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Life Interrupted: Part 2

In my previous post, I told the story of my hip injury that interrupted our lives for approximately 2 years. I mentioned that there was more to the tale, so here is the rest of the story.

In August of 1998, I married for the second time. My new husband and I knew that my two children would be living with us, but never suspected that any of his children might want to move away from their mother in another state. We had only been married a month when the first of his sons chose to make the move and within a few months his other son was also living with us. We were newly weds with four children between the ages of 14 and 18 living under what had become a very small roof.

Our little home was so small that my husband and I had to give up the master bedroom to the three boys and we moved into one of the spare bedrooms. It was a trying time and there was no room to spare and no one ever had any privacy.  

Of course, in the midst of this was when I suffered the hip injury I talked about in my last post. So not only were we cramped - I was experiencing some disability at the same time.

My husband and I decided to put our house up for sale and purchase a large (5 bedroom, 3 bath) double-wide mobile home. We went to a dealer and made all of the necessary arrangements. We had a time frame for completion. We had a piece of property lined up to put it on. We were thrilled at the prospect of more room inside and out. 

Our house sold in record time - three weeks. I placed a call to the mobile home dealership before we accepted the offer to make sure everything was on track. I was assured that it was and we booked a short cruise for our entire family. We closed on the sale of our home, packed up all of our "stuff" and put it in storage, and sailed off into the sunset knowing that we would have to stay with relatives for about 3 weeks when we returned.

When we got back to civilization, we called to check on the progress of the house. Well....there's a problem. We needed both incomes to finance it and because I was receiving disability payments through worker's comp no one wanted to finance us because I did not have "guaranteed income". What?!?!? We couldn't have known this a month ago? We SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!! WE ARE HOMELESS WITH FOUR TEENAGERS!!!!

What was supposed to be three weeks, turned into three and a half months of half of our family in one place and half in another. Tensions were high. And as if it couldn't get any better, the surgery I had been fighting for for two years was approved and scheduled. After you fight with and insurance company for that long, you don't tell them, "Ummm....Now is not a good time...." So off I went to have a hip replacement while my kids were farmed out all over, my husband was with his parents and I went post operatively to my parents home. What a mess.

During this time, a friend of mine who was not a Christian looked at me one day and said, "I don't know how you stay so calm. I would be a basket case if this were happening to me." Ahhh... possibly the meaning in the mess. I shared my faith. I wish I could say that she dropped to her knees in repentance, but it didn't happen that way. I was able to plant a seed, however.

Shortly (about two weeks) after I had my surgery and returned home to my parents, we learned of a nice home out in the country that was for rent by a friend of my husbands. I got my parents to take me to look at it and put down an deposit on it before my hubby even saw it. When he got home, I said, "If you want, we can go take a look at where we will be living for the next year." The only thing he said was "OK". On the day we moved, there must have been about 30 people who showed up to help us. Men moved furniture. Women set up my kitchen and put fresh linens on my beds. We just fed them lunch.

Our landlord/friend stood in amazement. He said he had never seen anything like it. We told him this is what it looks like when the community of faith rallies around someone in need. This is what it looks like when Christians show Jesus' love. More seeds. 

I'm still not sure I understand why our lives were so turned upside down for that year. I know learned the power of prayer. I learned the value of a community of Believers. I learned to trust a little more. I learned that God will provide. 

The house we moved into for that year wasn't all that beautiful. It had outdated formica in the bathroom and mauve carpet. The master bathroom toilet wouldn't flush when it rained. The kitchen was small, but the house was big. Big enough for all of us. It became one of my favorite places we have ever lived. I loved mowing the huge yard on the riding mower. I loved sitting outside under the trees for my quiet time and hanging my wash on the line to dry. I would move back there in a heartbeat. Maybe it was so special because we knew without a shadow of a doubt - it came from God. 

"And my God will meet ALL of your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19


Comments

  1. Our adventure wasn't quite as wild a ride, but our house sold within 3 days of listing and we had no where to go. We found a foreclosed house on acreage that needed some work near the very end of the time frame to close on both houses. My dad and husband ran new plumbing and we moved in while we worked...sleeping bags and air mattresses. Definitely an adventure.

    God's timing, oftentimes not our timing, but definitely perfect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was definitely not my timing, but was worth it in the end. I sure had trouble seeing it at the time, though... :-)

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