The 8 Week Challenge and the Results

I just finished an 8 week program with a group of people, some I knew, like my sisters, and others I met online through another friend.  We all wanted to eat healthier, maybe even lose an inch or two (wedding coming up?) and for me, I added a physical fitness element to it.  I even paid a small fee in order to force myself to stick with it.  At the end of it all, I did lose a few pounds, but when you're exercising alongside eating healthy, the scale doesn't always tell the truth because muscle weighs more than fat.....in total, I lost 12.5 inches over all, so I was surprised by that.  I don't look very different, but I know I am on a way better trajectory for the long haul.  I started the exercise program 9 weeks ago and, to my shock, I didn't miss a day.  I've never done that much exercise in my life in a row.  It's been a great discipline and I know I want to keep it up even though the program is officially over.

Throughout the whole 8 weeks, as I denied myself certain things, I considered it a fast.  A fast of sleep (I was up EARLY every morning - 5x a week), a fast of certain things I loved and as I ate in a new way consistently, I prayed.  Then my husband joined in on his own plan which actually involved a full day fast, so I thought, why not do that as well and we did that together just last week.  I'm always amazed how God works when we seek Him in this way.

Last night, on the final day of the 8 weeks, my son comes home from work and told us that a colleague he works with shared how she's sad to see him leave Marineland this summer (because he needs a job in a medical field) and then, out of the blue she just casually mentions, "You should talk to my sister.  She works with pre-med students getting them jobs so they can get into medical school.  It's what she does for a living....."  PARDON????  How long has she worked with my son and not mentioned that?  How have we not known this?  Why now?  Why do we suddenly find out this KEY information?????  It basically sounded like she could make it a shoe-in for him to get into medical school!  AND on top of this, just in the last two weeks, the Ontario government said that it plans on opening up 450 spots in Ontario med schools, so maybe, just maybe this is his year!  I just can't help but wonder is there a connection?  It makes no sense otherwise.  I've seen this so many times when we've sought God in this specific way, He seems to open doors that otherwise stay shut.  So we keep praying that God will use this new and amazing opportunity in my son's life.....He is now studying like crazy for the 3rd time for this MCAT.  He also went to a get-together with a bunch of med students who found out he was applying again and they said that is just the norm - you keep applying, 3x is just how long it takes.  At that same party he ran into a guy who worked at the same hospital in Angola and even knew Dr. Foster!  So many bizarre enouragements for him lately to stay the course.

I've also been praying really specifically about work for my husband....In the last few weeks he's had several unusual opportunities that he's currently exploring that are TOTALLY out of the blue.  There's just no explaining it and so now we are in a waiting game to see which way the Lord leads.  As we keep seeking Him we are excited to see which way things go.

We are at the 10 weeks and counting mark for the wedding now.  Lots has to happen before the big day.  We need warm weather to move ahead on outdoor things, but in the meantime we're getting lots done on things that we can work on.  Yesterday we cleared out the upper barn of all the old hay.  That might seem like an odd thing to do, not wedding related at all, yet hidden behind all the hay is steel.  Steel can be taken in for $$$$$.  So by taking it in, it makes us cash and at the same time helps us clean out the barn, so it's all good.  For my husband he was thrilled that we took that on - it had been hanging over his head on his to-do list, but it was hard to find time.  Now it's done.

I also basically finished a HUGE declutter on the house.  Nearly every room got an overhaul.  No one will be able to tell because clutter is often hidden behind doors, but I took out so many bags of things, it's unbelievable.  I was planning on selling a lot of homeschool books, but then, smart me took them to the basement just for a week of storage until I could have people come by and in the meantime our sump pump stopped working which led to a flood and boom - all the books got soaked.  So no more selling, just throwing out!  Oh well, that's easier anyway.  Sump pump is now fixed, but of all the times to go....

We also managed to finally finish a room for my 15 year old - how we now have a 6 bedroom house in our small little farmhouse is mind boggling to me, but that's what we have!  I lost a lot of storage by giving him his own room, but we felt it was important to him.  So all my coats now have no home except on a staircase going to the basement, but it has worked.  I felt like God gave me an amazing idea even to do that.  I even managed to get a small amount of plants started, nothing like last year, but some are on the way.  By building him his own room he took my greenhouse space, so it's not ideal, but he's been willing to share space with the plants for now.  That was a huge part of my prayers during these 8 weeks, too - that we would get him in there, and it happened!

On top of all that, we somehow managed to get 23 quail (now 22 - one didn't make it).  I'm always praying for ways to keep my children engaged, excited and off computers.  Quail?  Really?  Why quail?  But for some reason this came to my husband and my 9 year old jumped on board.  We now have stinky quail chicks in the house and they will be laying eggs in literally 7 weeks.  Hard to believe.  We're buying an incubator and selling eggs and quail meat supposedly as well.  How this happened is also beyond me, but I also see that as an unusual answer to prayer.

My children's relationships and friendships have been an interesting matter of prayer, too, and I've seen God work and move in these 8 weeks in such amazing ways, bringing people into their lives, moving within the relationships themselves and always always drawing my children closer to the Lord as a result.  I was also really specifically praying for work for them and two of them got jobs in such miraculous ways that were also "out of the blue" as I keep saying....WOW, when I write it all down, it's amazing to see how God has worked!

As I prayed for my sisters, I also saw miracles in their lives with their husbands and their work as well as connections with my kids.  It was 8 weeks of just watching for God and seeing Him show up everyday.

I even managed to make more connections with women at church including a young single girl who longs to be married.  I told her about fasting and she jumped on board with the 40 days before Easter.  She's hard core and is committed to praying for herself, her family and so many other things.  I'm excited to see what God is going to do in her life!

So, the way I see it, God helped me unclutter my home, my body, took down walls in my children's lives, and is making a way in the wilderness for my husband, this young lady....incredible!..the Christian life is really so exciting.  The 8 weeks might be over, but we will see what the next 8 hold!  I can't even begin to imagine!