Matt decided to lighten the mood by telling me that they've been planning it for weeks. He said what him and Anna wanted to do was get a huge box and put it outside our door. Anna would tell me that I had a present outside and I would open the door and Matt would pop out of the box, looking sore and exhausted. He would then get out, stretch, and tell me that, "that was the longest trip he'd ever taken, but it was so much cheaper to be shipped here rather then fly." LOL "And you're so gullible, you would of believed it." haha Truth is, I was in so much shock I just might have.

By now it was around 1:30AM but I had to get Landon and have him meet his uncle, who I thought he would never meet until he was over 1 yr. old.

As soon as I brought him out into the living room, he was wide awake. He would not take his eyes off of Anna. I don't think he remembers seeing a black person before. We were all cracking up because he was so curious about her.

Not taking his eyes off Anna

It was priceless to get to watch him meet his uncle Matty for the first time

His new Aussie Koala bear

 After passing Landon around for a while, I put him back to bed and we all crashed in the living room. I was still wanting to learn how this whole surprise all came to be. Matt told us that a couple months ago his boss came to him and told him that he needed to go see his family. He gave him a $1,000 to do it. Matt then contacted Anna and they began plotting out their plan. A couple weeks before they came they told Ryan. I just couldn't believe that all of this went on under my nose. It all was starting to make sense. Why Ryan was a cleaning machine, why he kept pushing me to stay up later, why Matt never got back to me about skyping this week, all of the text messages Ryan was getting that night. Then we started talking about Gods perfect timing. Ryan told me how blown away he was when people brought us meals and groceries because he knew that we would be having company. We talked, laughed, and pigged out on Australian candy until late in the AM. We grabbed pillows and all slept in our living room like we were kids at a sleepover. My brother and I were the last to fall asleep, we stayed up until 5AM catching up on life, talking like we used to when we were kids.

My brother and Anna only stayed for a day and 1/2, but every moment was cherished. The hard laughter and the tight hugs brought healing to areas of my soul that were still bleeding from the trauma and could only be fixed by a big brothers presence. Looking back on this week, I can't find words for it. It is one of those weeks where the mundane and the miraculous collided. Only God.... those are the only words I can think of to describe it... only God. Only God could of known the stress we would have from bills, worrying about Landon, and a broken down jeep. Only God could of spoke to Matt's boss, all the way over in Australia, and told him to give my brother $1,000 and tell him to go see his family. Only God is so sweet and thoughtful to fill our fridge with groceries and even provide meals so that I didn't feel the stress of cooking for our unexpected company. Only God could of known what this visit would mean to me and that I needed to just soak it all in. Only God knew that I would decide to run this race for Landon. Only God knows the closure it will bring to our family and that my brother needs to be here for it.

I was thinking of all of these things as I was running tonight. How God orchestrated everything. He used our stressful situations to provide for us... who does that?? ONLY GOD! If you have ever doubted that God is a personal God that delights in you and wants to have an intimate relationship with you. I pray that our story is evidence to you.

God is the author and we are only the characters he has created. God knows that we want to be the authors of our own story and that we try to steal the pen right out of His hand to write a better story for ourselves. What's crazy is that He gives it to us. God gives us a thing called free will, this allows us to make our own choices. He could of made us into robots that always did what he said but He didn't. He didn't because He doesn't want us to be forced to love Him. I was tempted this week to take the pen away from God. Our jeep breaking down was the straw that broke this camels back. I couldn't see how God could use that for good. Now I think back to when Ryan prayed, and he told God that we trust that He's in control and has a plan and that He would use this for good. We gave God back the pen and because we did, God wrote a story that brought us healing, renewal, and laughter like you wouldn't believe.

How God delights in intertwining his characters stories. How He desires to bring His miraculous into our mundane. He will my friends, He will if only we will allow Him to have the pen back.

I know this pic is blurry, but I love how it looks like Landon's doing a thumbs up :)