The God inside "a Jami"....

I had a Jami on Friday. Oh boy! Did I have a Jami!  Let me set the scene... and remember I haven't slept in FOREVER!

The Friday prior, I had a service man out to work on our washer.  If you have been a long time reader of this blog you will recall that this washer is NOT old.  Just eleven months old to be exact.  This is the THIRD time we've had to have it serviced (can you say THANK YOU LORD for a warranty?!?!?!?) and the man reported we would need ANOTHER new transmission (what is UP with this lemon???) So anyway after a week with no washer, in spite  of a trip to the laundromat, WOW! were we READY to see the washer repair guy return to install the parts which had FINALLY arrived.

So I went downstairs to get my morning work started, and Jeremiah came running downstairs, "Kiah ran away!" I rushed upstairs to assess the situation.  As I did, Noah called to say he was chasing Kiah through the cul de sac  behind our house. I got in the van to drive the leash to him.  I found them, but by the time I did they were in the field BEHIND the cul de sac with some random man I'd never met (a neighbor who came out to help Noah).  I traipsed through snow drifts in FLIP FLOPS to get the leash to Noah and watch as Kiah took off across Madison Road into the cornfield across the street.  I traipsed back THROUGH the snow bank in my flip flops and got in the van to depart the cul de sac, pass our house and get on Madison Road.

As I passed my house I saw the washer repair guy in the driveway.  I stopped to tell him I would be right back, and he informed me he could not enter the house until I got back... ERGH!  I got to Noah and random nice stranger (I'm starting to wonder if he was really an angel) and found Kiah was just PLAYING with us!  Zipping around the field... Coming close then going far away... Finally, random stranger tackled her and Noah was able to get the leash on her.  We traveled home and let the washer repair guy in, and I was EXHAUSTED and thinking what a Jami!  Little did I know....

We did school while the washer guy fixed our machine.  We did a happy dance because we could wash clothes again.  Meanwhile I received a phone call for work which was IRRITATING to say the least!  All I have to say about that is, "Do you want a job or not people???  Don't treat me like a bill collector!  I'm trying to HELP you get this job!"  Okay I'm done with my rant.

So I finished up that tangled situation and Noah came into my office, "Mom," he said very quietly and depressed, "I think I lost my cell phone when we were chasing Kiah." OHMIGOSH!  Actually this did not come as a big surprise to me, because I had tried to call him at one point during the fiasco, and he didn't answer.  But too much was happening then for me to process what that meant.

We hoped back in the car and traveled over to the first field Kiah frolicked in because I was pretty sure he had called me from that field and then not answered after that.  Noah said we should pray, and we did. The wind was whipping like CRAZY!  There was a high wind advisory that day. And I kept calling Noah's phone and praying he would hear it.  I also prayed that God would lead him to that phone. Noah tracked the sound of the phone zig zagging across the field.  I could tell he had the "scent" of it.  Finally he threw his hand up in the air in VICTORY! He found it!  It wasn't in a puddle.  It wasn't gnawed up by an animal. It wasn't lost forever.  He found the proverbial needle in the haystack (which shall from now on be called the cell phone in the corn field)!  Imagine our surprise therefore when he opened it up to find the ringer was disabled.  What in the WORLD had he heard then???  All of a sudden the MIRACLE of finding the phone in that HUGE field became breathtaking as we realized he could NOT have been hearing the real ringer.  God must have been leading him... whispering to him via the sound of a cell phone ringer because that phone's ringer was OFF!

Here I am finally at the inspiration part of my blog today:

God is ALWAYS inside "a Jami."  He is there!  I don't believe He causes the bad things to happen, but I believe He is right THERE making a way for good to come of it.  I believe that He laid His hand of protection over that tiny little cell phone for HOURS until we realized that it was gone.  Then He led us to the right field (through the whispering to my heart about the unanswered call) and STRAIGHT to the phone (through my son's ear which is finely tuned to sounds AND to God's voice). Not because that cell phone was SO important.  But because He wanted to teach us a lesson.... And likely because He KNEW that I would BLAB that lesson to all of you too.

God is THERE in the midst of our catastrophe!  He is THERE!  He doesn't want the chaos and craziness to be happening to us but we live in this evil, sinful world and there is NO way to avoid ALL of the yuck of the world we live in. But do NOT be deceived!  He is RIGHT there! Waiting and working and planning so that SOMEHOW even your worst tragedy turns out for your victory.

Hang on my dear friend!  Wait for it!  Wait for it!  There it IS!  The God inside "a Jami"!

The Gentle Leader.....

I have a new personal trainer.  Her name is Kiah.  She is AWESOME at her job!  She has only had the job for twelve days, and  in spite of a holiday and a 2-day stay in the ICU for my hubby, I have only missed walking with Kiah ONCE!  She is an incredible motivator.  (FINE!  I will admit the real motivator:  $$$$$.  The vet told us the more she walks on asphalt the less often she will need her nails clipped.  Since we're a little nervous to clip them ourselves and I am a HUGE penny pincher, the motivation of saving money is what has me out there walking that girl nearly every day!)  And as long as we're being truthful here, I might as well also admit, I'm not walking her... SHE is walking ME.  It is actually getting a little irritating because she pulls TOO hard on me!  I mentioned this to my cousin (my resident animal expert), and she offered to bring me her Gentle Leader when she came for Thanksgiving.  Well today I used it for the first time and WOW!  She was right!  It is a WORLD of difference!

Kiah wearing her Gentle Leader

The basic idea here is:  The Gentle Leader allows me to control Kiah's head and once I control her head, I am IN CONTROL!  I wonder, do they make a Gentle Leader for children???  How about husbands???  I digress...  So this morning my walk with Kiah was nearly perfect!  (Except for the part where I realized TOO late that the dogs at the end of the cul-de-sac were out...  it took ALL my strength to get that girl turned around and I was PRAYING the whole time that the owner of the other dogs would realize what was going on as they had left their property and were slowly but LOUDLY approaching us.  YIKES!)  Other than that she walked without pulling and there was slack in the leash the ENTIRE time!  Brittany's wisdom of, "If you control the head, you control the animal." kept running through my head and it got me to thinking... then praying... any crying a little too...

I started praying, "God, please be my Gentle Leader!  I want you to control my head so that you are in control of ALL of me."  See I started to realize that this whole thing called life... A lot of it is a head game... If Satan can get into your head and make you worry, doubt, or fear... If you give just an INCH of your brain to worry, doubt, or fear... It is over!  The worry, doubt and fear control you.  However, if you give God control over every inch of your brain, peace flows in... the peace that passes all understanding.

Now according to my cousin (and she hasn't been wrong so far), after a while Kiah will get so used to the Gentle Leader not allowing her to pull that she will forget to pull without the Gentle Leader and eventually she will even walk by my side without a leash.  We'll see about that.

But, I think that happens with God too....  I think initially we might pull and tug at our Gentle Leader...  I think initially we have to surrender to Him over and over and over again.... but after awhile, we get used to it... we stop even trying to pull away towards worry, doubt and fear.  We stop even trying to leave His side when the going gets tough.  We just surrender and the peace floods in.

Kiah Grace

We have a dog!!!!

Her name is Kiah Grace.

Her verse is:
Revelation 22:21
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people.  Amen.








She is SWEET and KIND and AMAZING with the crazy Kastner children.  This is the story of how she came to be with us.

We have ALWAYS wanted a dog.  We are MUCH more dog people than cat people.  However, fate (and a country home that needed a GOOD mouser...) brought us a cat first.  In a story quite akin to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, we got the first Mercy.  However, we soon saw she had simply been looking for a loving place to die.  After reading the tearful account of Mercy's final days, our generous landlord offered us the new Mercie, who promptly taught us that even kittens of a VERY young age can get preggos.  Along came Job, (full name:  Absalom Job), who until today I did not realize had not been given a proper verse or introduction to my blogging community so:


Absalom Job

Job 1:1
In the land of Uz there lived a man (or a cat) whose name was Job.  This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.








As most of my Facebook friends know, Mercie ran away about two months ago.  We have pretty much given up hope of her return, but still look for her now and again.  There have been a couple of possible Mercie sightings, but they are as of yet still unconfirmed.  They do make us feel a little better though that possibly she isn't road kill as we have feared for the past eight weeks.

Job has been doing a great job of taking over his mother's responsibilities.  Taking down at least one mouse per week and policing things as he should.  Yet still something was missing.

A short while ago we found a dog available through Freecycle.  We got approval from our landlord to have a dog; however, she was a BUST!  When we went to meet her she bit John and then me.  Nopes... no biters around these children!  We kept on looking and hoping that the right dog would find us some how.

On Tuesday night we had our new neighbors over for dinner.  That night I chronicled our search for a dog to them, and I closed with, "I believe with all of my heart, it will happen when it is meant to be."

The next morning I awoke bleary eyed and started scrolling through the latest e-mail digest from Freecycle.  My eyes came wide open upon finding, Offer:  4 year old Lab/Hound Mix.  What!?!?!?  I forwarded the description to John and upon receiving the thumbs up, I e-mailed the poster.  We set up a meeting for that day.  I nearly instantly got the feeling that the current owners of Kiah were believers.  Upon meeting Kim, I quickly confirmed my suspicions when she told me the reason they were getting rid of Kiah.  Their adult son was leaving soon for Bible college and the mission field.  Without his help with lawn care and snow removal, they would not be able to stay in a house.  They were moving to a condo.

It feels just like Kiah was handpicked by God for this family!  Her former owners are Christians who homeschooled their children.  She is well-trained and gentle as can be.  She is SOOOOOOOO patient and good with children.  She is an AMAZING dog, and she is just one more proof that "His ways are ALWAYS higher than our ways."

Soooooo because we needed a little more insanity in this household, we are now in the process of "dog-training" our children.  It is HARD and not without tears.  (The first night Hannah opened the back door WIDE and Kiah dashed out it!  Noah sobbed while I scoured the neighborhood for her.  Then due to the tenacity of my oldest, very sensitive boy, she returned to figure out who that dog baying from our porch was... Noah making his dog sound.)  But we are plodding on in the training:  Hannah NO hugging Kiah only petting. Elijah STAY away from Kiah when she goes to her Kennel, that means she wants some alone time.  (Momma wishes she had a kennel too!)  No you may NOT feed Kiah cookies!

As in all things Kastner, there is a firm and solid lesson from God... This one is found clearly in every single e-mail I send.  It's our life verse, and our God proved it to us once again this week:

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

He had plans to bring us a dog at the right time, and His plans turned out to be an AMAZING dog who was JUST right for this family.  I'm so glad that's how our God is.  Always KNOWING the plans He has for us.  Always prospering us and not harming us.  Always giving us hope and a future.  

So now as Noah said when we were on the way home with Kiah the first night:  "Now we have EVERYTHING a family needs to live in the county:  a cat, a dog and family to love."

God bless and have a great day!