Slowly but Surely

We're learning a lot about patience right now as we wait for the kitchen to be finished. We're making progress though. We're learning a lot about the culture in this area. Yesterday Joel was talking to our neighbors about the process and how most of the workers when you ask them when they'll be there for work they say, "Next week." Then when Joel asks "which day? what time?" they say, "Yeah, yeah, next week." Our neighbors were laughing and said it took them a month and a half to get their roof put on their house! I think that gave me some perspective as we wait for our kitchen. Because...

...the whole "camping" set-up we've got going on is getting old and it's brought out some ugly things in me. It's led to some good (& hard) conversations with Joel though as we've both talked through how each of us is responding and dealing with this time. We've been married 6 years and we're still learning things about ourselves and each other and it's taken us into deeper places with each other and that's been sweet in the midst of everything.

There are men downstairs right now finishing up tiling the floor. Then we'll wait a couple days for that to dry. At some point too we have to find someone to finish the walls. There was quite a bit of drilling done in the walls to add/update the wiring for electricity. The electrician told Joel, "You have to have this updated...these wires are from Hitler!" Our house was built in 1942 or 43, so the wires were pretty old and badly in need of updating. If not, we wouldn't be able to run different appliances at the same time. And that could get complicated! : )

So the construction workers repaired all the walls that were drilled into and re-cemented them, but the cement they used was grainy and sandy and the rest of the wall is smooth. The workers finished though, and said, "okay, we're done!" and left. A couple days later, Joel and I realized that the walls are unmatching and have no idea what to do about it. We're making some calls though and asking around. We'd be happy to do it ourselves if we had a clue of what to do...but alas, we do not.

At some point hopefully we'll find someone to re-finish the walls and then move on to having the cabinets installed, the appliances put in place and hopefully by the end of the month be able to store, prepare and eat our food in one location of the house instead of three! We'll see!!

The Lord has been pouring down sunshine on us this month though, and that has helped tremendously as we dine outdoors! And! Because of not having a stove or oven, we've been eating A LOT of sandwiches which has helped with stretching our budget this month! We have eaten our share of take out and restaurant food too though...we're just making due this month and are enjoying the blessings the Lord is heaping on us.