New Every Morning, Part Six

Read previous segments here:

The Beginning
The Injury
The Furnace
The Waiting
Employment

I know it's now the end of March, and life has overtaken me enough that I've neglected our story; but now, I'm back with a long overdue update.

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 House

Back in October, Fernando began working for PSSI as an independent contractor, driving and operating a SAT truck alongside the current truck operator.  Since he was being paid as an independent contractor, we kept financial records as a legally self-employed entity.  Two other things were happening alongside this new development:

One.  We were approved for Medicaid health insurance, after 10 months of waiting.  Now it remained for us to wait for the official insurance cards, without which we wouldn't be able to receive services.  More waiting!

Two.  We finished a year-long unemployment mortgage modification program with Wells Fargo--yes, I feel free to name names now.  We submitted our October 1st modified payment to them, and indicated uncertainty about employment, but also asked if they would consider our current status of self-employment in repaying our mortgage.

Today's segment focuses on Two.  The home preservation specialist, as they are referred to, decided to immediately close our case and refer it straight to collections.  We had no idea this had happened until the first phone call from a rep in the Wells Fargo collections department.  Surprise!  What do you mean we're in the collections department?  No one told us what to do once we finished making payments under the unemployment program!  How are we supposed to just pay back the arrears, when we've just starting receiving a steady income?  These and more questions swirled around as we attempted to explain, over and over and over again to every collections rep with whom we talked.

Our case was finally transferred to a rep (one of those home preservation specialists) who actually called us back and communicated with us!  Her name was Tarica, the lone point of comfort in all our dealings with Wells Fargo.

In order to begin paying our mortgage, we had to apply for a permanent modification.  After faxing in paperwork, talking on the phone, answering questions about bank statements, and faxing in more paperwork, the beginning of December had arrived.

Tarica called to inform us that our permanent modification request had been denied.

Emotions swirled, and Fernando and I tried to figure out what to do.  We formally appealed the decision, explaining that Fernando was now receiving a steady income.  A week after we submitted the appeal, Tarica's supervisor called to tell us the documents we submitted weren't eligible for an appeal, and we were denied.  Now I was angry.  I forcefully explained everything to her (I'm sure she didn't know the history), and asked if Wells Fargo really wanted our house--because we were ready and willing to start paying our mortgage, but for the arrears that needed to be taken care of.  Having gotten nowhere, I finally hung up the phone, devastated.

This was one of those times when minutes seem like hours.  I was numb, knowing somewhere in the back of my mind that we would have to move--but where?  How?  Rent would be more than we were currently paying with our mortgage.  We kept telling everyone we talked to that we wanted to pay the entire amount back, because it was what we owed, but no one would listen.  We were a number in a vast machine.

Only one hour ticked by, one small hour filled with all the emotion I could handle, and I couldn't handle it.  Trust Me.  Just for five minutes.  You can do that, right?  Am I not trustworthy for five minutes?  Yes.  Now trust me for five more.  I sat, numb, somehow trusting Him, for one hour.

My cell phone rang.

It was the supervisor again, who informed me that she had "reached out" to the appeals underwriters, and it seemed that the documents we had submitted had been "overlooked."  Our appeal would be reinstated.

A reprieve.

We waited through Christmas, with a promise that Wells Fargo would not be a topic of discussion for our family Christmas celebration, hosted in our home.

Then, a few days before New Year's Day, Tarica called us.  Our appeal was officially denied.  This time, Fernando and I took the call together, and we were at peace, whatever the Lord allowed to happen.  Our emotions were calm as we talked with Tarica, asking her if she had even looked at the documents we had submitted.  She hadn't, so we explained our argument.

Tarica responded, "Your appeal would still be denied, because you have to have three months of employment, which you don't.  That won't happen until..."  She calculated it in her head, then said, "...January 15."  A pause.  "That's just two weeks away!  I'm going to put your appeal on hold until then.  I will call you on January 16, at this same time of day, and let you know what updated documents we'll need you to submit then."

Week after week, we had wondered why the Lord was allowing so many delays, snags, and miscommunications to occur.  I honestly admit that we were faithless, complaining about the daily barrage of emotions, the hours spent on the phone, the constant mail from Wells Fargo.  And now we knew why:  The Lord allowed those delays to occur so that Fernando could complete three months of employment, so that we could file our appeal to keep our house.

We now waited with renewed hope.  We could see the Lord's hand at work, and it was enough.  Our New Year would come.  Trust Me for today.  We would trust Him, day by day, whatever would come.

If you want to find out what happened, read this next post!


Back to life,
Christine

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Meandering Around My Home

When I typed "around my home" in the above title, I meant it literally.  I walked around my home with my camera, with the goal being to share my tour with you!

Inspired by my friend Lori and her June garden tour post, I took my camera on my wandering tour.  As a side note, visit Lori's blog to read her "Friday Farm Girls" posts.  They will surely bless you!

Now, I must say that I'm not a gardener by nature.  I plant flowers and things, and if they survive from year to year, I keep them.  If they die, well then--I don't!!  ;)

I actually made two tours of my yard areas--one with my regular lens and one with my macro lens.  Today's tour will give you an overview of our little corner of the world.

The Front Yard

The front of our house, complete with Suburban in the driveway

We have a pie-shaped wedge of property, with the point at the back end of the back yard.  So our front walkway is really wide, and our front yard has lots of space that I don't know what to do with.

The guys recently dug out the below patch of grass, mounded up all our extra dirt and compost, set the rocks up there, and helped me transplant flowers from my original front yard garden in the photo above (just above the "anne" in my watermark).  Some of the tall heliopsis in the back is still wilted, but it's a hardy plant and I'll just cut it off.  It'll come back next year.

And this is the original front yard garden from which we transplanted the above flowers.  It looks a little bare, and I still have to rake out the pile of dirt the guys dumped into it.  It contains blue oat grass (one of my favorites but it is dying), beard-tongue, daisies, and threadleaf coreopsis (the yellow flowers in the front left).  There are a few daffodil leaves still standing as well.

Threadleaf coreopsis

Beyond the above garden, at the far edge of the fence, I dug out a little corner and planted some astilbe.  Thomas mowed over it once a few weeks ago, but it is coming back, and even has some peach-colored blooms on it.

Completing my front yard garden tour is my porch garden below.

This is the very first garden that graced my new home.  When we moved here 13 years ago, it was filled with nice, green sod.  It was the best grass on our entire 1/3 acre of lawn!  Year after year, I envisioned a garden here, until about six years ago the dream materialzied.  I had had several years of chronic pain, and after I underwent surgery to attempt to alleviate it, my dear friend and heart-sister Dee came over and almost single-handedly dug out the sod.  All the boys replanted it in other parts of the yard, and Dee and I went shopping with some extra money Fernando had given me.

First, we drew out a plan and planned the color scheme.  We read plant books and picked out flowers by color and size.  The plants I ended up choosing were different from the plan, but the colors were the same, and Dee taught me so much about how to plan a garden.  What a gift I received from my friend!  Below, my rocking chair from Cracker Barrel now sits on the porch.  (Ignore the dirt.)

The view as I sit in my chair.  :)

The Back Yard

I will show you my back yard in (mostly) pictures.  First, I step out onto the stoop from our kitchen door onto our patio, and look from right to left across the yard.

See those raised beds for vegetables?  That's where I spend most of my summer yard time.  :)

I'm standing south of my veggies in the photo above.  If I turn 180 degrees, there is a spot that will one day be very special.  It is my back yard flower garden spot, started and worked on throughout the years of chronic pain, and then neglected over the last three or so years.  We had enough money to buy some edging brick, but I never finished it.  I went back once to buy a bunch more brick, but they had changed the size!  So now I'm not sure what to do with the edging, or with all those bricks.

The (mostly) finished part does look pretty--Fernando bought me a garden bench one year.

The view from my bench is not too bad--lots of weeds, though there are a few flowers managing to survive.  I think I'll keep those.

I couldn't resist--one macro shot of a weed in my back yard garden

It used to be a sun-filled garden, but with the maple tree's growth, it has turned into a shady spot.

One day I'll have me a pretty back yard garden spot where I can sit and read my Bible or daydream.  One day, when life slows down.  :)



Back to life,
Christine

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