New Every Morning, Part Seven

Read previous segments here:

The Beginning
The Injury
The Furnace
The Waiting
Employment
The House

The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB

The Phone Call

In the last segment, where I was sharing about our mortgage modification appeal, we began this new year with renewed hope that the Lord was indeed faithful, and would orchestrate our lives according to His plan.  We lived our lives as normally as possible, waiting for January 16, when Tarica (our home preservation specialist) would call us to reinstate our appeal for a permanent mortgage modification.  Everything would work out on January 16.

Meanwhile:

I was delighted to graduate Thomas from our homeschool on New Year's Day!  He would soon be a student at Universal Technical Institute, where he would study auto and diesel technology.

We were relieved to finally have our worker's comp issues cleared up; the insurance company paid almost $200,000 of medical bills from Fernando's surgery back in October 2013, at the beginning of our journey! They also paid all that they owed in back pay, which allowed us to pay off the credit cards we had been living on. We had enough left over that Fernando could potentially start a business. He began researching the purchase of key equipment he would need.

Packing away the Christmas decorations.

It seemed that this new year would be a year of new beginnings.  And now, we really needed to get the mortgage issue settled.  With Fernando coming up on three months of employment as independent contractor for PSSI, we eagerly awaited January 16.

January 15.  We dealt with a hostile phone call from Wells Fargo collections; she didn't believe me when I insisted that Tarica, our rep, would be calling us the next day to reinstate our appeal.  Sigh.  Could anything else happen before tomorrow's phone call to top this?

That evening, Fernando received an email from PSSI.  The phrases "...we just don't have enough work with the one truck to keep your base salary going..." and "...asking for your services on an occasional basis..." were all I needed to read.  No steady income, no permanent employment.  We looked at each other.  Keep trusting Me.  I am trustworthy and faithful.  My mercies are new every morning.  Keep trusting Me.


The first phone call.

Tarica called us the next day, January 16, as promised.  Wells Fargo needed proof of three months of employment.  Fernando had three months of employment.  To.  The.  Day.  We would give that to them.  We submitted all the necessary paperwork, then waited.


The second phone call.

Two weeks passed.  Thomas started tech school.  Life was a maze of taking guys to and from either the train station or tech school.  Fernando did much of the driving, since he was home in a holding pattern, waiting to hear back from PSSI about the possibility of getting one to two months of training at their Los Angeles headquarters.

February 3.  I happened to just be rolling out of bed, one of those stayed up too late so I'll sleep in kind of mornings.  I had just turned on my cell phone when it rang.  It was Tarica.

She was thrilled beyond belief to inform us that our request was officially approved.  I scribbled down all the details, shared in her excitement, and waited for Fernando to come home from taking Danny to the train station.

We laughed together at the irony of our situation, knowing that the Lord was in control.

Laid off.
Surgery.
Medical bills.
Ekes out existence.
Finds employment.
Fights mortgage company.
Receives medical settlement.
Loses income.
Gains new mortgage.

The February 1st blizzard.

Up and down, a year and a half of crazy, and it's not over yet.  Do we question things?  Sure.

Thanks for the mortgage relief, but now we have no income.
How are we going to find a source of income?
Do we start our own business?  Do we have enough funds to do it?

But God is a big God.  We can plan all we want, we can lay everything out, but ultimately, the Lord will do what He wills.  The only question we have to answer is, are we willing to trust Him to guide us where He wants us to go?  Our answer, day by day, is yes.

Update:  Part Eight is now published, so click here to continue reading our story!


Back to life,
Christine

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