Thanks

“Don’t give the devil credit.”  

Strangely enough these five words were threaded into my church’s message a few Sunday’s ago.   And wouldn’t you know, they were specifically what we needed to remember for the weeks that followed.  

Not a coincidence.  

The gist of it was that when it seems like satan is working hard to derail you, you have a choice. You can sit back and blame him, thus giving him all the credit.  Or, you find the hidden blessings and the gifts that still remain, and still lift up your thanks to God.  

We’ve been trying.  It’s hard when you are overwhelmed, when the stress builds up, when it seems like you’re being slammed with one thing after another in such a short time.  But we are making a concentrated effort NOT to let satan have any credit here. 

I think to-the-point is the quickest way to provide an adequate update (it’s still pretty long). 

Our trial:  My mom’s flooring started to get wavy and appeared to be water damaged.  After some investigation, we discovered her heating/cooling unit had malfunctioned and had been leaking into the wall, thereby damaging the drywall, insulation, flooring, baseboards, subfloor, and wall sheathing.  

Our THANKS: We are so grateful we caught it when we did.  It was slowly spreading across the living room and we were able to stop it, and save some of it, before it was much much worse.  We also noticed that her door had not been installed correctly when we built on and there was a small area where water had been seeping in.  While, yes, it was another problem, we never would have known if we hadn’t had to pull up the flooring. 

Our trial: A contractor came out and quoted us a price to ‘fix it right’.  It was nearly $6,000 not including the interior materials or the new heating/cooling unit we would have to buy to replace the faulty one and the cost of installation.  Our insurance (with a $1000 deductible) would ONLY pay for replacement of the inside materials.  Those would not come close to the deductible.  

Our THANKS: Our insurance company’s outrage at the amount we would be asking for prompted us to look for another opinion.  They said there was “No, way” what we described and showed in photos would result in that amount of repair.  It made us question the honesty of the contractor we had called.  We called someone else, someone we trusted but knew couldn’t work on our house due to scheduling, and he came right out.  He verified that the first quote was way too high.  We really feel like the first guy tried to scam us because we were not knowledgable and we were desperate for help.  The insurance company’s “No” was hard to swallow, but it helped us avoid being taken advantage of.  

Our trial: Knowing what needed to be done now, Devin was fairly confident he could do a majority of the work.  He and his dad worked on framing up the hole in the wall where the previous unit had gone, installing new insulation, and wall sheathing. They took out the door, did the fix, and reinstalled that.  And then it rained.  And the door still leaked. 

Our THANKS:  Truly, this sucked! We had to make an appointment with a professional because we just didn’t know if there is a fix for it or if we needed a whole new door.  BUT, we are so lucky we hadn’t yet got to replacing the floor inside.  Because, again, we never would have known.  It isn’t a constant leak, because it’s not constantly raining, so it’s not affecting the flooring, but it’s enough that the subfloor was rotten and mold was sure to follow.  Thank goodness we found out before then! 

Our trial:  After Devin and his dad worked all that was left was house wrap and siding on the outside wall (we had to special order ONE piece due to the newly framed portion of the wall). Devin got to work on that one evening.  He came in not long after with his hand clamped over his leg and telling me we needed to go to the hospital, NOW! He’d cut himself on the last little section of house wrap. 

Our THANKS: Thankfully my mom was home and lives here, because I was able to drop Josie at her house and rush to the ER.  Luckily he had just changed out the razor blade and it was incredibly sharp.  Maybe that’s why the cut was so deep, but it was also why it was so clean.  A clean cut that was much easier to just glue back together.  And gratefully, Devin’s dad snuck back over and finished up his work for him before we even got back from the hospital. 

Our trial: We definitely did not want to put the unit back in even if we could fix it because we would be back in the same place of not being able to see an issue until it was too late.  And we didn’t want to get the same kind of unit for that same reason.  We called out two companies to quote us on a mini-split unit so everything would be housed outside of the house instead.  The first came back at almost $4000.  I was definitely hoping for less and was counting on the second quote being better.  It wasn’t.  When you’re trying so hard to save money, having to pull that amount is gut-wrenching. 

Our THANKS: When we started this adoption journey, getting our finances in order was priority one.  Had we not done that, we wouldn’t be in a position now that we CAN pay for this.  And we can pay for it without touching our Adoption Savings Account -OR- any of my Work Savings Account.  I want to make sure anyone who has donated to our adoption already or has donated items that we’ve sold for our adoption funds knows that we DID NOT and WILL NOT touch that money.  Not having to pull from my work money is just an added blessing as that money is also allocated to our adoption.  

Our trial:  While reinstalling the flooring at my mom’s, Devin’s cut opened up on his leg again.  Being the guy he is, he feels this obligation to get it all set right, even when he should be letting himself heal.  Back to the ER. 

Our THANKS: We opted to go to another ER opposed to our local one because we just weren’t thrilled with how his wound was healing in the first place.  He was surprised and relieved when the doctor working the ER that day was his cousin Tracy! She got him all fixed up, a few staples and he was on his way.  It is healing beautifully now!  

So this is where we are now! 

It’s been long, it’s been tiring, it’s been stressful and we’re not finished yet, BUT…

Seriously, we have a lot to be thankful for, it’s not a road block, just a little set back. And after Devin’s two weeks of DOCTOR ORDERED rest, we will get back at it and finish up the repairs and keep moving forward.  

Huge thanks to everyone who has helped us, we love and appreciate you all!