Friday, July 10, 2015

learning patience and endurance through mice and mites and the spider in the basement

The good news is, the bites and welts all over my body are NOT from bed bugs.
The bad news, is they are from the MITES.
From the MICE.
And let me just say, I will no longer sleep in a short sundress type of night down ever again.
These mites should be arrested.

But let's look on the bright side, shall we?
Steve from Terminex?
An awesome guy.  Gift from God really.  He not only found all of the dead mice in my bedroom, but he removed them too.
And this is nothing like the rats we had in our cupboards in Los Angeles.
Or the maggots I found all over the kitchen floor.
Or those roaches that held nightly dance parties on my kitchen counter on the upper East side.
Or even the man that took his pants off outside of my bedroom window in the "mixed neighborhood" we moved to, right by Olympic and Pico, with the daily helicopter search light over our apartment.

People, I have been trained for this.

And He does that, doesn't he?
He send us all sorts of tests and trials and like an American Ninja, we train and grow stronger.
We learn to cope.
Because I am.
I am stronger.
And although my husband says I am spiraling, I do feel that in my own way, I  am coping.
One might look at our short life here in Connecticut of just five years and think, "When are you heading back to L.A.???"
Because truly, it has been a collage of the totally unimaginable.
Disaster upon disaster.
But it has also been beautiful.
Perhaps the beauty is not always obvious, but I am learning to seek it out.

Patience.  Endurance.  They have been a running theme, bashed over my head, at the request of God, by every angel and saint looking out for me.  And when I keep my eye on the prize, and remember what this race we call life is all about, I am good.  Itchy, but good.  Because I remember, this house is not the home I am aiming for.  My goal is to make it to the house of my Father.  And from what I have read about heaven, I don't think there are mites in heaven.  Or strange men in bedroom windows with their pants down.

Last night Nick and I sat and poured two glasses of chilled red wine.  Chilled, because I thought I bought white wine, and well, honestly, that was almost as upsetting as learning about the dead mice I was sleeping with.  But Nick and I are not quitters, and so we drank it anyway!  We are determined, like that.  You see, there is still good stuff here.  There are still good people here.  There is still a beautiful marriage here.  And there is still a beautiful home to be made.  And as soon as we kill the pests, and paint the walls, and fix the toilet, and clear up my rash....it will feel just like home.

I am running this race, and I will not give up.  Here I am, Lord.  Patient and willing to take on what you throw me.  I trust in you, and I know you know the plans you have for me and that they are GOOD.  I just pray that this awesome plan of yours does not involve my having to run into that spider in the basement again.  Because he was the size of my husbands head.  And I am not sure I can handle that.