Ben has been travelling down to Sleepy Eye nearly every weekend since the beginning of December working on this house. Every last penny that was saved for the adoption - Ben's car repair income from last winter, my summer school salary, and various other bonuses, etc - has been consumed to repair a house we rented to someone we thought needed a fresh start. Unfortunately, this person used and abused the house beyond our wildest imagination and we have been left with the aftermath.
So, weekends have not been relaxing family time for nearly 3 months. Ben is running ragged, my body aches and our girls have been feeling the loss of family time - especially our sensitive Shannon.
It has literally been a living nightmare...
However, in my best attempt to avoid becoming jaded I've been choosing to focus on the blessings and miracles that have popped up through this nightmare:
Perhaps one of the biggest blessings has been my incredibly handy husband. Yes, our finances have taken a major hit from all this, but we would very likely be bankrupt if Ben were not able to do all of these repairs himself. He has endured long weekends away from his family to go down and repair/remodel a basement flooded 8 inches deep in sewage, remove destroyed carpet and refinish the hardwood floors we discovered underneath, replace the bathtub/shower surround and plumbing, tear down and replace the entire kitchen ceiling, amongst countless other repairs/updates. I don't even want to fathom what the bill could have been had we hired someone to do all this.
Another HUGE blessing has been that of our family and church family. Both our dads and Ben's brother have come down on more than one occasion to help through all this (including, but not limited to having to throw away the clothes they were wearing after removing the sewage damage), and both sets of parents have also helped to take care of the girls on the weekends I've come down as well. I am so thankful to know my girls are loved when I have to be away.
Aside from our supportive family members we have also, once again, learned the blessing of an amazing church family. Countless people have been lifting us up in prayers - which is a blessing in and of itself - and we've also been blessed with a crew of friends in our mini-congregation (small group) who gave up not one, but TWO Saturdays to drive 4 hours round trip and help make some major progress with painting, demolition of a leaky ceiling, carpet installation and more. The fellowship we had on those Saturdays provided us with help, but also gave us big boost in our attitudes through all this.
A big miracle happened two weeks ago when Ben encouraged me to list the house for rent even though the repairs were not complete. I was hesistant because I didn't feel like the house was "show ready", but decided to create a post on Craigslist anyway. Within 24 hours we had nearly a dozen people interested including a couple who wanted to see the house that weekend. They came to the house and were able to look past all the repairs in progress and agreed to rent the house beginning in March. She is moving to the area to work in law enforcement and we could not be more excited to have some rental income coming back in to relieve the strain on our finances.
So, today is the Thursday before our final weekend of repairs before the new tenants move in. We are exhausted beyond comprehension, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't help but wonder if the repairs took so long to save the house for the right tenants and am praying these tenants can enjoy the house as their home.
For me, one of the hardest things about this whole situation has been seeing everything we had saved for the adoption slip through our hands to be spent on a house we wish we no longer had. However, I am trusting that God has a plan as we move forward towards the adoption and it will happen in His way and in His timing.
So, once we have made it to the other side of this tunnel (we can see the light, but we're not quite done yet), we plan to take some time to refocus on our little family. Then, with the blessing of this year's tax refund we are hoping to start the home study and get this adoption process going. Do I have any idea where all the money will come from? No, but God does. I trust HE knows what He is doing and in the meantime I am looking forward to weekends with our family of 4 until it becomes a family of 6 or maybe more.
For all of you who may have helped or prayed us through all of this - THANK YOU.
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| Water line from the sewage flood |
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| Mold on the walls before they were removed |
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| The basement once all the sewage damage was removed |
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| New walls and carpet in the basement |
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| The leaky kitchen ceiling that had to be demolished from the bathtub overflowing |
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| What we found after removing the carpet that had been destroyed |
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| Ben's amazing job on the hardwood floors - post sanding and varnishing. |
