That's exactly how that last house went down. We had spent so much time remodeling and decorating that in the end we were extremely prideful of our home. We loved showing it to other people. And we loved hearing how much people liked it.
However, as much as I loved that house, I also loved not being bankrupt. And we knew that was the next thing coming if we stuck around in our pride and waited out the storm in our lives. We knew we had to go and we hated telling our friends. WHAT? WHY??, they would ask. Of course we didn't want to have to dive into all the gory details so we sufficed it to say that we just needed to downsize. Everyone thought we were crazy. But we knew we were crazy like a fox. We were going to survive this and we were about to learn a big lesson about ourselves and our pride.
We quickly chose a house on the opposite side of town and moved in 3 days before Christmas. It was a whirlwind, getting moved in. A snow came unexpectedly, and we threw up a tree with no ornaments, invited all our friends over and let them put their name on a clear glass ball and hang it on our tree. Our friends and family had pulled us through that rough move, they deserved a special place on our tree that year. The humility of sharing our new, smaller, older home was painful, but important.
So this is where you might have come into our story. You probably met us while we lived there, having no idea of the crazy tale in our wake. We had you over for meals, football parties, or a just a beer on the patio. We liked to say that this house was not everything we wanted, but it was everything we needed. God gave us that house. And He taught us many things there.
In many ways, this house held the actual glory years of our marriage. But it also held the saddest and most disparaging times.
When we first moved in, Mister quit his job. We had no idea at the time how long it would take for him to get a new one. We had done this before. We could do it again.
Months passed. Depression set in. I remember the day we sat down and looked at each other. "I can go back to work," I said. "I'm able and willing." It was a last resort, but we didn't want to deplete our entire life savings too quickly, and we had no idea how long it would take for him to become gainfully employed again.
So off to teaching I went. I had sold EVERYTHING I had when I went into "retirement" that first time. There was a learning curve, since things had changed since I'd been a stay-at-home mom. But I settled into this new way of living. It gave our family health insurance and offset the hemorrhaging of money each month. We were finding our way.
Those were hard times. VERY HARD. Mister was not himself, as most bread winners wouldn't be when going unemployed for months on end. A critical turning point arrived one day like an answer to prayer. He sat me down, looked me in the eye and said "I think I have a contentment issue. I'm realizing now that all these houses have taught me something. I kept thinking the next house would be the right one. The next car would make me happier. And yet none of that has brought me any extra sense of joy. I need to learn to be content right where I am."
Amen, brother. In that house we learned to lean on each other. That when one was down, the other would hold them up. We danced in the minefields. We learned to love each other on the deepest level possible. We dropped to our knees for our marriage and God sustained us.
In April I was having quiet time, reading my bible, when I suddenly heard from God. It was not a voice, just a sudden feeling.... "Mister will get a job in my time, Kim. But it's not in any industry that he's currently seeking. You have no idea the career I'm about to lead him into." He had been pursuing pharmaceutical sales and home building sales for months. Nothing was panning out. Until he got a call in November. It was a college friend who worked with a commercial cleaning company. Would he like to chat?
Was this a joke? A cleaning job? Mister went in and came home to tell me all about it. He'd be selling accounts. No cleaning, he would hire people to do that. Could it be as lucrative as they made it sound? Surely this wasn't for real.
And yet it was. His first paycheck was $400. And today he runs a business that bills $2 million yearly. God is good. He found a career for my husband that fits his personality perfectly. There are jokes that get made every day about cleaning toilets, he gets to sell (which is his gift), and he doesn't have to do the dirty work. haha.
Yes, God is good. We stayed put in that house for 7 years. We lived the best and the worst of life there. And God blessed us indeed. There was finally no reason to move.....
This little beaut has new carpet and is looking for a new owner, by the way. If you're interested, or know someone who might be, you just LET ME KNOW. I will hook them up! ;)
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