Packing & getting ready to leave

I'm packing right now. I sort-of have been for the past two weeks, but now it's serious! I have stuff spread all over my empty room, piles of definitely/maybe/no's. I also still have some last items to pack up from the condo and take to storage tomorrow. It's going to be no easy task to get out of here and on the road to Dallas by tomorrow. I realized that I never did get my malaria meds. I got so distracted with the move that I totally forgot. Luckily I have 9 pills leftover from Panama, so I think that maybe that will be enough for India as long as I get 7 more immediately upon my return, b/c you're supposed to keep taking it for a week.

Another thing I never did was get my travel insurance in order. I did the preliminary legwork but then got sick with that sinus infection for a whole week when I was supposed to have met with the travel agent lady to help me with it. I hate doing this kind of stuff, so I pushed it til the last minute and now I'm going to pay for my procrastination with total stress tomorrow!

God has been sooooooo in this move. My family was literally a Godsend. My sister Carolyn took 2 days off work to help me pack and get organized, and my dad was down here for 3 days with his truck, and rented a 10x10 storage unit for me to put all my boxes. I didn't end up having to get a big air conditioned space since I ended up selling all my furniture. I feel bad b/c I was kinda moody and overly sensitive while they were here, letting the stress get the best of me. All they were trying to do was help, but I was not able to be myself and let my appreciation show and at times was really snotty and defensive. Sorry Care and Dad!!! I love you guys so much!! Thank you for your selfless help.

I have a HUGE answered prayer from today that I want to share with you guys. I was totally stressed about not having time to clean my place for the renters who are moving in next Thursday. I was having a hard time finding enough people to come help me clean tonight on such short notice, and to be honest I really needed time alone to pack and think through all my final decisions. On my way to a meeting at Gateway with our small groups pastor Gary Foran I prayed literally saying to God that there was no human way possible for me to get all done that I need done in the amount of time I had. I needed a miracle. I needed God to step in and help me because I am helpless at this point to get the job on my own. Not even 20 minutes later I was sitting with Gary and he asked how he could help. I said, well would you pray for me now? Maybe that will bring me peace and calm my nerves. He was like, of course I'll pray for you, but what can I do?? I was like, ummm, what do you mean? And he was like, "let me help you take this off your plate. I'll get a group of volunteers in there this weekend and me and my wife will spend a few hours ourselves."

Oh my gosh is right! His act of having a servant heart, and freely being the body of Christ to me was an answer to prayer, the miracle I needed. It was really hard to first, reconcile with myself that he was actually offering this, and second hard to accept that kind of huge help. Getting a condo ready for someone to move into is no small task. So he's got several of my friends' email addresses and is going to make sure it gets done, asking volunteers to help until it's ready to go. I just feel so taken care of and loved and blessed. Our God is an intimate God who knows our needs and meets us there in that need when we lean on him for help. It may not always be such a swift and obvious answer, but at this point, getting my logistics taken care of is the only thing between me and that 20 hour airplane ride to the great unknown... and God knows that!

So then after that Lindsey called tonight having seen one of my emails mentioning that I had to make a trip to Goodwill. She came over and picked up all the stuff and is going to take it for me. Again, a real, tangible, physical answer to prayer. I have never experienced community like I have this past two months. God is teaching me to trust people more and let them love and help me.

I go back to the verse that my mom sent me in a card, that later my Grandma K. told me was her life verse: The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. I Thessalonians 5:24

(P.S. All the times on my blog posts are incorrect. It's actually 10:20pm. I think it's 2 hours off. FYI)