Closed Doors

...from a recent email by Kathy (with permission):

At this time of the year, the phrase "closed doors" reminds me of the night Jesus was born and there was "no room in the Inn". I am delighted that Jesus was born anyway - from the very first night of his life on earth, no closed door ever stood in the way of his presence being born - Hallejuiah.

At the end of this week, a mere couple weeks from Christmas, we face another closed door, here in France. Some of you may already know, the Gex apartment was offered to us, but the landlord needed our money by this weekend - and we weren't prepared to move in by December 15th. The more we thought about it after we turned the offer down, the better we felt about our decision. Gex is far away and this particular apartment was a mini "fixer-upper". If you know Phil and I, well...that isn't one of our giftings. Back in the USA, we'd just call Craig, our friend from SR, or consult with others to walk us through the process, but here...not yet. Then we realized the Gex apartment also required us to purchase our own closets - cutting into the smallish bedroom size.

We were grateful to fall back on the Echenevex place, however, and resigned ourselves to setting up a meet-the-landlords session this Saturday or next. When Heather, our translator friend, called to arrange the appointment, however, she learned that both halves of the previously available Echenevex place had just been rented out, contracts signed. The landlords hadn't realized we were still interested after our tour last weekend since we hadn't called. *sigh* I cried at first, then, Phil helped me realized that we did have mis-givings about the location of Echenevex (out in the country) and with the steps.

With a couple weeks til we return to the USA, and still no car, we're really not in a position to continue searching. At least for this coming week, Phil will also be tied up with "CMS week" - an intensive week of updates and hob-nobbing with CERN colleagues from around the world, here in France. Ads for apartments have dropped significantly anyway. SO we are going on a long-overdue road trip on Saturday with some friends of Phil's from CERN to Montreux, a darling hamlet on the far end of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, for their Christmas Festival! Then, we wrap up the evening with a night at our church's Christmas dinner outreach. Some dear folks (Trina and Dave) had some extra tickets and invited us (it's a fund-raiser).

I have also been thinking about all we have to thank God for...sure enough, if I were to look to the externals only (or certain ones, anyway), things look bleak...BUT, while we've been out here:

• Benjamin has been weaned! This was a huge answer to prayer...I wasn't sure he'd want to be weaned, but he actually initiated the whole thing and doesn't seem to miss "Mama's milk" as much as I had feared. Not at all, actually.
• Phil has moved mountains to open accounts for us at the Swiss Post and is on the verge of opening an account with a French bank, too. He has also made head-way obtaining our car insurance.
• We bought Ben his first high chair and crib!
• We selected and purchased a car (1996 Honda Civic).
• Kathy has gotten to know several women from church via her Tuesday morning Bible Study - thank you Jesus!
• We've figured out a way to co-habitate in community living with Vlad, Maja and Seth. Amazing, really.
• Ben has been thriving on the physical and occupational therapies we found for him. No worries there!

All in all, we have been spoiled by God's mercies. Even these closed doors are likely His mercies to us, too. I remember the guys I dated enroute to Phil...when those relationships ended, I grieved and wondered why? It's because God had something much better for me - and God's gifts are worth waiting for! Even now, even here in France.

Your friendship and prayers are a gift to us, too. I'm so grateful for you! Consider your prayers answered - we asked that God would make his ways clear to us, and he is! The path isn't easy, but his yoke is easy and the burden, really, is light (not ours to carry).

Love you,
Kathy