Contingencies & Night Terrors

Well, we finally received and accepted an offer on our house, which is good news. The part that doesn't make it great news is that the buyers haven't sold their home yet. In fact, it isn't even on the market yet...which makes their offer on our home contingent upon them selling their house. We signed papers agreeing to no later than a July 6th close date, which, to be honest, scares me to death. Because Lauren's first day of preschool in North Carolina is August 27th. And I was hoping to be in our new house all settled by then. But, the Lord knows what He is doing and every step along this path is teaching me to trust Him with the kind of blind faith He so deserves.

The other interesting part of my week was, after many sleepless nights, hearing the pediatrician diagnose Lauren with night terrors. It is a sleep disorder that affects 2% of children ages 1-8. It is usually inherited, but both of our mothers swear that neither Ryan or I ever had it. So, lucky me! It is basically when the child, during the REM sleep cycle, has a nightmare that they cannot be awakened from. So, she wakes up every 3 hours or so during the night crying, hysterical and unable to be consoled. It is probably one of the most helpless feelings as a mother to not be able to calm your child down or fix the problem. Once again, this has driven me to my knees. I have started praying over her each time she has an episode, because even though they say this is a "sleep disorder"...I also firmly believe that it is an attack of Satan. He is oh so sneaky in the ways he is trying to get to us, weaken us, and tear us apart. But, we are firm in our resolve and confident he will give up soon because he is not succeeding. These struggles and stumbling blocks are only pulling us closer to the One we serve and who is faithful to comfort us during these challenging times. These difficulties are only making us rely on Him more because we clearly see we cannot do it on our own strength. So, praise be to God, for He is the one who is enabling us to endure this time, giving us everything we need for each day and teaching us incredible lessons of faith, radical dependence and, above all, hope.