Jenni first asked Diane and me to guest post on her blog within the first 24 hours of our arrival in Oregon mid May to celebrate her & Brian‘s vow renewal.
It’s now mid-July, and we’ve been back in Northern Ireland for one week after our two week trip somehow extended to almost nine weeks.
And like much of the year leading up to our US adventure, we’ve been left with brainmush : too much to process, too much to think about, too many memories, too many dreams…
Yet, not enough.
And…still no guest post written. Any time I tried to write, it was even more random than the random list posts I often inflict upon my own readers. So random it didn’t come close to making any sense.
Until today.
Investing a windfall
Every now and then, usually two or three times per month week day hour, I like to think about what I’d do if I had $X. X is usually more than a million, but sometimes it’s smaller, because I think small needs extra creativity to invest wisely (spot the accountant).
When we embarked on our MassLifeChange Plan™ in 2008, just about the only thing we knew for sure was that in the midst of everyone doing the opposite, God was telling us to declutter. We knew it would be painful, as amongst other things it would mean reducing our massive debt burden. In the 20 months since, we’ve reduced our debt by 95%, we’ve doubled the percentage of our income that we give away, and we’ve revamped our retirement savings plan (as I was saying, spot the accountant).
Oh yes…and we’ve also emigrated half way round the world. As you do.
In the midst of all this, we dreamed about being able to visit the new friends in the USA we’d made via blogging and Twitter during the time that the MLC Plan™ was in action, and while I had some ideas how that might happen, they really were just that – ideas to make dreams come true.
But emigrating is expensive; especially emigrating “with cat“ (which is kind of like being “with child”, but…not…), so it was looking like a dream for another time.
Then we were asked if we could make it to Oregon to take part in Brian & Jenni’s vow renewal. Gulp. How could we possibly say no??
So with no real notion how we were going to make it happen because the aforementioned ideas weren’t showing signs of becoming reality, we said yes. Then God proceeded to smirk as He watched me discover how it would happen : through my own lack of attention to detail.
What? Exactly. And if you know me, you’ll know lack of attention to detail is SO not me.
The MLC Plan™ worked so effectively that a debt I’d already finished paying off, kept getting paid off. For an extra year. We effectively found ourselves with a savings account; an unexpected windfall.
Whaaaat?
For a split second, my mind went through all the the things we could do with that money : slash our remaining debt, sponsor some more children, leave it as savings…
But none of those options were right. This money needed to be invested wisely. So we came and spent two weeks months in Oregon, and the return on that investment is incalculable and eternal.
*sigh* we miss you guys. come home now. k… thanks!
We gotta get you here first to show you this cool country. And then you can all help us carry our luggage back home, ‘k.
ok. sounds like a plan! i’m working out again, so i can carry LOTS of stuff.
Tatslotto had a 20 million jackpot this Saturday gone. I bought a ticket just for fun (we usually only buy the big one in the New Year) and then spent the next week daydreaming about what we could do with it. Want to know what the funnest thing to imagine was?
Giving.
I’m being completely honest when I say that before I even thought about us and our kids, I was thinking what 10% would do for our church. What a million or so would do to help Compassion. What 60k or so would do to help out friends who want to adopt…
(Full disclosure, in case you think I’m all goodness and light… gimme “just” 5k though, and I might be a little more selfish. Just sayin’)
I love that giving is the most fun thing. It is for us too. Except where we’re in a selfish mood; like we are a lot of the time…
Visit you in Ireland. Sounds awesome.
But I also love what you did with the money.
I would love to travel around and spend some time with twitter friends and blogging friends. Great way to spend a couple of months.
So we’ll put you down for a visit in … what month Kyle
It was an amazing couple of months. Working remotely FTW!
honestly, when I get a full time job I will start to save. I would love to visit, see the countryside, and see your ministry. Will let you know.
Sweet. Can’t wait to see what God does for both of us in the meantime!
This made my heart happy. Also it made me want to hire you to get me out of debt. =)
I’m always up for a business opportunity.
But…Dave Ramsey has this covered pretty well
I am so glad you came and stayed for a couple months. It has been really wonderful getting to know you and Diane. So on the column for the debits (or is it credits? depends on what perspective… whatever… on the “plus” column) add to it the blessings you guys have brought into my life. Like, grease stains on Jenni’s car window. Or, the tickle session with Diane. Not to mention discussions about color. Screaming during LOST’s final episode, anyone? You know. All that good stuff.
Hurry back home. Miss you guys!
You know, so much fun stuff happened I actually forgot about the screaming during LOST! Oh, the tension was delicious that night!
This was great David & Diane. The ways God provides when we don’t even know it are simply unfathomable.
We have all kinds of things we want to do with unexpected money but in my heart is to give (first on the list is to Thrive Africa), make our own trek west and see as many of you wonderful people as possible.
i’d love the opportunity of finding out what i’d do
love seeing the blessing of your good stewardship… and i love that you chose to invest it in time with loved ones.
i’m so grateful i am one of those who reaped part of the reward of that!
(have i told you guys lately how much i miss you?!)