Headache, sore throat, tornado warnings, cancelled flights, and we couldn't be happier!

Pounding headache and unbearably sore throat, severe weather/tornadoes forecasted for our area, behind schedule with packing and getting Jalen ready for his week with his grandparents, and then in the middle of packing I get a phone call saying our flight was cancelled!  The after being on hold for hours I find out that we would not be able to get our regularly scheduled connecting flight through Chicago and would have to go through Houston!  Might not have been a big deal except we were meeting my parents and friends in Chicago and my mom was looking so forward to seeing us tomorrow.

What a day it has been and who would have thought that at the end of it we would really be at peace with it all, see God's plan and still get to see my parents and get to Ethiopia before our court date?!?

Let me start with my sickness on Friday.  I woke up with a terribly sore throat that progressed through the day and by the end of the day I had a pounding headache and could barely swallow.  I prayed and prayed to be fully healed by the morning because I had too much to do to be sick the day before leaving.  I was also very anxious about leaving this weekend because we were told that the storms lining up to come through Oklahoma were looking pretty bad and that there would be a lot of tornado warnings for our area with the worst being from Saturday night into Sunday morning.  1.  We would have been driving at 3:30am through the expected severe weather , 2.  I would be leaving Jalen knowing there may be a tornado (and by the way growing up in Illinois, I used to get physically ill when we had tornado warnings and although am better they still freak me out!)  3. My poor mother-in-law being mostly born and raised in Arizona has never experienced a tornado warning and is not from here and would have to get Jalen all packed up and headed to a friend's shelter by herself...just so many things to be nervous about.

Well let me just sum this all up by saying God always has a plan and we have a hard time seeing it when it doesn't seem to equate with our plan but when we look back, we see how much better His plan was.   I woke up this morning fully healed from my sore throat and pounding headache and let me tell you it was not the kind of sore throat and headache that goes away that quickly!  As of now, our town has yet to be hit with any severe weather and although our flights were cancelled, we were redirected through the same route to leave 1 day later.  We now can spend the last day home with Jalen and my mom-in-law and just relax mostly, and I can feel more prepared and not stressed about leaving.  Also we don't have to worry about driving to OKC in bad weather at 3:30am being very tired  to catch our flight.  Although our layover in Chicago was shortened, we still get to see my parents and will ultimately arrive in Ethiopia Tuesday night so we can sleep well and shower before court Wednesday morning.  So yes, all is well with us!

Also if you look at our fundraising thermometer it has increased by $1,000 very recently!  We have been blessed over and over again by dear friends and family and cannot thank everyone who has helped us financially and especially to those of you continuously praying for us.  Believe me, we feel the prayers and hope you know they are being answered!

This was posted on You Version.  Very appropriate to our situation I think...thank you Kent Denson for sending this to us :)

"Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act.  Psalm 37:7 NLT