What Happened Next

Yesterday, June 1, was the 11th anniversary of our move here. Eleven years ago, EJ drove up from our old house with our dog, Danny, and as much stuff as we could get in his pickup truck. JJ and I followed him in our HHR with seven cats, who all sang protest songs for most of the four-hour trip. After leading us to our new house, EJ drove on to the designated location to sign the papers–on both his behalf and mine. We had been given a key to the house before the signing so we could get the cats out of the car. We didn’t want them stuck any longer than they had to in their carriers. We released them into the garage until EJ returned and the house was officially ours. We “camped” out in the house for a week until friends could help us move the rest of our things up here. We love it here so much that the eleven years have gone by in a flash.

Although it’s June, the mornings are quite cool so that I dress in layers–a t-shirt with a sweatshirt and/or hoodie over it in the morning that I shed through the day as the temperature warms up. The weather reminds both EJ and me of when our families camped in Northern Michigan when we were children. Mornings were always cold and afternoons hot. This is why I’ve always overpacked whenever I’ve gone on any vacation throughout my life: warm clothes for cool weather, shorts and t-shirts for hot weather, and then extra in case it rains or I fall into a river or something. I don’t remember ever falling into a river, but I packed extra clothes just in case I did. “Be prepared” is not just a Boy Scout motto.

Richard VI has mostly been behaving himself: Lately he’s only escaped the fence once or twice a day. However, he’s already escaped twice this morning so we will see how this day goes. We’ve herded him back through the gate so many times that as soon as he sees me coming, he starts moving toward and into the gate. He’s not worried about going back into the fenced garden. He knows he can easily escape again.

There are still a couple 10 x 10 dog kennel panels in the fence, which Richard flies up to and then over, but we’ve closed the ground level “gaps” so at least he–or the chicks–can’t get through them. That presents its own set of problems because Theo and Harvey also can’t get through those closed gaps. We’ve been keeping the large garage door open enough so the cats can get out that way–into the yard to the south rather than the garden to the north. But Harvey is always late getting back to the garage in the evening. He’s skittish and won’t come when called or allow me to pick him up and carry him like Theo does. That wouldn’t be much of a problem except we have a raccoon that’s been visiting the orchard in the early evening while it’s still daylight and the cats are still out. It still wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but Theo seems to think he’s a fierce wolverine and he stalks and tries to attack the raccoon. (A couple years ago a coyote ran through the yard and Theo ran after him into the forest!) We can’t shut Theo in the garage until Harvey’s in. Sunday EJ constructed a “pet door” in the fence so–once the cats figure it out–they can get through into the garden and then into the garage. Since the chickens never go through the regular pet door into the garage, we are hoping they won’t go through the new pet door in the fence. We shall see.

Years ago, EJ and I were part of a small group (organized through our church) that studied the book, Experiencing God by William Blackaby. A couple things from the book has stuck in my mind, one of which is the idea that many people pray for things and then when God begins to answer the prayer, they panic because the result is not what they expected. The author used the example of praying that God would do “whatever it takes” to bring a loved one to Him, but when that loved one’s life falls apart, they panic pray that God would get that person out of the difficulty. “When you pray,” Blackaby wrote, “don’t panic. Watch to see what happens next.”

This is a post about what I prayed for and what happened next.

Years ago, before we met and married, EJ injured his back. He’s endured chronic back pain ever since, which has been growing worse over the years. He’s also worked very hard in his life, often working mandatory 7 days/week for months on end. He currently has a job in which he works 10 hours for four days a week. It makes a long day, but is helpful because it gives him three days off each week to recover. However, he comes home each evening exhausted and almost crippled with back pain. It’s difficult for him to stand for 10 hours on cement at his job.

So a year or two ago, I began telling God (not that He needed to be told) how hard and faithfully EJ has worked, and how tired he is, and how much pain he suffers, and I asked if He would please help EJ to retire. It seemed impossible because we have debt we have to pay off. Our debt is not from buying expensive “toys” or vacations. We live very frugally; our fun indulgence is thrift shops and used book sales. Our debt is from medical expenses and having to pay for a variety of needs.

What happened next is that last year we had two long-term guests (2-6 week stays) that, to be honest, weren’t the easiest to live with. (Long story.) Those guests so exhausted us that it actually motivated us to turn our guest bedroom into a home exercise room, which we had wanted to do for years. Because we turned our guest bedroom into our exercise room, we discovered a leak that was ruining the floor. We thought it was a plumbing leak but we discovered that it was a roof leak. We had roofers come out and they said that our roof absolutely needs to be replaced soon. So difficult guests led to discovering a serious roof leak before it became catastrophic.

We don’t have funds to replace the roof. Especially since our truck died last autumn and we had to use our meager savings to replace it. We were going to get our wonky furnace fixed before we discovered the bad roof. The roof has priority. So vital needs and no resources.

The Bible says to give God all our anxieties because He cares for us. It says that our heavenly Father knows our needs and that He will supply them. So we asked God for help. We asked Him for wisdom because we didn’t know what to do and to provide the funds we need to fix the roof. He has helped us in many miraculous ways over the years.

I prayed. So what happened next?

We decided EJ needed to retire and get his Social Security benefits. It’s not much, but combined with mine (I “retired” a year ago), we could make it. Social Security allows a person to continue working as long as they make under a specified amount of money. We thought that with Social Security benefits and EJ continuing to work, we could even pay off debt. So we went for it.

A snag we discovered after EJ applied for Social Security is that in another 2-3 weeks he will be at the limit of what he can earn, which means he will have to stop working until next year. We thought we’d have more time of receiving both a paycheck and Social Security. Nope. The good thing is that EJ’s company is awesome. The owner told him that he can do whatever he wants, including setting his own hours/days, or stopping this month and returning next Spring if he chooses. When EJ resumes work next year–whether at his current job or a lighter local job–we can use that money to pay off most debt. Meanwhile, my Social Security benefits went up because of “spousal benefits.” Combined, we actually will have a little more money each month without EJ working than we have while he is working. Also, we will save money on gas because EJ won’t be driving to work four days every week. Plus, he won’t have to go anywhere during winter storms and he can take his time clearing the driveway of snow. He can work on home improvement projects (like fixing the exercise room floor) but stop to rest if his back starts to hurt too much.

Oh, I almost forgot: The roof.

The first roofer we contacted in early April was a dud. I think he was someone just starting out doing roofing jobs. He promised to come out to measure our roof but we haven’t heard from him since so we crossed him off our list. The second roofing company we contacted has been in business for 10 years and has a great reputation. Communication with them has been great. The guy went over their estimate yesterday. They gave us estimates for 1. doing only the house and 2 doing both the house and attached garage. We plan to only roof the main house since we can’t afford to roof both the house and garage (yet). The garage was an addition and is in better shape so it can wait until we have more money. We had to immediately pay half the cost for a deposit, of course, but we were able to finance the rest. Our monthly payment will actually be covered by our savings in the gas EJ won’t be using driving to work. We had to pay the full deposit with a credit card because we didn’t have quite enough in the bank, but with last month’s Social Security payment, we will be able to immediately pay a big chunk of it off.

The roofers have other jobs scheduled but will get to ours in about six weeks.

My prayer was that God would enable EJ to retire because of his health and so we could afford a new roof. The answer was a lot of problems that FORCED him to retire. Most importantly, we got to watch God meet our impossible needs once again. We got to experience His loving care.

God is good.