Rantings…

I was sitting in church last week and I confess my mind was wandering a bit as I looked around the room and found myself wondering how many people there are silently struggling financially as we are. I thought about it and it occurred to me that if someone said, “By show of hands, who here is either in foreclosure or really close to it?”, that probably more than ½ the room would raise their hand.

Then today at church I was talking to two other ladies about each of our situations one of them said, “I wish we all just had a stamp on our forehead so everybody knew we were all in the same place.” I loved that thought. Now of course I could keep my mouth shut about our situation and no one would be the wiser. It's not like I actually DO have a stamp on my forehead that would indicate that we are in trouble financially but feel like all this secrecy has made people feel isolated and embarrassed about things over which we have no control. So let me be the first to put a stamp on my forehead in hopes that it will help someone else know that they are not alone in this. Here’s the sitch:

A couple of years ago we were living the American dream. Rob had the best job he’s ever had working for Sallie Mae Home Loans. When they told him what his salary was going to be we thought we’d won the lottery. Then in Aug. of last year, when Sallie Mae merged with Quicken Loans they decided to lay off everyone in Rob’s division. With the housing market decline, jobs in the mortgage industry became scarce quickly so after a couple of months of looking for work Rob found a job in the insurance industry. He took about a $30,000.00 pay cut. OUCH! Not that we can complain because at least we HAVE a job.

So with that history in mind here we are today and there is good news and bad news. Bad news first; after many months of battling to keep our home we have finally realized it isn’t going to happen and it is currently up for short sale.

However, there is good news too and this is it: A house is just a thing. It is not a person or an event or an eternal principle. It’s just a place of protection from the elements…a roof over your head. There are other roofs out there and we will not be homeless.

As for credit---it’s not even a “thing”. I mean by definition it is a noun but it is immaterial. It only matters if you think it does and we don’t. There are far worse “things” that one can be diagnosed with than bad credit. Some people have to live with “things” like Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, or addictions, or loneliness, or lack of spiritual direction.

And so, the good news is this: We have a daddy who has labored tirelessly over the past year to save “the thing” and who continues to labor tirelessly. He leads our family and he serves God and others.

We have a mommy who loves our daddy and our little ones with a passion that can’t be rivaled and who is a mama bear in her defense of them against worldly influence.

We have four AMAZING spirits who have graced our home and who every single day fill us with such overwhelming gratitude and joy that it can’t be put into words.

We have a Savior, Jesus Christ who came to Earth to die for us and was then resurrected and He lives now and the reason that there is only one set of footprints in the sand at this time is because he’s been carrying us this last year when we thought we were too weak to continue on.

We have a sure knowledge of our Savior’s love for us and for His atonement and through that knowledge we are more able to see “the thing” as just that and to keep an eternal perspective that this too shall pass.

So with all of this good news it’s kind of hard to worry too much about the bad news. Not to say it’s been a breeze because there are up days and down days. Certainly it is stressful at times making decisions and wondering what the future holds in store, but those things are made easier knowing how much we are blessed. With Thanksgiving approaching just next week, it is with joy and peace that we are able to count our many blessings and say that all is well.

So that is the stamp on my forehead.