All Our Needs

The weekend after Hannah Joy died, we buried her on the eastern slope of our property. EJ dug the grave, which wasn’t easy on snow covered frozen ground. Later, I moved a small boulder to mark the grave and to keep predators from disturbing it.

We thought it would be symbolic to plant a Gray Dogwood bush on Hannah’s gravesite. Our local conservation district is selling some during its annual tree sale. I did some research and the Gray Dogwood sounded perfect: It blooms with small white flowers from May to July, followed by clusters of white berries that ripen from August to October, providing food and shelter for birds and wildlife. It also attracts pollinators. The plant features gray bark, red stems, and leaves that turn dusky purplish-red in the fall. It would do well in our soil, which is sand. However, it grows up to 10-12 feet (sometimes up to 26 feet according to some articles). It spreads “vigorously” by underground rhizomes and suckers. We don’t want to have a vigorously growing bush take over or block our view of the hill. So instead we bought a couple packets of wildflowers to plant when the weather warms.

I started playing around with AI videos (Grok Imagine) last week. I learned how to create short videos using my own photos and I like putting our cats or EJ in different creative situations. One day I chose a photo of Hannah and asked Grok to make her climbing up into Heaven. The result was beautifully poignant. I thought it was remarkable that AI made the door in my photo open into heaven instead of our bedroom. The video made me cry, but also captured Hannah’s personality so it will be a keepsake. Here it is:

This year has been quite difficult so far. A couple of weeks ago we discovered a very wet area on the floor of the extra bedroom, which we have been turning into a home gym. EJ pulled back the carpet in the corner and found standing water. We (meaning he) will need to replace the damaged flooring. EJ figured it was a plumbing problem since there’s a bathtub on the other side of the wall, but he couldn’t find the leak. We finally admitted defeat and decided to call a plumber.

Our driveway had been treacherously icy so if we had called a plumber when we first discovered the leak, ,he wouldn’t have been able to make it up to our house. But by the time we decided a plumber was necessary, we had several very warm days that melted all the snow and ice so making it up the driveway was no problem for him. Thank you, Lord!

Two repairmen came out and they believe the leak is a problem with the roof rather than the plumbing. So EJ called a roofer who said he will come out as soon as the weather is decent. (More about that in a second.) Hopefully the roofer can patch the roof, which could buy us some time to save money to get the whole roof done. I’m hoping insurance will pay for a new roof so we don’t have to wait, but we don’t know yet. We’ve only made one insurance claim back in the early 1990s so we aren’t exactly knowledgeable about what is covered and what isn’t. I think EJ is going to wait to see what the roofer says before calling our insurance agent.

Even though the weather was nice when we called the roofer, meteorologists were forecasting a major snow and ice storm in our area. Obviously the roofer couldn’t fix our roof in such bad weather so he said he’d come out when conditions improve. So we are waiting. The good thing about a return to wintry weather is that everything is frozen and there is no rain or melting snow leaking into our house.

A storm did hit this last weekend. We escaped the worst of the storm but others were not so fortunate. Areas just north of us got a ton more snow–and the snow grew heavier the further north a person went. The Upper Peninsula got something like four feet of snow. Areas to the east of us got hit with a major ICE storm. In fact, many of the same areas that were hit with a major ice storm last year were hit again this year. Areas downstate experienced severe thunderstorms. There were many areas of the state that are without power. EJ texted me this morning that his drive to work was “interesting.” He said he frequently drove through whiteout conditions and through roads that were almost closed by drifting snow. He heard from co-workers that the town he works in was virtually a ghost town over the weekend.

I feel bad (and I’m praying) for people struggling with the effects of the storms while I’m also thankful that we only got about a foot of snow and only a slight glaze of ice from freezing rain. Hannah’s death, our struggle to get our furnace repaired, and the leaky roof are enough to deal with without a snow/ice storm on top of it. So it’s a huge mercy that the worst of the storms missed us. We are asking God for more merciful miracles to provide what we need with the furnace and roof. We aren’t exactly rolling in money: Having to buy a new (used) truck last autumn took what little we had saved up. But God has helped us many times before so we are trusting Him.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:19)