The Best Laid Plans...

Oh my. The senior apartment complex that we've been planning on since May gave their final answer and the folks were declined. In other words, with belongings on the truck and no address they are "homeless." Disappointment is an under statement. As is worry.
In a scramble to find a safe and acceptable solution, we applied for a regular apartment that has handicap accessible facilities. The rent is comparable but of course, the services for their needs are nonexistent. This will present its own challenges as times goes on including that all of their needs will fall on us 100% whereas in the senior building, they would've have had enough assistance to maintain more independence (if that makes any sense.)
We are hoping to hear this morning whether they are accepted in this new building. If so, we'll pay the security deposit and hope to move in a week from tomorrow. In the meantime, they are staying with Dean's grandma. For now at least, she is enjoying their company and they are comfortable. If it starts to become a strain we will have to move them here to our house.
Dean made the executive decision not to cancel our anniversary trip to Marshall because there's nothing more for us to do but wait at this point. His cousin and our boys will keep an eye on the home front to be sure everybody continues to do well while we are gone. We'll be leaving this afternoon once we've done some errands, returned the moving truck and taken a few things over to the folks. We'll spend two nights away and return on Saturday.
So there we are. My head knows that God's plans are beyond our own but my heart is trying to catch up. I am sure that once they are moved into this new place and we can start to establish a routine we will all feel great relief. I am so glad that my God is big enough for me to whine, cry, act less than mature and even question him.
Because I know we are surrounded by praying believers, I do know that God has ordained this turn of events. And I do thank him for his love that stops and redirects us even when it's against our will and our own judgement.
Next week I go back to work but the Mr. is laid off and will be continuing the business of Michigan identification, opening bank accounts, doctor's appointments and the like.
Thank you for your support and love. As for us, we need a break! See you on Saturday!

Christ Revealed

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10

This verse, on Kelly's face book today, just knocked my spirit back into place. Can we talk? I'm having a hard time this week. We all are. Dean's poor parents are the ones at the center of what is fast becoming an intolerable situation and I feel so badly for them. I want to kick someone on their behalf but the Mr. says I must behave, which does not come naturally.
Speaking of the Mr., my heart is breaking for him. He is stuck between two households. How to make moment by moment decisions that are best for everyone? His mom and dad are staying with his grandmother for the moment. And for the moment, that's somewhat ok. I mean, they need their apartment but grandma is enjoying the visit and it's familiar enough to Dean's dad to help ease his anxiety. But it's Wednesday of the week that should've begun with a move-in on Monday. As of today we are being charged $100 per day for the moving truck that we can't unload. And as of tomorrow, Dean and I were supposed to be on our anniversary trip.
And as of an hour ago, I was good and fed up and still not allowed to kick anyone.
But we will not be abandoned by God. We are perplexed but I refuse to despair. I almost went there. But just in time God posted on Facebook.
We can do this because He will do all that he has promised and beyond what we could imagine to ask for.

Update

Argh!
OK, so here we are on Tuesday evening and still no lease. The information was finally submitted and accepted from the eligibility standpoint however, now it sits in the office of corporate compliance to confirm that all the documentation is correct and adequate.
And apparently the office of corporate compliance works within a time frame all its own. Seriously, this is where I need to work because there is obviously no need to feel under stress to get things done by any particular time, day or even week.
Needless to say, we are trying to keep a positive attitude but discouragement is hard to avoid. The folks are staying at The Mr.'s grandmother's house. She has an extra bed and the familiar surroundings seem to be better for Dean's dad than over here at our house. Of course, this also spreads the strain to her 90 year old self as well.
Dean's dad has been doing pretty good at keeping straight exactly what is happening and what the plan is but with every passing day of feeling "homeless" and worrying about where their belongings are, he is showing a little more wear and tear. The mom is very tired and of course, when a person has medical problems they always seem to get a bit worse when dealing with stress. They really just need to be able to lay down on their own beds in their new home and feel like the journey is over.
Please, please continue to pray and believe with us that on Wednesday morning, we will get the call to come and sign that lease.
On a selfish note, Dean and I were planning on a late anniversary trip on Thursday and Friday after settling the folks in. If this move does not get settled we will obviously not be going away. I am back to work on Monday and it seems our long week to get everything done is being chewed up with waiting.
Thanks in advance for your love and prayers. I am hoping that my next post is to announce that Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a new Michigan address!

P.S. A big thank on behalf of the entire household over here to my mom for supplying us with a pot of chilli. A homemade meal not made by me was MUCH needed! Love you!

Jesus take the wheel!

Well everything went...it actually did not go.
We got a phone call this morning that the paperwork for the lease was not quite going through right and that we should wait a bit before coming in to sign it. Dean and I decided that was not acceptable so we drove to the apartment complex to try to light a fire under the manager. They submitted the original paperwork and then did not update it when there was a change so now the folks are not qualifying for this senior housing as they originally thought they would. We are pretty frustrated because we checked, double-checked and called constantly to make sure everything was ok.
The Mr. & I spent the entire day running from the apartment to the bank to Great Grandma's house and then hauling the folks all over to try to start this six month process over from scratch and try to push it through in a matter of hours. Dean's poor dad has no idea what's happening only that he's moved away and now doesn't have a house to live in.
At 2:00 p.m. the lease still was not approved. I informed the management that we have moved two elderly disabled people 700 miles and have everything they own in a moving truck in front of our house. This is not ok.
So tonight the folks are sleeping again at Great Grandma's house. The manager of the apartment building is working diligently and we are hoping to hear good news by 11:00 tomorrow morning.
Needless to say there is frustration and worry all around. We trust in the Lord and know he has plans to give us good things but we need some info! Ha ha!
Please pray with us. Right now these poor people don't have a home or even an address to forward their mail, open a bank account or transfer their medical insurance.
Oy-vey!

UPDATE: As of 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon, we have made no progress. If the moving truck is not returned at 9:00 tomorrow morning, additional fees will start to accumulate on that as well. Feeling discouraged.

Today

Hi everybody!
First of all, I cannot say enough to you of my gratitude for your prayer coverage over the last three days. God's hand was on us and his spirit surrounded us continually. There is such perfect peace is knowing that there are people in our lives who hear the call for intercession and are faithful to stand before God on our behalf. That was the greatest reassurance from beginning to end of the last weekend; that we knew you were there talking to Jesus.
The trip down on Friday seemed to go quickly, our hotel was great and we enjoyed a relaxing evening with Mac and Paul. On Saturday we headed to the folks' place to load up. Everything was not as organized and ready as we had hoped but peace prevailed and not a single complaint was heard. We dealt with the job before us with humor and support for one another and throughout the day you could say moments of hugs, pats on the back and winks exchanged to ease the tension and difficulty. The house was loaded onto the Penske truck in about three hours (a miracle!) allowing Mac and Paul to head back to Michigan and sleep in their own beds, albeit arriving at 3 a.m. on Sunday! Praise God for safe travel!
On Sunday morning we were ready to hit the road with the folks at 5 a.m. to find my m-i-l crying and moaning in pain. She has a bad hip and arthritis along with a host of other medical and physical problems. By the time we were in the truck she was nearly beside herself with pain and the possibility of a 12 hour car trip to Michigan was out of the question. She said, "I don't think I can do it." and I thought, what's the option? You have no furniture in Alabama! So when you're out of options there's no choice but Jesus, right? Lol. I had purchased heat wraps for Dean's back predicting soreness after the car rides and moving but he hadn't needed them so I had a brand new package in my purse which I applied to the m-i-l's lower back despite her insistence that nothing would help. Then noticing she was headed into a panic about the pain and the trip ahead, I gave her a Benadryl for its sedating effects. Finally although she insisted it never helped, I convinced her to take 6oo mg of Motrin. With much tears and crying out in the backseat, we pulled onto the freeway with Dean & I holding hands and praying in the front seat. A half hour later she mentioned between gasps that she was having moments of relief. An hour later, she was fast asleep and snoring! Hallelujah! Although her pain never disappeared completely, she said it ranged from like it is on a normal day to almost gone! In fact, she slept more than half of the journey home.
Dean's dad has lost some ground since May. He is starting to lose physical coordination now and his thought process is more muddled. He appeared to be in desperate shape on Saturday. But he slept like a rock through the night in a strange hotel room and walk up calm and ready to go to Michigan! Usually when Dean's mom becomes upset with pain or problems, his dad can't cope and starts crying and panicking. He was the picture of serenity on Sunday morning, comforting his wife quietly without ever losing his sense of peace.
We made it to Michigan at about 4 p.m. yesterday and dropped the folks at Dean's grandmother's for the evening. We had a good night's sleep in our own bed and are leaving in a moment to take them to sign the lease on their new apartment.
A few more days of unpacking and settling and we are hoping to sneak away overnight for a belated anniversary treat.
Again, thanks for your love and support and keep it up!

heading back!

hey all,
it's 4:30 a.m. in alabama and we will be on the road for the 12 hour trip home with the folks in about half an hour. mac and dean's cousin, paul, drove straight through last night with the moving truck and made it home safely at about 3:30 a.m. thank you for your prayers on their behalf. i imagine those guys will sleep today away!
dean's dad is significantly worse than when we last saw them in may. for some reason, his doctor stopped one of his medications a month ago; refused to give a refill to last him through to moving here. now in addition to his cognitive struggles (which are worse), he has lost some motor function. he's stumbling and having difficulty feeding himself. he's paranoid and terribly anxious. with Alzheimer's disease the function lost is lost forever so even restarting his medications may not gain us a lot of ground back.
this morning they are ok. please continue to cover us in prayer, we have felt God's hand with us keeping us safe and helping us to get things done in a timely way and to stay on a good schedule despite some disorganization and difficulty.
we will keep you updated and if don't hear otherwise, assume we made it safely to michigan this evening. the folks will spend tonight with dean's grandmother and tomorrow morning we'll ask for your prayer again as they sign the lease to their new apartment and with the help of some wonderful guys...marty, chad and mac; we'll move them in. pray that the paperwork goes easily as the apartment complex office manager is pretty disorganized herself, that the physical move-in is easy and without injury and of course that the folks settle peacefully and happily into their new home.

love to all of you and words cannot express our gratitude for your generosity in covering us with prayer.

ALABAMA UPDATE ~

Sara and gang have arrived safely in Alabama...thank you all for your prayers for safe travel!

(Pat)

And away we go!

Good morning! Not sure what time it is as you're reading this but we hit the road for Alabama at 5:00 a.m.! Please pray for safe travel and for God's favor. We will arrive in Alabama this evening, spend Saturday packing and head home on Sunday.

The Mr.'s wonderful cousin, Paul, is going with us as is Mac to help with the heavy lifting as well as to drive the moving truck back so that Dean and I can travel together with his mom and dad. The folks will spend Sunday night at his grandma's and sign the lease to their new senior apartment on Monday. Please also pray that everything goes smoothly and that all the paperwork is in place so that we can move them right in and get them peacefully settled.

I'll text my mom and T so if there's anything exciting happening, I'm sure they'll update y'all. Ha!

Love you guys and talk at ya soon!

Gensis 12:9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

HERE i am

There lives within me this tug-of-thoughts. A feeling of always being busy and yet never getting very much done. It's an unrest of the spirit. I've been frustrated with this current bout of unwellness that has me at home instead of work, tempted to kick the walls to vent my aggravation at my body. But we just painted so....I decided to complain to God. Actually God eavesdropped on my inner monologue. I sometimes forget that thinking it is the same as saying it where He's concerned. So there I was, doggone it I can't be sick right now! I have to go to work, I'm taking an entire week off! What will they think of me! Who will get everything in order so I can be off? What about the people that have to cover for me? This is so unfair to them!

Then God, eavesdropping and then adding his two cents says this to me, "Wow, you're really arrogant."

Indeed!

I am not arrogant! Again inside my head, where the Lord is not shy about poking around it seems.

The long and short of it is, that apparently (according to the Lord), the people at work are not in a state of panic because I am not there. His theory (and He claims to know this for a fact), is that they don't even talk about me beyond the morning meeting when they mention I'm out sick. I was going to pull up my work e mail as evidence that I am very very needed at work but unfortunately, there must be some kind of technical glitch, because there wasn't a single message in my inbox stating that I had to hurry back. In fact, the only e mails that showed up advised me to take it easy and come back whenever I was feeling better. Huh. Weird.

Realizing that God was going to poke around in my head invited or not, I decided to switch gears and change myself from thinking to praying and tell Him that I had a job to do. Wanting to go in to work was right and honorable.

The Holy Spirit gently chastised me. "No, you do not have a job to do. I have a job for you to do."

How easily and often I forget that I am not my own. And that what I do is not of my own strength. And that all is God's; the cattle on a thousand hills, the patients and staff at every hospital, the husband and sons and home that I care for and the two people in Alabama waiting for us to come get them. All God's business to conduct.

As I have prepared lists and agendas and schedules and plans I now realize, I did not include preparing myself. I have spent much more time in the choreography of things than in the training of my spirit. I am ordained by God at every moment to be here or there. Too often I am distracted by there and not enough here. I'm going to work on that. My job for today is to let Christ work in me through the quietness of my body and my mind.

And I think maybe, just maybe, someone else can be there for the day.

Psalm 50:10-11For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.