Worth the wait.

Aaaaahhh...doesn't that pool water look nice.

If your wondering if that's me in the picture, you must be in line to be my bestie or need to make an appointment with the eye doctor...

cuz dat' aint me!

There isn't enough "photo shopping" in the world...

Ehemm...

Let's move on.

I have some great news to share!

We, my husband and I, won an award about a month or so ago.

It was the Best Parents in the Whole World Award.

There was no trophy, ribbon, or plaque...

the surprised looks on our kids' faces, and the shreaks of joy whaling out of them, was worth much more than anything we could hang on the wall or place on a shelf.

Really...applause isn't necessary.

(I just laughed out loud at my own joke, so you don't even have to do that.)

Our award came after we...

BOUGHT THEM A POOL!!

Yes. We are pretty awesome.

It was our summer surprise for them.

Our "we can't afford a family vacation this year, because we just remodeled our house and moved AGAIN, so here is this pool" present for them.

Needless to say...we totally ROCKED when we pulled this one off.

They had no idea until we pulled it out of the box!

I love those kind of surprises!!

Ya know, the ones that don't flop.

All was going great.

Set up went smoothly.

We began to fill it up with the water, which I might add took FOR-E-VER!

When they say, "Set up in 30 minutes. Then FUN IN THE SUN!"

They lie!

It took over night and half the next day.

Then we noticed something...

a little peculiar...

and unexpected for us "first time pool" owners.

The water began to turn a murky color...then light brown...then orange brown..

It wasn't pretty.

We were told it was because of our well water.

Great. Now they tell us!

The copper in the well water was mixing with the chlorine, which caused some sort of chemical thingy-ma-bopper reaction and

yada, yada, yada...

Bamm! Brown cloudy water!

Note to pool makers: That was not the "FUN IN THE SUN" that your box promised!!

So began the filtering, vacuuming, chlorine tabbing, de-algaefying, shocking, clarifying NIGHTMARE!!

That...my friends...

was 21 days ago.

TWENTY-ONE!!

My water is finally beautiful...

Fy-Nuh-Leeee!!

Before we had that beautiful crystal blue colored water, sort of like in the picture above, it looked like we were swimming in Bayou Teche or the Atchafalaya Basin!

Blech!

If you aren't from around here and don't know what the waters of Louisiana look like...just watch an episode of River Monsters on Animal Planet...

that should get you up to speed.

We actually swam in it.

We were hotttttt, okay?

It turned our skin very dry and my daughters' hair a nice shade of green!

The copper, mixed with the chlorine...yada, yada, yada... Bamm!! GREEN HAIR!!

I mean, who doesn't love The Grinch and his luscious long green body hair? He works it pretty good.

That was not what we expected to get out of a nice swim in that murky brown water. A little bacterial infection maybe, but green hair? Nope. It wasn't at all what we expected.

The girls were horrified and vowed never to swim again until the water was clear.

A couple days of filtering, chlorinating and moisturized hair later ...and they were back in the pool. This time, not so brown.

Light brown...much better.

Then we got a cloudy green.

Woohoo!! We were making progress and traveling around the color wheel.

Boy I tell ya, it was like nursing a new born baby.

Every hour we changed filters.

We would peak at it every thirty minutes or so, just to see if it was making progress.

Like the water would somehow make a drastic change in just a few minutes.

It was the first thing we checked on in the morning, and the last thing we checked on before going to bed.

Did I mention that during all this time, my patience was wearing a little thin with all the waiting and hoping for swimmable safe water.

Well it was.

And it did!

My frustration got the best of me at times. I may have pouted and doubted a time or two, but I did not give up.

We were tempted to drain the entire pool and start over, practically gallon by gallon.

But something (and the lady at the pool place) kept telling me to just wait, to be patient, it will all be clear soon enough.

Soon enough would have been better than 21 days later, but that's not what we got.

We got the waiting.

The 21 days of waiting.

Geeeesh!

I must be honest and say, that it was totally worth the wait.

It's so pretty and clear and so wonderfully great to swim in!

It's FUN IN THE SUN goodness!!

I want to send a glass of it to all of the people I love.

Kind of like when a baby poops on the potty for the first time, and you want everyone to see it and hear about it.

Yeh, like that.

But, instead of the potty dance, we are doing the "my water doesn't look like the bayou anymore and won't give my kids a bacterial infection" dance.

I'm glad we waited and held on for the long haul.

This ordeal with the swimming pool reminds me of the last few months of our lives.

We were in the muddy water, and we were swimming all in it. It seemed as though we were treching through it and not going to see a change in our future.

But then, we began to see a little color change.

Some adjustments were being made.

I wish I could say that we were in the clear, swishing away in the pretty water, but we aren't...YET.

We are still sort of floating around in the murkiness, not knowing what is next, but I am assured that the clear water is on it's way.

Oh and yes, I have had my times of doubting and pouting, wanting to throw in the towel of defeat...but,

I am assured that He is holding us up in the water.

I was driving to work the other morning, and it had just finished raining. I looked to my left out of my window and saw the most beautiful rainbow. It was wide and massive, and I could see the entire arch of it. It was breathtaking.

Then God reminded me of something...

just as He promised never to flood the earth again, He also promised never to leave me or forsake me. And even though I have felt like we were drowning in the murky water and the waves were about to pull us under, His gentle hand has kept us afloat. He keeps us from drowning in the caotic murky water of our life.

I am sure that in a short while, we will be seeing things clearly.

Seeing things the way that He sees them, and saying to ourselves...

It was totally worth the wait!!

Matthew 14:28-33

Peter, suddenly bold, said, "Master if it's really you, call me to come to you in the water." He said,"Come ahead." Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, "Master save me!" Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint heart, what got into you?" The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus saying, "This is it! You are God's son for sure."

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."