My Dad is here!

Three years ago this Christmas, my father told me that he was seriously thinking of moving to Idaho. "It's a no-brainer", he said. He's right. The cost of living here is wonderfully low compared to most places in the United States and for someone who loves to fish, it is a good fit. He wanted someplace to retire. Quietly. He does not like traffic, he hates crowds. In my mind, my father was an Idahoan at heart.
So, my father retires this past March and puts his house on the market. Of course, three years after the original thought of moving to Idaho, the economy has changed greatly. His house sat on the market for months. He knew that if he was going to sell it, he was going to have to lower the price. He also knew that if he lowered the price, Idaho was going to be, dare I say it, too expensive. There were cheaper places with more retirement communities. More of what my father and his wife, Christine, wanted.
My only real (unselfish) desire was that they would find a place that would make them happy. I prayed. We prayed. Always in our prayers was that my father would sell his house and they would be able to move to where they wanted to go. Well, they did sell their house, for A LOT less than they wanted. Idaho was not to be their home. I was crushed but, my prayer was the same: that they would find happiness. I trusted that all would work out and even now that their plans had changed and they would be somewhere else, I trusted that the Lord would answer my prayer and that they would be happy. That was what I really wanted. If happiness was not to happen in Idaho, than let them go to Florida or North Carolina.
Shortly after North Carolina was decided on, I received a phone call from my dad saying that Christine had found a home in their price range, in the neighborhood they wanted, and it was in Idaho! It was just put on the market a few days before. "Your prayers have been answered", my father said. Hallelujah! Halle-freaking-lujah!
Today, they arrived. My dad and his wonderful wife. At dinner, they recapped their adventures and included the morning they found their home. "It was Sunday", Christine said. "I told your Dad that Jennifer must have been praying this morning." More than they will ever know!

Clinton's words of wisdom, another story from the farm

Clinton is 80-something. He is getting older by the second. Some days he does not get out of bed. It is a great pleasure to help him with his goats. It is an even greater pleasure to hear his tales from years gone by.
The other day, he told me a story of his father. His father was a sugar beat farmer for many years. One day, while irrigating, Clinton found his father digging. He was causing the irrigation water to go around a certain part of the field, a field planted with sugar beats. Clinton questioned his father as to why he would block the water from coming to this part of the field. Clinton's father showed him that we was protecting a bird's nest for getting ruined from the water. "How strange to sacrifice some of your crops for the sake of a few birds", thought Clinton. His father explained to him. "It has always been my experience that if you help God's creations, He will help you."
When it was time to harvest, the beats in that area of the field that should have died from lack of water, were the biggest of the crop.