the week in review

Sunday May 16: Maria turns 3! Happy Birthday Sproutie!! Wonderful party at Aunt Jan's.
Monday May 17: Kelly's parents, Hop Pop and Yowee arrive from NY for a farewell visit.
Tuesday May 18: Bernadette develops a massive ear infection. Her first. 6 days before we spend 19 hours in airplanes! The pharmacy loses her prescription - twice.
Wednesday May 19:
10am: Our mortgage company informs us that the terms of our loan do not permit us to rent out our  house! Our options are: 1. not go to New Zealand at all  2. back out of our rental agreement and sell our home instead  3.  refinance our entire mortgage through another lender in 5 days!
1pm: Our insurance company alerts us that there may be an exception that the mortgage people can make if we have lived in our house for at least 3 years - they ask if we have. We realize that we closed on our house on May 25 of 2007, which means that our departure date leaves us living in our home for precisely 3 years and not a single day more.
2pm: The mortgage company says (snaps. yells. fusses.) that there is no such clause in our contract. Alas. 
4pm: Richard gets connected to a supervisor's supervisor at our mortgage company and has the following conversation (well, something quite similar).
Richard: We've made every payment on time! We have impeccable credit!
Supervisor's Supervisor: Listen, there are absolutely no possible exemptions in your agreement.
Richard: We're going away as missionaries.
SS: Sir, there are no exceptions.
Richard: We'll only be gone for 2 years, just under 2 years, really.
SS: I'm sorry, but....wait, hold on a moment.....well....(abrupt drop of harsh attitude)....I'm looking up your file right now....hmmmm....I'm seeing....well, it looks like you seem to have made all your payments on time....and that you have impeccable credit. AND...I'm seeing here, yes, it says that you're going away on missionary work - it says that you'll be gone for less than 2 years....Okay, I'll tell you what - we'll give you a 2 year exemption, how about that?
We're not sure what exactly happened in that office, but we know that the Holy Spirit was there in a big way for us. Praise God.
9:30pm: Richard's beloved Xbox gets the "red ring of death". Kelly interprets this as God's crowning blessing of the day. Richard interprets it as the ultimate act of spiritual warfare in the entire New Zealand Preparations history.
Folks, it's not even Thursday. We're not sure we can handle any more excitement! And the next 4 days before we leave will include, in order,  Kelly's brother flying in from Oregon, a joint Sealy-Gradale family dinner party in our home, our attempt to sell our 2001 Altima (with only 2 working windows and a completely busted keyless entry system), Kelly's sister driving in from Connecticut, packing up the rest of the house for storage - including the entire kitchen, Maria's 3 year pediatric check-up, our farewell party, final packing of suitcases, cleaning and moving the beds out of the house. We need prayers and we need them bad. And yet, it is relatively calm....relatively. Considering all that is going on. Well, maybe it just feels that way at this moment since both girls are asleep and the house is quiet.