Birthday Blessings

This is the 17th time I've been blessed to celebrate with Derek on his birthday. :) Happy Birthday Derek!!! Today I'll be bringing a big birthday cookie to you at work, and you can eat it all yourself or share it. Braylen, Kaleb, and I have gifts for you when you come home, and Aaron made you a card. (He just can't part with his money--even for his daddy!)

For many years, Derek's dreamed of owning a camper. Notice I didn't say Derek and Sarah's dream was to own a camper. I think you have to grow up camping to fall in love with it. I did not grow up camping. But Derek did, and so his dream of camping with our family is very much alive. So, he spent hours and hours researching campers online. He gathered sale ads to find local campers. He tried so hard to figure out how we could buy a camper without taking out a loan. Then one day he stopped looking at campers online. He stopped talking about campers, deciding to let go of that dream for now. I felt sad for him, but I was also thankful for his wisdom. We don't want to sink ourselves financially. Let's leave this in God's hands.

Well. Fast-forward 2 years. Derek's parents gather the family together one night and tell us they've decided they need more bedrooms at their lake cabin. They want the extended family to be able to stay overnight at the lake, and the cabin is too small for that. Their solution? To buy a camper. Not just any camper, but the kind of camper Derek dreamed of. One that has plenty of room for our family, plus a friend or two. Oh, and it's brand new! Then because God is God, He timed the delivery of this camper for the day after Derek's birthday. :)

Could we have bought a camper 2 years ago? Yes. We could have taken out a loan and bought a small, used camper. As Dave Ramsey says, our vacation would then follow us home every time--in the form of debt payments. But we'd have that camper, and that's what's important, right? Hmm. It was hard for Derek to say no to this. We had no idea what was going to happen 2 years later. But I want to always remember that God did, and look how He honored Derek's waiting on Him. This new camper isn't ours, but Derek's parents have graciously allowed us to use it next month for our family vacation. My purpose in writing this is not to boast, but to boast in the Lord.

"For great is Your love, higher than the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let Your glory be over all the earth." Psalm 108:4-5

As we go camping this summer, may God show us His glory through His creation. And maybe He can help me fall in love with camping. :)

Happy Birthday Derek!!!