A New Start Part 3

August 2010

Right before Travis was born on August 5th, things sort of fell apart and we wouldn’t be able to stay in the apartment as long as we had thought. We would actually need to be out by the August 20th-about two weeks later. We had no idea what we were going to do. David had just gotten an interview set up for the next week for a full time job, but still at that point, was no guarantee of a job. David’s part time job still wasn’t enough for us to come up with a deposit and rent for a house, not to mention we still couldn’t find anywhere to rent, yet. We drove ALL over Tulsa and the surrounding areas and couldn’t find anything that was big enough, in our price range, and okay for 11 people to live there.

So, I came home from giving birth, kept Travis on bili lights for the next two days, then took the next week and a half to pack up our temporary belongings to move them to a second storage unit, since most of our other things were still in a storage unit in the town that we were originally going to live in 45 minutes away.

I promise this really is the uncomplicated version.

At church the Wednesday evening before the Friday that we had to be out of the apartment, a friend asked me how we were. I told her I was feeling a little overwhelmed. We needed to be out of the apartment in a day and a half and we still didn’t know what we were going to do. She looked at her husband, then looked at me. Then, looked at her husband, then looked at me. “You are going to come stay with us while you figure out what to do.”

This was an older couple with grown kids and grandchildren. I’m not so sure she really knew what she was asking. LOL But, they had a travel trailer and an extra bedroom they were willing to share with us. The following week David was offered the full time position he interviewed for, but we still had to wait to save up the money for rent and deposit.

The one thing that I had begged and pleaded to not have to do in this whole ordeal was to not have to live or even stay briefly with anyone else. I had been there and done that ten years ago. (That is completely another story for another day, but it lasted for three months.) And now, here I was ten years later, and had to do it twice. I was getting to the point again where I was upset easily. Although, that could have been in part from all the hormones from just having given birth. We found a four bedroom house that was the right price, but the real estate agent decided not to return our calls even after he agreed to show us the house. We found a four bedroom double wide, but they wanted ten percent down to finance. We found a three bedroom house in a great location and price, but someone who had seen the house the day before decided to rent. Where was the place that God had for us? Did he have a place for us?

The evening that the lady called to tell me that the house had been rented by the guy from the day before, was the end for me. I reverted back to that same feeling of sadness and dread. I so did not want to go back there. I had already been through so many months of despair and I didn’t know why God was taking me back down that road again. And so soon after I thought I had come through it.

I had a list of the last five possible houses that I still had to call. If one of these didn’t work out, I didn’t know if we’d ever find a place to live. I had already told David I wasn’t sure if I even had the emotionally stability to talk to anyone on the phone. But, he was working so much he just didn’t have time. So, I had to put on my big girl pants, suck it up, and get it done. The first house I called was four bedrooms, 2300 square feet and had a garage. She said she didn’t have a problem with such a large family and was even planning to show it to someone the next day, but said she’d show it to us first. I couldn’t imagine it not working out. This was perfect!

The next morning I met her at the house. David had to work, but we agreed that if she would take our offer, we could go ahead and give her half the deposit then and the rest the following week. I have to admit that when I walked into the house, I was a bit taken back. The entire time she showed me through that house, I was praying “Oh, Lord, please do not make us have to live here.” I had to lower my standards. A lot.

She said, “So, what do you think?”

I wanted to say no, but maybe it was the Lord, or maybe it was my fear of not finding anything else that forced me to say, “We’ll take it.”