Three years of dust and mold!

Hello, friends. Sorry it is already July 10 and I am just now writing. Things here have, to say the least, been hectic! Our things from West Africa arrived last Saturday, and to be honest, we have been overwhelmed and nearly paralyzed! Our cute, clean, little 900 square foot apartment has been invaded with 150 cardboard boxes covered with mold, mildew, and full of memories! These things have been packed up in the hot and humid climate of Ivory Coast for over three years! They were things that filled a 1600 square foot, three bedroom house in Abidjan! So, as you might guess, there is NO ROOM to put most of the stuff.

Rick and I managed to go through all of the boxes in about four days. We piled up 3/4 of it to be thrown/given away. Some of the stuff was usuable - but no room for it. I had about 50 boxes of just KITCHEN stuff. Remember, our apartment here doesn't even have an oven! And if I stand in our kitchen, I can touch the cabinets on both sides of the room!

Anyway, we have several boxes of our kids' things that we will let them go through at Christmas. I feel like it is important for them to go through them and have the memories before they toss them. It has been quite an emotional week for me and for Rick. I don't need any of the stuff that I tossed and I don't even want it and there sure is no room for it. Still, I have grieved over getting rid of it because of all the memories attached!

Rick and I concluded that the Lord had been telling us for some time now to downsize and we just put that off. So when you walk into our apartment and the smell of three years of dust and mold hits you - that is the smell of disobedience!

Today we hired a man to come and take away all the boxes we had ready to get rid of. It is not so overwhelming now, although we still have lots of boxes that will eventually go to our new office (when we find one).

Pray for us as we try to find places for the stuff we decided to keep and that His grace will cover us as we "let go" of these things!