January 18 – “Getting a handle on it”

I admit it.  I was a little bit jealous of Chris today.  Cailyn was up most of the night, and so were her Mommy and Daddy.  That meant it was time for Nana to step up and volunteer to "sacrifice" her morning so they could get some sleep.  That meant she "had to" rock and bounce and walk and cuddle with Cailyn for several hours.  Tough life for a grandmother.  They all seem to have come through it pretty well, though.   It was great to see everybody for the gathering of the Church this morning.  It always is.  We had some new folks.  Several of them now live in Galveston and plan to come back. God is moving in Galveston again.  It's just kind of hard to see it when you're right in the middle of it.   Mom and I went by the house on our way home.  It sure doesn't look the same with some of the new studs up for the different wall structure.  I think it's getting close to time for the electrical wiring to be run.  We have to rewire the whole house.  And plumbing.  It's been recommended that we replace all the galvanized pipes with pvc, so that means starting from scratch there, too.  Don't know if we can afford that one or not.  And while all that is going on we need to replace the roof before too much longer.  We might have some help with the roof.  A group from Brownwood was to have a meeting last week about that.  Hopefully we'll hear from them soon.  Some time in there we have to decide if we're keeping the fireplace.  That'll mean sandblasting and repainting it at least.  Then we need to move it to the corner, which means the roof will be affected at two points – closing up a hole and cutting a new one.  We have had some offers of possible help with some of the other projects, too.  I know for sure Josh's church in Arlington is going to put up the sheetrock and probably the insulation.  We still have to buy it all, though.  We have a meeting with the Amish Cabinet makers tomorrow to see if we can afford them.  Chris sure hopes so.  They are supposed to be quite a bit less expensive than other custom cabinet makers.  The bid for the new windows came in a little less than we thought.  (It sounds so weird to me to be saying something that costs $9600 is less than we thought).  The central air and heat looks like it's going to be around $6100.  Gotta have that.  We might get some help with the interior doors and trim work.  Still not sure on that one.  Should cost around $6500.  Looks to me like the flooring is going to be the biggest expense of all.  Part of the house is wood floors and the rest is ceramic tile.  Chris and I helped Josh lay tile in his house, so I think we can be involved in that one.  On top of all these decisions, we're still waiting to hear from our mortgage company about how they want to handle the insurance money.   It's all been pretty overwhelming since Day One.  I remember when we first got back to town.  I couldn't even answer the "What do you need?" question.   At least now I'm beginning to get a handle on what we need.  And I know God has in his hands how we're going to end up getting it.    Psalms 95:3-5 says, "For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.   The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land."   Father, I do trust you.  My mind is not strong enough to handle this whole rebuilding thing.  Please hang on to it for me.  Amen.