Provision and Protection

I still can’t believe we are remodeling my kitchen.

August 21

I have been planning and thinking through different configurations since we bought the house 5 ½ years ago. I was hoping to one day be able to put the current kitchen cabinets into the basement and create a more functional kitchen on the main floor. I kept dreaming and planning, knowing that it may or may not ever happen. And I was okay with that. Because I feel so blessed with the home I have, I could dream without expectation. Last week as we were standing in the kitchen looking at the plans I realized that the wall between the pantry that was coming out, and the oven, was at least eight inches thick. This was a problem. It left us wondering why you would build a wall that thick. We knew there must be something inside. Knowing the layout of the house we were able to deduce that it was a water pipe coming from our daughter’s room. That pipe could be a deal-breaker. A friend of ours came out to look at the situation and said it could be moved into the wall without too much trouble. He sent out one of his workers to our house to fix the pipe situation and move a door in the basement as well as take out a window. Over and over again, what looked like a problem, went smoothly. Through all of it, I keep surrendering to God. At first, I surrendered my desire to remodel the kitchen. Now I am surrendering all the plans and problems. I have seen God’s hand every day in so many ways. God providing someone to work with us so we can do a lot of the work ourselves. We found a small leak from a condensation line that would never have been found until the damage had been done. The pipe in the kitchen that went into the basement was actually in the wall already, only the bottom coupling was not. Our neighbor stopped by to see what we are doing and had a great idea to hide the pipe without a large column going all the way to the ceiling; we will build a small corner decorative alcove. We wanted to move the sink in the basement kitchen to be under the new window. Again, the way is easy. Adding light switches and outlets became simplified with the help of a new friend. We have just enough lower cabinets, which are the perfect size to make a work-bench for my husband in the garage. Trim that needed to come off the stairs came off so much easier than I anticipated. These are just a few of the ways God has provided and protected us. I am so grateful for the peace I have. I can trust my God to make a way. Thank you, Abba.