Magic Moments Monday

Welcome to the 3rd weekly edition of Magic Moments Monday. If you haven't participated before, here are the guidelines:

Mondays, for most people, are the "Ho hum, weekend's over, work is WORK, and can't wait 'til Friday" type of day. My intent is to help us begin our week with something positive, something to hold on to, to get us through the rest of the week. Your entry can be a Scripture verse, a quote, an insight, something that touched your life or changed the way you look at things. I expect some of the first entries to be from the past, until we learn to look each day for those magic moments that remind us how wonderful life really is.

Please leave a comment with a way to find your post, either the link through your signature, or insert the link, so we can all read your experience. Then, on your post, link back to this post, so others visiting you can participate if they'd like.
I hope to have us a logo by next week so you can post it on your site.

Back in 1983, due to a series of events over which we had no control, J-Man injured his back (this was after the stroke) and was put through a pain management program, which his insurance refused to pay for. He was not allowed to work, but he was not receiving any paychecks. All at once, we were down to half our former income, and all our former outgo. We tried to deed the house back to the mortgage company in lieu of foreclosure, but they wouldn't allow it. This was at a time when interest rates were 14%. So, we found ourselves under foreclosure, with nowhere to go. On top of it all, J-Man's mother, whom he had not seen in many years, was dying of cancer.

I won't go into the full story of his dysfunctional family's dynamics, but suffice it to say his mother had abandoned him and the other 4 kids when he was age 2. His stepdad, whom he had never met, offered to fly him and a sister out to NM to spend some time with his Mom before she died. J-Man felt the need for closure, so he went. While there, he told his stepdad about our current situation. Bill, an alcoholic, offered to let us live with him until we got back on our feet. I think he was probably under the influence when he offered, because he seemed totally shocked when we accepted, but we were desperate. Our only other offer was from a brother in North Dakota, who "thought" he might be able to get J-Man a job at his truck stop, and that was just too iffy. AND too cold.

So we had a huge yard sale to reduce the furniture we would have to ship, gave the dog away, and the two of us plus our 5-year-old daughter headed for New Mexico. I had to get out the Rand McNally just to see where it was! We weren't sure we were doing the right thing, moving 1400 miles away from our families, to live with an alcoholic in a tiny little house, in a 1-hospital town, but we didn't think we had any other options.

As we were headed west across the eternally long state of Texas that dreary September day, hashing it all over yet again, a ray of sunlight burst through the clouds and lit up the road directly on the horizon. There were no other rays anywhere--only clouds and dimness. We looked at each other and had the same response: this was a sign from God that we were doing the right thing. We didn't question it any more.

Not that everything was all roses and gumdrops. Not at all. But there were reasons for us to be out west, and experiences we never would have had and people now important to us whom we never would have met if we had stayed in Alabama. We were where He wanted us to be.

I wish it was always that clear, but it doesn't seem to be. Maybe I'm not looking in the right direction, or maybe I'm not as receptive. Because sometimes God has to bop me on the head a bit.

Your turn!