That eleventh hour thing...

************************************************************
So its Friday...everything but the last minute stuff is packed. Fred's job in Maine is complete. We have guys from church coming over to help the next morning...the uhaul is rented...and STILL no idea where we are going to go on Saturday.

That all sounds nice and calm but we were in a constant state of emotion and trying to figure out what we should do. This was 10th and we had told our landlords we would be out by the 15th.

We thought of going to a hotel and staying there until we found a place but we barely had enough money to do anything...in fact, if it weren't for God asking a couple people to help out and another to give us a loan (which we had never done before), we would have really been stuck! But still, we couldn't really afford to stay in a hotel and felt it would be harder on Gaige.

It was almost time to pick Gaige up from camp (and let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes) when we decided to just call our landlord and see what they would say if we either, asked to wait until the next weekend or told them we might not be moving after all. I called the wife, who became a friend because Bliss and their daughter were in the same class. She tells me that THEY are moving into the house until it sells and they are all packed and just waiting for us to move out.

Her husband's emails had been full of pressure and now I knew why. He's a businessman, not warm and fuzzy so I just assumed it was a personality thing but turned out it was because they wanted to move in. Had they shared this with us, I would have never made that phone call because I would have known and not wanted to put them out, but they didn't tell us.

I kept saying..."Okay, God...time to show up!"

But, by 5pm, we decided that we must have heard God all wrong and we should probably just start planning to stay. I felt like we had really messed everything up...okay I felt like I had messed everything up...you know, mother guilt and all.

So, Fred called his boss and told her we weren't 100% sure what we were going to do but would decide that night, but could he come to work Monday if we had not moved. They said he could, because they loved him! I called Katie and told her not to stop by for the tearful goodbye yet b/c we didn't know if we were leaving or not.

The kids were playing at a playground and I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face, having no idea what God really wanted us to do.

In my heart I kept feeling like I was going "But, God...what about this you said or that?" I was totally hung up on the fact that we had no where to live...which is a big hang up when you have kids but we just needed to trust God.

I got back to the house with the kids and my friend Linda stopped by to say goodbye. God had sent her at just the right time! We took a walk to the Dunkin Donuts and talked. She is so wise and told me she thought the move was a good thing and maybe the landlord would just let us wait a week.

The situation now was that no matter what, the option to stay in that house was pretty much out because they were moving in. They still expected us to move out the next day, whether in Portland or Boston or Timbuktu.

The Fred called...he said the landlord was on his way over and he was not happy! Linda and I got back just about the same time. She reminded me to stay calm and honor the Lord. Which I think we did.

Fred and I talked to him. He had in his head that this was some elaborate scheme (despite he's in our kitchen and sees all the packed boxes) to get out of paying the last months rent (which was coming out of our escrow deposit because we gave notice). We tried to convey to him that if he collected the rent that it would definitely mean we couldn't move because of all that upfront money you have to have.

He kept saying how we were screwing up his family and he had company coming on the 15th (that would explain the pressure to get out earlier) and how unhappy he was. I finally convinced him to just give us the night to make a definite decision on what we would do and if we were staying, we would pay him the rent the next morning. He left.

Five minutes later, he calls back and says he doesn't want to wait, that he had something to do and then would be back for the rent in an hour.

About 15 minutes later, the phone rings...as soon as I see the number and its a Boston one, I say "Yes!" I just knew God was on the other end of that line...and he was!

It was "L" from the "house in the 'ham"! He asked if we were still looking for something. He had said he would keep an eye out for us so I still didn't know if he was calling about something else or his own house. He said he and wife had talked about it again and they wanted to offer their house to us!

I was beside-my-self-excited!

So, God showed up...it was about 8pm the night before!!! Can you believe that? I guess God is still teaching me about blind faith and trusting him because this experience has certainly been one of blind faith.

So some lyrics to a song that was really significant to me that week:
Faithful, you are Faithful
I have found nothing, but good in your heart.
Loving, you are Loving
I am in awe of the way that you are
Thankful, I am Thankful
I have been running away on my own
and yet you found me...
oh how you love me!
I know you'll never leave me, leave me alone.
*****************************************************************
One, significant side note I forgot to share when we were in Boston looking for a place. My friend Troy called and told me he had a job opportunity in Boston! He and his family had felt called to New England because of the spiritual needs for the people there, for some time. They are Texans but God would not leave Troy alone about it.

When we started planning our move, I contacted Troy because he had lived there and wanted some advice on cities. He and his wife, had also been faithful supporters of our family and felt called to be hands-on support for us at some point, but we had never been able to live together! So this was great news. I'll post about Troy and the unique way God brought us together in a later post.