Daddy, can you fix it?

I love having Dad here with us, I wish I could keep him here forever! But I don't think Mom would like that too much. I guess she would have to move here too. The kids are enjoying having time with their grandpa too. Yesterday Katrina made a special cake- took her all day to make it. I went to bed right as she was serving it and had a quick taste- yummy!

I got to spend a lot of time with Dad yesterday, what a treat it was! I knew I had to cram questions from the past 17 years into one day, and didn't quite get to all of them. What a treasure to be able to ask advise, and get pearls of wisdom to replace the dark spots of inexperience, as well as to clear up areas of questions from the past.

On Monday Dad (being the wise mechanic he is) noticed that my brakes were squeaking. At first I thought that I would just make an appointment with the mechanic next week to have it fixed. But Dad offered to fix it. Somewhere along the 17 years of living so far away from home, I adjusted and stopped asking," Dad, can you fix it?" The thought hadn't even crossed my mind that Dad is here, he has the ability to take care of the problem. Honestly, I didn't want to bother him with something I could take care of myself (by hiring someone else to do it), felt it would be a burden, or was afraid he would feel we were taking advantage of him. But Dad willingly offered to take care of it, told me what he needed to fix it, came along to pick up the parts, and fixed it. It didn't cost that much for the parts, but we saved a lot of money not taking it to the garage. Than you so much, Dad! I really appreciate your time and effort. You are awsome!

There was one thing I finally drew up the courage to ask help for. (Sounds dumb, but it did take a bit for me to ask for help) There was a loose hose at the bottom of the windshield washer tank, and the fluid just runs out. I asked if he could help reattach the hose. Within the first 2 seconds he recognised the problem. I thought it would be a simple problem to fix, but his knowledge and experienced identified a larger problem- to complicated to fix right then. It would involve a new pump (which most places usually do not have in stock), removing the damaged one and putting in the new one. My first thought was ," Typical! I finally get the courage to ask for help and it is too big a task. Just when I thought I was asking for something simple, it winds up being something much larger than I thought it would be. I should have kept my mouth shut!"

But then I realised that it was not a dumb thing to ask for help. Now I can get the assistance I need and even ask in advanced to have the needed parts ordered. If Dad hadn't educated me a little in what the problem was and what was needed to fix it I would have felt cheated by the garage and not gone back to it! That would have been a bigger problem in the future.

So, I got to thinking. (It happens sometimes, . I try not to think all too often!) One of the things I have had to learn being so far from home for so many years is to FROG it. FROG stands for Fully Rely On God. When I moved here, I was thrown into a world that I knew no one, had no family to lean on, and even if I would have had the courage to ask a stranger for help(ha ha), I didn't have the language skills to do so. I have had to become a lot more self- reliant. After a short time, that fell like a ton of bricks, and I realised my short comings were many. So I had to start relying on God. At first it was a daily plead for help- we had no real income. (I was not allowed to work or get any kind of social assistance either because I was not a Swedish citizen and Kris was studying to be a doctor.) But as the years have gone by, we became a little more financially stable. I stopped asking God for help, because I could do it myself. I didn't want to bother God with the things I could take care of myself. But new problems arose, and I tried to fix them myself too. Only after I gave up and asked my Father God to fix what I thought was a simple problem did I realise that the problem was much more complicated than I first thought. It is a deep rooted thing that needs to be removed and replaced with a new replacement. (anger replaced by patience, pride with humility, stubbornness replaced with a helpful spirit...)The problems were there, and even if I had asked God for help earlier, they still would have needed the same treatment, but I would have skipped the time and energy as well as the frustration of not being able to fix it myself. So why am I still so afraid of asking for help? (Both God and those around me) Is it because I want to appear to be strong and untroubled? Or maybe I am afraid to show any signs of weakness. (Did that before and got majorly burnt!) Is it a personality flaw- a survival technique that worked in the past, and is comfortable? Hmm. Me thinks it is all of the above. So, once again, I must step out of my comfort zone, dare to look stupid and weak, and put my foolish pride aside. Time to get on my knees and ask the hardest question of all... "Daddy, can you fix it" And you know what? I know he can!