Blessings of the ..... fleas?!?

This is crazy.  Absolutely crazy.

After waking up at Joel's mom & dad's house yesterday morning, Joel's dad sat him down & said, "I have to tell you about a couple things that happened while you were gone."  Joel immediately thought someone had died or another terrible thing had happened!  Fortunately it wasn't death, but it was bad.  Our house had been infested with fleas.

When we left for Africa in June, a great friend & neighbor, Jess, asked if she could help out with anything while we were gone.  She was so sweet, "I just don't want you guys to worry about anything while you're away!  We'll watch after your house."  So I asked her to feed our cat every day or so  while we were gone.  Little did she know.....

Also, while we were packing up in June, our AC went out.  And while we were lugging totes down the stairs & out to the van, one of them bumped the thermostat off the wall... never to be found.  Seriously.  Still no idea where it went.

About a week after we left, it got super hot here - like 90's - 100's.  Without AC, and with the cat inside the house, and the incredible humidity.... apparently this is more than perfect conditions for flea breeding.  Jess wrote me an email saying our house was infested with fleas.  I didn't panic because I imagined she was overreacting & that there were a few fleas on the carpet or on the cat.  She didn't say much more over the weeks except to tell me she retreated the cat with flea medicine.  Thank you Jess!

The fleas were bad - as I learned yesterday.  And I have the best friends in the whole entire world.  And God has a sense of humor.... and a plan.  Always a plan.

They were so bad, Jess called it "flea popcorn."  I guess they were literally jumping up & down out of the carpet & she could see them in the sun rays - and they attacked anyone who entered the house.  Over the past month & a half, my self-less, wonderful friends, Jess, Shanna & Heather, along with my too-good-to-be-true Mom (Joel's mom), packed up everything in our house that was on the floor, moved it out to the garage, moved the furniture to hard floors & prepared for an exterminator .... twice.  They also washed all our bedding, pillows, toys, clothes, & put special things that they couldn't wash fleas out of (like all the kids' stuffed animals) in the freezer & then in the sun, freezer, sun.... to kill the live ones & burn out the eggs...  Not to mention coming to my house for two months to vacuum twice (TWICE) a day!  And dump the vacuum canister into clear plastic zip locks to monitor the flea epidemic.

When I was first told, I just cried.  Cried & cried & cried into Joel's shoulder.  Why would this happen? How?  I was so embarrassed & felt so terrible that my friends had to spend their summer this way.  And I cried because I was so thankful for them.  Who has friends like this?  We are so blessed.  So stinkin' blessed.
When I texted Shanna before getting home - I told her that Joel's parents had given us the news about the fleas... her response was unexpected & so perfectly what I needed to hear (hope you don't mind me quoting it, Shan)
"Oh my goodness Paula!!!  You have no reason to be embarrassed or upset or cry.  You have no idea the GIANT BLESSING that has come from all of this mess & how God has taught me about beauty in ashes!!  God is in complete control of even this!!  I love you so much PLEASE don't be upset or embarrassed!!!  But I do know you are so wasted tired & maybe a good cry was good for you :) "

When we got home, I was able to talk all about it with Shanna & Jess.  The blessings that have come are many.  And they are great.  Jess had been reading Corrie Ten Boone earlier this year & remembered the part about Corrie's sister thanking God for the fleas in the concentration camp... Corrie was astonished & didn't see the good in fleas.  Her sister pointed out that the fleas are what were keeping the guards out.  Months later, when Jess walked into our flea infested house, she remembered this story & wondered if God would make something good from the fleas.

Previously, this spring, we shared the difficult news with Shanna that we will be moving ... just down the road 10 minutes, but moving nonetheless.  It was really tough - we are sisters.  Our kids play together like siblings.  Shanna has been asking God to make good in this too - to surround her with hope & meet her needs for a good friend... she's been praying for the new neighbors who will eventually move into our house next door to her.

The fleas brought Jess across the street. She has a bunch of little girls.  The friendships that have grown between Jess & Shanna, as well as the kids in both homes .... miraculous.  Both friends said they wouldn't trade the flea epidemic for anything.  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Gen. 18:14