Finding Blessings (and some laughs) through Hardship

I existed in a daze the first 24 or so hours after the fire.  Tammy-Lee wouldn’t leave me unattended with the children because I did not respond to them at all.  I sat staring straight ahead, barely answering questions directed at me.  I guess I was in shock.  I remember something Marrissa said that kinda shook me out of it a little.  The night or two before the fire, I had under-cooked supper, and then proceeded to burn it the next evening, or something along those lines.  But we were sitting at Tammy-Lee’s table and Marrissa says to me, “Well, Mom, that supper is well cooked now!  It’s burnt!”  And she just giggled.  She kept the joke up all day, whenever we talked about food.

We were putting any extra money away to finish the roof and move the kitchen from the basement to the main floor.  Our spring season was going to be busy with these renovations.  Jason was sitting, watching the house burn that night and he texts me, “I guess we can return those shingles now.”  I texted back, “Uhm, the receipt for those shingles is in the house; it might be hard to return them.”  Maybe we’ll be able to sell them, I guess.

I no longer have a leaky roof, or I guess you could say I have a REALLY leaky roof right now.

I don’t have to declutter all the “stuff” that was in that house.

We get to design (or help design) our new home rather than trying to make this one work for what we wanted.  And through that process, we hope to support the local economy by hiring local companies to do the work.

Oh, another funny:  As I left the house with my troop of 7 (my six and one of their friends), I was on the phone with 911.  When I finally was out of range, I dropped the phone, thinking to myself that I didn’t need it any longer.  I was carrying the two youngest and herding the others as best as possible, I didn’t need something else in my hand!  Well, little Marrissa saw the phone and scooped it up as she followed me down the laneway.  We plan to put it in a shadow box as a memory.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,