Adventures in Parenting...without heat

The last 24 hours in our house have been very cold! Our thermostat decided it was tired of making the heat come on, so it just didn't. Matt is usually very easy to reach during the day, while he is at work, but yesterday, he was in meetings all day. I finally got to talk to him at 2:30, only to tell him it was 59 degrees in our house! He came home and called a guy to come fix the heat. The guy discovered that it was the thermostat, replaced it, and left. Little did we know, when he was out, in the dark, looking at the unit, he broke a wire of some sort. That wire kept the heat from ever coming back on. I went to sewing club (woot, woot!) at church, and came home at 10:00, only to see that it was still soooo cold!

If you are a parent, you know that when tough stuff happens, you figure you will be fine, but it's just not okay for your children. All I could think was that Matt and I could climb under the covers, and make it through a cold night, until someone could fix the heat this morning. Thinking of the boys being cold though, was not going to work. Case, I can wrap up in blankets, but the whole SIDS scare just makes me uncomfortable doing that with Tanner. (I just heard on the radio the other day about a woman that lost her 5 month old to SIDS...just not taking that risk.)

So, it's up the stairs we go, to the room over the garage. It has a separate heating unit. We put Tanner in the pack-n-play up there, and Case slept on a mat. Matt and I slept on an air mattress, directly next to the stairs, so that if Case tried to go down by himself, he'd have to crawl over us to get to them, and we'd wake up. You have to consider every possibility, so you can hopefully prevent the unthinkable, right?!

In all of this, I was just praying....first, that the plan to keep Case away from the stairs would work. Then, that Tanner would sleep ok, and not keep us up all night. Finally, that the heat issue would be an easy fix and not cost us a fortune. Guess what! God is faithful. I definitely shouldn't be surprised, but it never ceases to amaze me that God is just that cool. He never promised that obstacles wouldn't pop up every now and then, but He did promise that He is in control. I hesitated to talk about this, cause I know there are SUCH bigger issues that people have going on, but it is a reminder that God is in control of all of our issues; big and small. Psalm 46 is a great reminder of this.

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
² So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
³ Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

⁴ A river brings joy to the city of our God,
the sacred home of the Most High.
⁵ God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.
From the very break of day, God will protect it.
⁶ The nations are in chaos,
and their kingdoms crumble!
God’s voice thunders,
and the earth melts!
⁷ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel^[b] is our fortress.

⁸ Come, see the glorious works of the Lord:
See how he brings destruction upon the world.
⁹ He causes wars to end throughout the earth.
He breaks the bow and snaps the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”

¹¹ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.