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
Mid-May in our family room.
To catch up on the background to this post, you may want to start with Part One of our story! Or, to read the last segment, read Part Two here.
I think I left off our story during the holiday time, Christmas/New Year, to be exact. I was weary, as I recall, and now I was cold, oh so cold from this brutal winter we had experienced, and that would seemingly never end. Because of the extreme cold, I stayed home as much as possible, and this turned out to be a blessing. I was able to rest, avoid busy-ness, and concentrate on taking care of my homefront.
The new year 2014 brought opportunities for Fernando to work with a satellite truck company, whose owner wanted to train Fernando on his two SAT trucks, both driving and operating. There was good money to be made, but there was also a training period to go through. And that's where Fernando was at, at this point.
Work was slow, and money was tight, but we did elect to receive unemployment, and that helped. Yes, I know you have an opinion about taking taxpayer money when you're unemployed, and I had an opinion as well (I still do). But we were in the trenches (still are!), and we needed help, temporarily. And this was the solution presented to us for this season.
Now it was spring, although you'd never know it by the temperatures. And this brings me to today's story, just a snippet of God's protection and care for His children during a long, hard season. This story begins on May 15, in which the scene in the photo at the beginning takes place.
This Thursday dawned bright and cold--as in, it would only reach in the 40s today. Some Chicago suburbs had snow that morning! I went to and came home from my chiropractic appointment, and when I got home, Fernando had gone in to work (praise the Lord for a work day!). He had left just five minutes or so before I got home.
When I walked in the door and down the hall, I noted that the thermostat read 63 degrees--seriously?! I turned the heat to on, set the thermostat for 69, and walked into the kitchen to start my day at home.
Five or ten minutes later, I heard a knock at the door--Fernando was back. Strange. I opened the door to let him in, and he explained that Chuck (owner of STS) had called and would not be in right away, so instead of waiting around to start work, Fernando turned around and came home. That worked out nicely that Fernando was still close to home when Chuck called! I then commented that although I had turned on the heat, the furnace had yet to kick on, and would he be so kind as to check out why for me?
As soon as Fernando took a few steps down into the basement, he hollered, "I smell gas!!" I turned off the heat on the thermostat, and Fernando went down to check things out. Danny and Thomas were down there, but close to the floor so they hadn't smelled anything. As soon as they stood up, they realized that the basement had filled with the smell of gas (that added sulfur smell, of course). They quickly worked together to get fans going to clear out the natural gas, and Fernando started checking out the furnace.
I was so thankful to the Lord that Fernando had come home! How much longer would I have waited before checking things out myself? Would Danny/Thomas have smelled the smell, or been overcome? At the worst, our house could have literally exploded. The safety valve on our furnace had malfunctioned, and gas continued to pour in unabated!
Thank You, Lord, for Your protection.
Fernando decided that rather than spend money to have a repairman come out, we'd ride out the cold (how much longer could it last, anyway??), and use some of the firewood my parents blessed us with when they moved two years earlier. Our living areas became nice and toasty as we kept a continual fire going, the boys stayed warm under blankets at nighttime, and I thanked the Lord for a family member's Christmas gift, with which we bought a warming layer (pad of sorts) for our bed so I could stay toasty all night long).
On the third day, Saturday, we decided that hotdogs over the fire would be an excellent meal, and Fernando obliged. I love my Grillmaster!
Danny and Thomas messed around with Jacob on the couch.
Grilled hotdogs are one of our summer favorites, and we were happy to have them on a cold spring day.
Our furnace remains broken (it's July as I write this!), but we survived those three cold days until it warmed up. Fernando figured we wouldn't need our furnace until October (here's hoping!), so we'd leave it until we get regular income.
That's just one little three-day snippet of how the Lord has taken care of us throughout this trying season of life. I don't always see the "good" in things, and life doesn't just get fixed--though sometimes it does. We're still in the trenches, and it's still very hard now. But in telling this story to you now, I'm reminded that His care of His children is continual, no matter the circumstances. And I know there are so many others going through incredible trials, and so this burden is lighter to bear.
Thanks for reading.
Back to life,
Christine
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