$40

It's Day 1 in New Orleans. After a restless night's sleep filled with ambulance sirens, honking horns, and blasting radios (all of which are affectionately now known to us as "drive-by's"), We have settled into our living arrangements on the campus of New Orleans Baptist Seminary. Well, it's not quite on the campus. It's on the Seminary-owned property that is across the street. And, I say living arrangements because we are living in the Seminary-owned hotel while we wait for an apartment on campus to become available. Meanwhile, we take comfort in the barbed-wire fence just outside our front door.

Yesterday was a long day. We arrived in NOLA around 3:15pm. The storage unit turned out to be surprisingly small...but with an incredible amount of patience and talent, Kyle and his dad managed to fit all of our belongings into the...closet. Meanwhile, Becca and Kayla found the hotel and checked in...too bad they weren't expecting us. It was also a shock to Bec to discover that the hotel room did not come with any linens...no towels, pillows, sheets...etc. It was quickly decided that a trip to the store was needed, since we do not own king size...anything. Nevertheless, we eventually moved everything to its new home.

Today we did some major shopping to make our hotel room more like home. After a quick lunch, we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend our FAVORITE kind of money...gift cards! We searched the first floor of the two story store (that's right, 2 floors) and could not find the linens that we needed, so we headed to the escalator...wondering how we would get the cart upstairs. Did you know that there are escalators for carts too?? That's right, but the sign is sure to point out that you should take the child out of the cart first...

So we finally found the king size sheets. We found the cheapest set, which also happened to be the ugliest set, grabbed some pillows and a few other items, and headed for the check out line.
The total amount to be spent on linens was $40...much to our disappointment. That, combined with our other purchases, was sure to wipe out the remaining gift card money. However, when we stepped up to the register, the cashier discovered that one of the gift cards had more money on it than we thought. $40 more.

It may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things. But in a time when we keep leaning on God's assurance that we are truly obeying his Will for our lives, it was nice to recognize God's hand in our crazy new life. We had an unanticipated need. And God provided.

God called us to New Orleans. We have no doubt about that. He knows what is in store for us. Tomorrow is a misty road to our eyes. We cannot see past right now. But our Father who knows all things will provide for us according to his grace and mercy. He wants to bring glory to His name through our experiences here. That is why Kyle came up with the idea of this Blog. Through this journal, we can share our joy, laughter, pain, and fear. We can tell everyone who reads this who God is to us and what He is teaching us.

Pray for us as we follow in His steps.


James 4:13-15
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.' You don't even know what tomorrow will bring--what your life will be. For you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead you should say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'"