Hi & Happy New Year...

...and Merry Christmas and a Blessed Epiphany and all the other stuff I haven't been around to say. Sorry -- we dropped internet service at home to save some $$ until we figure out where we're going to live.

Based on the market right now, it actually looks like it might be harder to sell the new house over the old. And my husband, that wheeler-dealer, scored us a bunch of free and cheap furniture, so we are pretty much in a situation where we can move into the new house and still have the old house adequately "staged" for sale. So we're going to take yet another leap of faith and go ahead and move.

No offers on the old house yet. We're both a bit depressed and terrified about the whole thing, and each of us went (seperately and unbeknownst to the other) to discuss things with our priest. His answer -- which we knew -- was that yeah, God might let need us to fall flat on our faces and down into bankruptcy for some reason, which we can trust will have something to do with the "greater good."

The Pentacostal dregs that cling to me want to shirk this off and say no, God will save us at the last possible minute! And yeah, He might, but He might not, too. I don't know what's going to happen...only that there isn't anything more I can do to (a) find somebody to buy our old house or (b) save and/or earn enough money to pay two mortgages.

What I do know, with all my heart, is that even if we find ourselves destitute, losing one or both houses or even living out of our minivan, God will still be with us. It won't be ideal, but it will only be temporary, and He will see us through it, no matter how horrible it gets. I'm afraid of how bad that will be, but I'm not afraid of God abandoning me.

To be honest, though, I really wish things would work out for the best, and that we'd sell the old house this month or next and not have too much financial suffering for one really stupid reason: our pentacostal friends and relatives who've been clacking their tongues about our conversion to Catholicism will blame any and all financial ruin (or marital problems or misbehaving kids or health crises) on our conversion. And I really don't want to give them the ammo to do that.

I know, I know -- it's okay if they do take potshots at Catholicism and say that God is punishing us for converting. Because whatever they say won't change the truth. And because one doesn't measure one's spiritual health or closeness with God by the dream house or the income level or whatever. But that's how they are evaluating us, and I'd rather we came out on the high end as Catholics. If you know what I mean.

--Sparki