From Riches to Rags...

It wasn't too many years ago--when the housing bubble was huge--our family was doing quite well financially, thank you very much.  :-)  (Our family business is construction related.)  Now that the bubble has burst we're finding ourselves very deflated as well. 

A few posts ago I posted that Mark Lowry video (he's so funny!)...  He asks, "Did you have a bad year last year?  Don't worry, it'll pass.  Did you have a good year last year..."  Well, I can testify that "it came to pass" for our family.  :-)

Now that the good years have forsaken us for a while we are struggling with some "bad" years.  Very, very challenging.  For instance, we thought that things couldn't be worse for our Christmas holiday last year when we cobbled together $35 per person for gifts (we draw names).  Ha!!  This year it's $10!!  For extended family we're calling this year the "handmade gifts" year.  No money for a real tree either--our tiny 3 ft. tall fake one will have to suffice.

The children are taking it all with a grain of salt and know that this won't last forever.  It's an adventure--just like most of our life has been.  Life in Christ is definitely not boring!! 

Every now and then, even though the family keeps their chins up, I know that they struggle with the lack of money issue as well.  One night Son #6 was sleeping and he started talking in his sleep, as he does occasionally, and I heard him say, "I want to buy something!"  Giggle!  Yeah, me too!!

God is faithful and I desire to walk where He leads us.  Debt is presuming on the future and sometimes things don't work out the way that we think they will.  Perhaps we did not walk the best path in the past--but as they say, "you learn from your mistakes".  And some lessons are just plain harder than others.  I pray that we are able to have more opportunities to make our "talents" grow...  SOON!!  :-)  So for now we are making the best use of the non-monetary talents we have on hand.  Thank goodness we have had some very good years to help tide us over!