Joy and Sorrow

First of all, long time, no post!! I apologize for the long pause in posting but once you read a little further down, you’ll see that I had one, rather two, very good reasons for it!

For those of you who have been reading the very infrequent posts I’ve had this year, a few months ago I asked you all to pray for a very special but secret request in our house. Well, the request was for Mr. P and I as we went through the process of becoming a foster/adoption home. We completed the process through the spring, and we now have two little girls, ages 5 and 8 with us! It’s a long story of how we ended up deciding to do this and how we ended up with these two particular girls in our home, so that’s a post for another day.  But for now, we have been blessed with two beautiful little girls and we are enjoying every minute of it!

Obviously, our home life has completely changed for the better! Our quiet evenings have now been replaced by bathtime, storytime, and bedtime but it is wonderful.  Although Mr. P and I would eat dinner at the table, there is nothing like sitting at the table as a family and talking about the day.  Shopping is also much more fun when you are buying for little girls. I have to exercise a lot of self-control when I am shopping for them because I just want to buy them everything! Poor Mr. P-his world is now full of hairbows, Barbies, and pink but he is taking it in stride. I considered myself blessed and lucky to have him before, but seeing how good he is with the girls just fills my heart even more.

We know that we may have a long, difficult road ahead of us. It looks like this may be a long-term situation, but you never know so it may end up being short term. We just continue to pray and leave it in God’s hands. Our family and friends have a wonderful support group, and we have so many people that are praying for us. It was very sudden and unexpected when the girls came into our home, and so many of our friends offered clothes, toys, books, games, etc. in the first few days that we had them. We are truly blessed!

Unfortunately, in the midst of this joy we have also experienced great sorrow in the last few days. On Thursday night, our church burned down. We had just been out at church at a revival and as we were all leaving, we saw a storm coming our way. We were able to make it home just before the storm hit, and it was a terrible one-lightning, wind, hail, etc. Shortly after the storm, we got a phone call that the church was on fire. Mr. P went out there while I stayed home with the girls, and he didn’t get back home until after 1:00 a.m. The  state fire marshal is investigating it, but it looks like lightning struck the bell tower at the top of the church. Several people who live near the church have told us that they heard a simultaneous lightning and thunderclap with loud boom during the storm and it was shortly after that when someone saw flames coming from the roof.

The sanctuary was completely destroyed and the basement had about three feet of water in it. Once the firefighters got the fire out, Mr. P and some other men from the church were able to get into the basement and salvage a few items-the communion set, some pictures and trophies, and some of our VBS materials. (VBS is next week.) We spent all day yesterday working at the church and trying to get some things from the sanctuary. Amazingly, a large wooden cross at the front of the church did not burn at all and the silver cross at the top of the Christian flag pole was not damaged either. I believe it was God’s way of reminding us to have hope! We pulled out part of the altar and pulpit and some of the pews. I think they are also going to be able to save a few of the stained glass windows. 

My heart just aches for Mr. P and his family. His family was one of the ones to start the original church and his grandfather helped build the church building. Many of our friends grew up in the church with Mr. P, and they have attended since they were babies.  They have lost a huge part of their lives.

Here are a few pictures:

Although we are devastated by the loss, we are blessed with strong community support. Even though this is a very small community, there are several churches in the area and they have already come forward with tremendous support. We will rebuild and be even stronger!

Blessings,

TPP