Life In The Fast Lane

Just when I think things will start to calm down they explode! My well laid out plans lie around the ground in bits and pieces. But, yes, even this is well within the plans of God. I may be caught off guard but He never is. This is very important for us to remember right now.

When we moved to where we are living now it was not planned. David needed to be hospitalized for what was to be 9 months and turned into 18 months. So our original plan was for me to be in the area for only a short time. During this time we were able to rent a home and fall in love with our new city. Rich stayed at our old home during the week and only came here on the weekends. Then unexpectedly he was given permission to work from our new home except for one day a week. Such a blessing! So we got rid of the other home we were renting. This occurred just before the fall of the economy, which resulted in Rich losing about 40% of his income due to no overtime. But with tightening of our belts we would be fine.

Now about two weeks ago our landlords have informed us that they have a new use for the home we have been renting and we would need to move. Part of our rent was paid by web site designing for them that Rich did. They have requested that we be out by the end of July so we have been very busy.

Our first question is what is God's will. Are we to stay in our new city or does He want us to move somewhere else? Rich's work now would like to see him more often so we are looking closer to his work. Luckily, Rich won't need to go in every day. But, David needs to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city. When we do travel into a heavily populated area you can actually see David becoming more aggressive and agitated.

So we have been doing some online house-hunting and last weekend went to an area that would fit the bill. We found a house that was perfect in our opinion, but not in God's, since when we scheduled to see it we were told it is already sold. So please pray as we seek God's will in this area.

One of the benefits of the area we are looking for is that it is close to my parents. We stayed with them and David and my Dad really enjoyed being together. I can't even begin to tell you how much of a blessing this is. When David was small there was a severe break in my relationship with my Dad since he wouldn't accept David as his grandson. My Dad had always been very prejudiced and the fact that David is bi-racial was a real issue with him.

In order to help with finances I applied for Disability for David through Social Security. Yesterday I spent three and a half hours filling out all the paperwork online—including all doctors and tests that David has received and school information. When I had the actually interview this morning I was told that it sounds that, yes, he would qualify as disabled, but since he is a child he doesn't qualify due to Rich's income. What really upsets me is that they take the family income and only deduct the amount you pay in insurance. They don't deduct any amount of money that you pay out of pocket for medical needs for the child. That means that if a family made $50,000 a year and medical expenses are $45,000. the child is not eligible. David's expenses are not that high, but at $350.00 out of pocket a month for meds and that his issues prevent me from working, the check really is needed.

This amount also doesn't include the additional medical expenses due to his frontal lobe damage that results in his impulsive behavior—such as his fractured knee in March. It also is very shortsighted since when David was hospitalized for the 18 months the amount of his medical care was just over $500,000.00. When I hear that the Gitmo detainees may be getting a government check when they are sent to the US [news here and here] this makes it hard to swallow that we are denied.

But, I know it is all in God's hands and these events have helped us teach David that we must all trust Him. We have also explained that "And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose." This means to His glory and that doesn't mean the new house will be bigger or nicer then the one we currently live in, but we need to be more concerned to seek the glory of God. We are looking at purchasing and not renting and this is actually a great time to buy.