Abundance

Hello from the land of what the medical community calls N/V/D. It has been a nasty week at casa Ninness thanks to my husband's ill fated decision to drink after someone who had a "small stomach bug" a few days prior. My ill fated decision was blaming his nausea/vomiting/and as my friend Rachel put it, the d-word, on a slight over consumption of bourbon at a wedding this weekend. Well, karma took care of me. I quickly realized this was no hangover and pledged to be a much more compassionate nurse from here out. Thankfully, Ross knew the horrors of what I was going through and was kind and loving, taking the rest of the day off to care for Mary Kate and hand me pony-tail holders. We thought our girl escaped it but alas, R had a nice surprise awaiting him when he pulled the babe from her crib this morning. Round 3 for the Ninness family has been kinder and we are hoping MK just caught a tiny bit of it.

As we all attempted a bland breakfast this morning, we made note that God has been so good in this. We each got this heinous bug a half a day or so ahead of the other, giving one of us time to exit the restroom and disinfect it before the next person made camp there. We each had exactly the amount of energy needed as we recuperated to take care of the next victim. Instead of us all getting slammed at once, we were able to care for each other as a family. Again, God is good.

It made me think of times lately where we have had just enough goodness to keep the bad from pushing us down. Ross and I are new in our marriage and we each brought plenty of bags into this relationship. We are ever-changing, growing, hopefully evolving into better humans. But whew!  Is that process, um, refinining.  I'll keep the moments of refining to ourselves but cue you in on the moments of sunshine that seep in and remind us off the abundance of  good. This weekend, I made a last minute decision to go to a wedding with Ross in NC. There were some challenging moments for us. But at one point, we were dancing. Ross picked me up and spun me around, telling me "this version" of his wife as opposed to the buzz kill version he often gets, was his dream. I'll always remember the joy of being picked up and danced with so lovingly. And while that beautiful moment doesn't erase some of the not so beautiful moments we had that weekend, the bad moments also don't fade the memory of that joy. Again I tell ya, God is good.

I went to Mass Sunday morning at a precious oceanside church. The scripture was from Phillipians Chapter 4.

Brothers and sisters:
I know how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.
In every circumstance and in all things
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need.
I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

I could write volumes on how I have seen this scripture play out in my life. I know that I can live in abundance and in want. But what I love about that great big ole God, is that in times of want, there is so often abundance, even if it's hiding somewhere. Abundance this week was the timing of each of our sicknesses. It wasn't a lack of sickness, but an ability to manage it. Other times it's a phone call from a friend or a perfectly timed letter of encouragement in the mail.

I am just feeling all sorts of thankfulness and awe in how God has sustained our marriage, our health and our families, in times of abundance and in want.