You Know Who You Are

I'm hoping that whomever did IT reads my blog and will receive my very heartfelt "Thank You"! I have my suspicions who the guilty party is :) but I can't be sure. But THANK YOU to the person who took the time and expense to send a money order our way which we received today. The enclosed note simply read: "Karla - This is from the Lord - give Him the thanks. God Bless!" and was dated 3/10/06. Well, I DEFINITELY do give Him the thanks, but I thank YOU, too, for being His hands. I almost cried when I opened the envelope, read the note, and saw the money order. I was really touched. Thank you very much. Words just aren't adequate to express my feelings, but I hope you understand that it was very thoughtful and kind of you to reach out to me and my family. Thank you so much!

I and the children were at my parent's home last week for a visit. Life is still a bit dramatic here in the Cardell household, and we didn't know how dramatic it might get last week with the "powers that be", so Tommy packed me and the children off to my parents on Tuesday. However, we got to see the Lord answer prayer that was said Monday night at my Bible Study class (Beth Moore and her study "The Patriarchs"!) One of the ladies asked that the Lord "shut the mouth of the lions" in our situation and by Tuesday Tommy had a lawyer (thanks to my dad's assistance). And a few days later, calls from the accused's attorneys (the "lions") ceased. They quit calling Tommy, pressuring him, and just bothering him in general! By Friday, Tommy was much more relaxed and was feeling better about this whole ordeal. Thank to his lawyer, he finally feels like he can breathe again. So while this ordeal isn't over, it actually looks like it's on the right road. And that's probably all I should say about that!

But the Lord does answer prayer, and while I wouldn't necessarily say that I'd like to be in this predicament again, I know that Tommy did the right thing from the beginning and continues to try to have this situation corrected, and I'd do it all over again with him. Right is right, after all. And the Lord has truly been seeing us through this. I tend to think that as we go through life with all things "normal" and no "crisis-es" , that we tend to not "see" God at work so clearly. Perhaps we take Him for granted. But again, while I wouldn't necessarily wish to do this again, I am thankful for this season in our lives because through it I have SEEN God's hand. Really. We have not had a paycheck since November 15th (and we're not collecting welfare (TANF), though we do use Food Stamps) and yet our bills have been getting paid and our non-grocery needs have been met. Our bills may be late, but they get paid. And we haven't been receiving money left and right as some might think. My parents have helped us with a little here and there, and we have received a few anonymous monies in the mail such as the one that arrived today. But it's not loads of money. It's always "just enough". And like the note from the one that arrived today read, it IS from the Lord. He uses people to be His hands and through people, we are mercifully helped through this trial. I've just really seen God at work so much more through this than I ever noticed when everything was "just fine" and life was going on routinely.

CNN is interested in doing a follow-up story. Some of you may remember the piece they did last year. Keep that situation in your prayers that it will work out right. It's very preliminary right now. They need to coordinate it with our lawyer. I will be interested to see how they pitch the "follow-up".

I'm going to visit a realtor in town who needs some part-time filing done, and maybe I can secure a part-time job. That way I can still have some hours to homeschool Kelley, though she could probably do it without my assistance and with just a little push from her daddy. My mom suggested that perhaps she could start going to school. She suggested that I look into tuition costs at the Christian school and also what scholarships might be available. So that's probably another thing I will be looking into soon.

Anyway, thank you for reading this far. I'd love your continued thoughts and prayers for our family. And thank you for them. :)

And thank you again to the Angel who sent us that money order!