What goes around...

Well, it really does come back around.
It is in these late nights of recording our life, that I continue to read the story that God is writing.

Tim and I will leave Nellie Mae with only 3 pieces of furniture that have been with us 8 years. A couch, loveseat, and our table.
For different reasons at different times, some because of space and some because of finances, we chose saving up our money and also making life easy at Nellie Mae. Smaller furniture = more room.

We sold:
Our beautiful cherry queen bedroom suite
Our chair and ottoman
Our coffee table
Our foyer table
endtables
Davids full bedroom suite
Mackenzie's whole nursery
My rocking chair
our washer and dryer (stackable only in nellie mae)
a patio set
bakers rack
a desk
our piano

We obviously replaced some of those, (ie: the kids got bunk-beds and we have a simple headboard), but I learned to let go of a lot of "things". Because that is only what they are: things. There were a few pieces we hated to see go, but our house seem to feel warm and at home.... just with our family filling it and not a bunch of furniture. I'd much rather my kids have space to run around, than have a huge ottoman taking up their playspace here!

Anyway, one of the first things we sold a while back.... I mean a WHILE back. Before Nellie Mae. We had this fun coffee table that we loved. It was the first thing Tim bought me when we got married. It was from Target. But, I was so impressed because it looked like something from pottery barn! It was long, rectangular, dark brown, solid wood, with a small drawer with a nickel knob. We had it for a couple years and then when David was born, I quickly panicked that he would surely loose an eye on it as he was starting to crawl and pull up. I hastily put it on craigslist and sold it for $20.
I always regretted that sale. And sure enough, as the kids got older I saw there was no danger in really having a coffee table ;) We never really got another one.
Well, after we moved in here, we continued to sell all our of belongings to fit and save money.
These 2 years have crept and flown by all at the same time.
As we are about to embark on our new journey and feel as though God has deeply blessed us, we now realize we are going to need a few pieces of furniture when we move into the new house!
Such a new thought!
Naturally, I started scouring craigslist for a coffee table and a washer and dryer. In that order of priority!

Do you know what I found? An ad that said, "Target brown coffee table, solid wood- $20" I thought to myself- No way. I clicked on the link.
Would you believe it was an identical match to the one I sold years ago? Image matched. Description matched. I hurriedly emailed her begging the girl to sell me this coffee table, going into the whole story of how I once owned one identical. And missed it. She responded, not mentioning any of my nonsense, and gave me her address.

I met her. And I saw it. The same one. With the same drawer and nickel knob. I paid her $20, the same amount I had sold it for and I softly closed my car door and felt a huge lump in my throat. The kids were into their movie so they did not notice a tear that rolled down my cheek.

It wasn't the coffee table. It wasn't a material "thing" that brought me joy. It was the simple word "restoration" that I felt spoken to me. God is a God of Restoration. And although we had been stripped down in all aspects of our life, he has brought to us ten fold what we lost. And then, to find this table-
a small little piece of the puzzle I lost.

I called Tim and told him I got a piece of our life back. After me telling him the story and that I had driven to downtown atlanta to buy this stupid thing back- he began telling me that I was nuts and to stop buying things because we haven't moved! (You can obviously tell it is me who is sentimental right now!)
I called my mom and she declared this to be, The Willis Recovery Act, 2012. She said we were recovering our losses.

She was right. And I just thought we have a pretty special God. To anyone, its just a coffee table. To me, today God told me he was restoring what was lost. It is an unbelievable feeling to know Christ.

By the way, when Tim walked in and saw it, a huge smile came across his face. I knew he missed it too.