What Happened to the Rens?

What happened to the Rens? Yes, it has been a while. However, September was a pretty crazy month! I don't have any exciting pictures. This is just an account of our many adventures . So, where to begin? 

We were looking and looking for a place to live for a longer time than we had planned. Travis and I prayed that by the end of August, we would find a place. What do you think happens? A couple I’ve known since I was a girl end up having a little rental house that was becoming available after the previous tenants had been living there the past 5 years. When was their move out date? …end of August.  Wow. So grateful for God’s timing!

God has incredible timing… but He has a funny way of taking us through life as well. The night before we were meant to move in… everything we had shipped over from Australia that we had been storing in the garage was stolen. 24 boxes of household items.

I will never forget what it felt like… I saw the broken lock… as soon as I did I knew. At the same time I could just feel this sense of overwhelming peace. I couldn’t open the garage right away. I turned around and showed Trav the broken lock. His face was unreadable. Then we open it up, for the moment we knew was coming… and still… it was such a shock. To see it empty… all of our boxes gone. Everything we had been waiting for. The entire life we had built together in Australia was gone. That morning was hard. Making the calls, filing reports, starting the slow process of remembering item by item what we would never see again. Still, something incredible happened after that…

The house had been trashed… which we knew. We were planning to spend 2 weeks to fix it up. The day we found out our things were taken was the first day we were going to spend starting to fix it up. Walking into the house was almost as overwhelming as when our things were taken. Apart from the fact that the front door wasn’t even secured shut… the house was in worse condition than we anticipated. We didn’t know how we would complete building a livable home in the one month before the baby’s arrival.

Its amazing what God does, and what His community can do when they come together. Starting with that day and moving on into the following two weeks, people came to help. Incredible moment after incredible moment happened… peoples’ generosity and love and care for us was unfathomable. Aside from all their hard work, things were donated, time was spent… we could never repay what our friends and family did for us during that time. Our house wouldn’t be what it is now without each of those involved.

The final two events of September were not nearly as exciting although still a hassle.

One morning I woke up and heard scratching inside the bathroom wall… Woke up my husband and he confirmed… a rat. We hadn’t seen any evidence of rats up until that point. The next day we found droppings and heard it in the wall of the baby room. It all happened the week that the weather went cold. It turned overnight and the rats decided to find a warm place to live almost immediately! Long story short, we got rid of them. Rather miraculously. It almost doesn’t make sense. We only killed one, the poison was untouched and yet after trying to scare the group of the rest of them away, we haven’t heard any or seen any signs of them since.

Even less exciting, after that… I happened to catch the flu closely following the rodents. It was a pretty bad case and I had it for a week and a half. I was more than happy when that was over! Since then… its been crazy, nesting mother-to-be on my end! Putting up shelves, arranging furniture, organizing our kitchen, unpacking boxes. I filled the many hours away from my husband putting together our little home. Travis started and is now finishing studying for his CNA license; which is VERY exciting! 

Now that the story is told I have to say. I am left in utter disbelief when I think about and see everything that has been prepared… everything we have. We went from moving between countries, pregnant, without jobs or anywhere to live; without any idea of how we would get through any of it… to a house (not an apartment!), with all the baby stuff we need, a NURSURY… a job and an impending education! The only thing it leaves me to say is that GOD IS SO GOOD. He has taken such good care of us, each and every step of the way. Thats the story of the Ren Clan for the time being. All that’s left now is the waiting game. Scheduled for induction on Friday! We are actually kinda hoping little Ren comes before then! Can't believe how much our lives are about to change!! Biggest thank you to everyone that has taken part in our journey! We wouldn't be where we are now without each and every one of you!