The People God Sends...

Sometimes one thing leads to another, to another, to another, and you don't remember how it all began, but it seems the bends in the road have twisted and turned and you are no longer the same person you once were. Times have changed. Circumstances have changed who you are. Your relationships have deepened. Changed. Or even ended. You experience deep loss and deeper regret. Life throws sucker punches at you and while you're able to duck many of them and marvel at how God has rescued you from a few more. There are those that hit you square in the face or knock the wind out of you. Those are the punches that send you reeling. And hopefully, they send you to your knees.

I have recently been on the receiving end of a few wild and hard punches. One or two of them were unforeseen and unavoidable. One wasn't. I created it myself. But the unavoidable ones are hardest. You can't walk away from the pain, and the swirling vortex of confusion that mounts as you attempt to avoid the inevitable grows stronger. We recently purchased a fixer-upper home with lots of possibilities. We knew nothing about flipping homes, although we'd seen it done on tv a few times. But now we have found ourselves at the helm of a sinking ship, paddling desperately in a sea of debt -- with no kitchen, no garage, and 2300 square feet of mostly unusable space.

We told our realtor we would be so busy this year with work and trying to get our daughters ready for college that we needed a turnkey situation. Any remodeling project would have to be the sole responsibility of our contractor. (Our realtor was our contractor.)With this in mind, he took on the project. Everything that could go wrong did. The project was 100% over budget when we finally said "no more."

I'm disappointed that our boundaries weren't heeded, even though we clearly delineated them up front. I'm disappointed that God, who knew there was going to be a mortgage crisis heading our way since He knows EVERYTHING, allowed us to go through the turmoil of losing all our money, then not being able to get a new mortgage for four months. I'm disappointed that despite many frantic phone calls, most of the subcontractors refused to call us back or return to finish the work they had begun. (I assume they were worried about getting paid, but why not phone us back to tell us that?)

I think in light of eternity this is all just a blink of an eye, flip of flirty hair, shrug of the shoulders type problem. I mean, no one is dying, right? But my two girls are spending their last year at home crammed into a tiny bedroom surrounded by boxes instead of in their new addition. I'm disappointed. (Did I mention that I was disappointed yet?)

But I titled this post "The People God Sends" for a reason. I have met the most wonderful people on this journey to completion. We found a modern furniture store where we could buy a piece that would be less expensive than a wall of cabinets for the kitchen space and will look even more cool and mod. The salesman there led me to a dear woman at Mediterranean Tile who gave me a cut rate on countertops once she heard my story. Her friend, a cabinetmaker, leveled all our already installed (incorrectly) cabinets for us and is going to help out wherever he can. He is a humble, kind, funny guy who is easy to have around and fabulous at what he does. An electrician I met at Home Depot is coming by today to fix the problems the former electrician caused.

These are Godsend people.

And I am grateful.

May I one day possess the humility and grace to forgive those who have wronged us -- even if it means my kids can't attend the colleges of their dreams and even if it means we lost money or will lose the house. May God be glorified.

Yours -- with hope and fear and struggles and pain and with joy in the journey and throughout the rain,

Megan Elizabeth