Cough...Cough - Too much JUNK!

My sister and I are having a Yard Sale next weekend. When she moved to her house in December, a lot of her "sale" items went to my mini-storage. We discovered last week that she has an issue with keeping things for WAY TOO LONG! Some of the clothes we found in her containers were from high school...8-10 years old. She also kept pretty much all the clothes Camryn has worn in the 6 years of her life!
Last weekend we tackled many boxes of clothes and priced them. We went out to the mini-storage and got overwhelmed when we opened the door at the sheer amount of junk that we have been holding on to for years. However, because we were overwhelmed we got a couple of boxes and left...resorting to going through the storage this weekend.
Well, since the forecast is for rain this weekend and it was warm and sunny here yesterday, I went out and tackled the storage room. Pulled everything out and started at the back pricing items and then put it all back in there. So now we can load up a trailer next Friday night and move all that stuff to Andrea's for the Yard Sale.
This was therapy for Andrea as she has vowed not to keep stuff she doesn't need anymore! YAHOO! I have never been a "pack-rat" so this was music to my ears! This is my favorite thing about moving, throwing away junk and trash and getting rid of things that have become useless to me, but someone else can use.
I'm planning to take pictures of all the Yard Sale festivities next weekend. So I'll make sure to post about that!

A Time for Healing

Blogs are a view of what is going on in the life of the writer of the blog. I have over the past year or so, kept you up on the happenings in our lives (or at least the happy happenings). So this post is going to take a different turn. At this point in my life, I am going through a healing process. So this post is going to be some "therapy" for me.

For about 6 years, my husband has been in the throws of alcohol addiction. This has caused much emotional and financial pain for our marriage. He has had legal trouble, been in the detox unit of the hospital (several times), been in outpatient treatment and one 30-day stay in a residential facility (October 2007). After this 30-day stay, he did really well on working the 12-step program, going to meetings and obtaining a sponsor. However, he went to make amends with a friend (who is an alcoholic as well) and he picked up the beer and drank it. That lead to a few more episodes of drinking. These were usually one night and then clean for 8-10 days. About 2 weeks ago, he had a time of drinking for 4 days. During this time I had a long visit with our pastor. He just let me vent, cry, talk it out. I had finally come to a point that I needed to step out of God's way so that HE alone could get to John's heart. You see as a wife of an alcoholic, I had been trying to "fix" him and things. I had to come to my "bottom" and decide to let God work in this situation.

I approached John about going to long-term treatment (6-12 months). We had talked about this before and he was not ready to commit to that length. I let him know that I was at the point that I could not "live" this life anymore. He needed long-term treatment for himself and I needed the time for myself to recover.

Last Wednesday, March 12th, we drove to a facility in Texas that is a Christian treatment facility. The program is 6 months and there is after-care/work program after that time that he can participate in as well.

Our pastor preached on John 15 a couple of Sunday's ago. That is the reason I changed the name of my blog to "Learning to Abide in Him". That is what I am focusing on during this season of my life - Abiding in Him...letting Him flow through me to produce much fruit.

I ask that as my blog friends that you would send up prayers for me and this healing process I am in. Also, send up a prayer for John - a prayer that God will get to the root of John's heart and break away the selfishness, pride and rebellion and rebuild him to the NEW CREATURE that he is in Christ.

Thanks for "listening" to me as I put out this personal information. I know that I need all the prayer warriors I can get during this time.