Thankful Thursday-S.O.S.

HELLO!

I hope everyone has had a lovely week. I am sorry that I did not stop by an see how you're all doing. I think of you and I am afraid you might think I am just popping in now and then and then completely forget my friends. I don't.

I just had one of the most dysfunctional weeks in my life. Yes, the in laws are here, but I haven't seen m.i.l so determined and so aggressive before. She's jealous of our home, but she doesn't concede trading her home for a new one, although she has been offered an enticing deal. She is jealous of me because I have daughters who can help me at home whereas she is paying a lady to clean her house. I cannot tell you the amount of absurd things I've heard and seen in the past days. She has even hit our cat to the dismay of our children who collected him in the upstairs bathroom.

C's father shows serious signs of withdrawal. He sits with a sad look on his face looking out into the void and intervenes to his wife's favor whenever she yells at him or pretends to be crying. I am sad because he has always supported me from the very beginning, telling me how to deal with his wife, and silently being my ally, our ally at all times. It hurts to see him give up. He is eighty three, and she is seventy five, and it so much shows.

I am so scared because she makes me physically ache whenever she attacks me. I have tried to be friendly, making her coffee and breakfast, I hugged her and told her what a brilliant cook she is etc., but it is no help. She is so resentful. C is bitter too. I can see a wave of burdens past overflowing from his side and it scares me.

I am to blame, too. I have restrained him from dealing harshly with her. It shocked me at first when he would speak up because I wasn't used to speak up. It scares me to think what old ghosts might pop out of the closet. C even called her brother to intervene, but apparently everyone has given up on facing up to her.

I do have my faith in God that He won't let that rock of negative energy that suddenly burst into our house, destroy our relationships and our family.

I am thankful because He has shown me passages in the New Testament that show me where we may be wrong. Financial issues are at stake, and perhaps we should concede and let go, pretending they do not exist and we have nothing to expect but our own hands.

I am thankful for my friend Georgia who lives in Corfu. She came from the States, and got married to a local. She miscarried three children, gave birth to her precious daughter and cannot have another baby, she is still suffering from her in laws, but she is a rock of faith. She has such composure. To stay with her husband she learned to cultivate the earth. She gives English language lessons for a living. They live financially stretched but with dignity. And did I say she is a great believer in Christ. I asked her to pray for me, for us. She told me that in our days the Evil is loose going after families and couples, attempting to dissolve them. She said she'd ask a priest she knows who is a holy man to pray for me and my family.

I am thankful because my husband, C, did something I'd never dream he'd do. Or rather, it was Christ who did it. As he was driving out of town to deliver to another town, he made a detour and stopped by the monastery where with the help of a friend I made my first confession. He entered the monastery church while the service was on. He enjoyed (!!!) listening to the hymns. He didn't tell me if he prayed, but I don't need to know. And he asked for the priest to whom I confessed. They talked and he asked him to pray for us. Isn't that a miracle, my dear friends? Isn't that a miracle, Lynn? He even told our children that we may go for a Sunday service one of these days.

That really had given me a sense of support and thankfulness I cannot describe.

I am thankful because we have been busy at work and that, apart from money matters, helps me keep my mind off the difficult situation at home.

I am sure Denise sent me God's word that i have not read but works its way into my life and heart. I promise to read your mails, I do, how I miss you!

I have read in a passage and on someone's blog, (was it you Angie?) about fasting and praying. I have been fasting for a few days now, and I have been praying every night. Our eldest, F, joined me. I am thankful for the strength God gives me in fasting and praying.

I am thankful I can write this list, and I am thankful that some of you read it, and that some of you might want to include our family in your prayers. May God bless you all.

I am thankful spellcheck works.

Thanks to Iris for hosting Thankful Thursday. You are a lady of Godly heart.

I just clicked your page to link to you and look what I found:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam,though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah”~ Psalm 46:1-3

Thank you my friends.