The Bondage of Answered Prayer

Well, it's been ten days since I've written anything.  What have I been doing? I have been a captive of my answered prayers.  All those prayers for stuffed animals have resulted in 800 or more of them coming into my home since Saturday.

Like the poor bear pictured above (when I found this one in a bag of donations I really had to laugh), I've been in bondage to the process of sorting and cleaning and re-sorting and bagging and lugging and...well...you get the picture.

Most of this process takes place in my living room and try as I have the glimpses of animal-free carpet have been fleeting these days.

But I'm not complaining.  Really.

I told my husband I think I deserve a degree or at least some type of certificate for animal maintenance.  The tools of my trade litter the end tables.  There's the dispenser of packing tape (I roll off strips of tape to lift lint from the animal surfaces)--the sturdy comb used to untangle doll's hair, pony's tails, and lion's manes--the scissors for cutting off faded labels or tags and trimming the ends of ribbons--the all-purpose cleaner and nail polish remover to remove marks from vinyl faces or hands.

My triage system seems to get more elaborate.  I hate to see things end up in land fills so I try to give most of the animals a chance at a new life somewhere. If they don't pass muster for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes I can take them to the mission clothing pantry where I volunteer or donate them to a thrift store.

I did end up with one garbage bag of land-fill-destined ones this weekend, though.  Sometimes donations like grubby, matted, once-fuzzy dice are just beyond saving.

Praise God, though, for 800+ animals that are now stored in garbage bags and added to the rest that obscure the surface of the beds and extra carpet space in two spare rooms.  Next project is to find another donated space for them.

Thinking of storage, I realized today that we've had the same storage container since 2010 when we did 12,670 boxes.  We're praying to do more than twice that number this year so it's no wonder our container is nearly filled and we're overflowing into donated basement space.

Meanwhile, since I can't sleep, I'm making a list of all the things I need to discuss with coordinators or team members.  The list keeps growing.

Maybe I'll just go back to reading the new book that arrived in my mailbox today--"Praying Together" by Megan Hill.  Only one chapter in and I know this will be the subject of a blog post all it's own soon.

Because, there's nothing like knowing God hears and answers prayer--even if those answers can be overwhelming.