There is a reason why we call this blog "The Adventures of Paul & Sonja"... because our life doesn't always go as planned, it is hard at times, there are many challenges and it is never boring. But we believe that if we look at life like it's an adventure, we can laugh along the trials and unusual circumstances and think about all the great stories we can tell people (and they are all true!).
(We won't even tell you about seeing a black bear up close and personal Monday while hiking at Table Rock!)
Today Paul and I planned to buy our first house. It has been a solid two months of living in his parents house and we were looking forward to getting the keys of our fixer-upper so that we could start making it a home of our own. But that would not make a good story, nor would that be the pattern of our lives.
We got to the house at 10:30am to do our final walk-
thru to make sure nothing had been damaged during the moving out process, only to find that the lady hadn't moved out of the house. The smell of smoke and urine took your breath away as you walked into the house to find stuff everywhere. Our
Realtor was so upset, but at the same time, none of us were surprised.
We drove to the law office to sign papers. When we got there the lawyer asked if he could speak to Paul and I first. Once in a private room he advised us to not settle on the house until the people were completely out of the house. The lady who owned the house has some sort of mental disability, I don't really know what's wrong with her, but she is not all there and didn't understand that she had to be out of the house. Our Realtor found her a nice trailer where she will be living, but she had no help in moving out. So Paul and I offered to help her. Last week on vacation our speaker talked about loving our neighbor and this was a perfect opportunity to serve a person, who we really don't know, but who is in need.
We quickly ran home and changed into grubby clothes. The lady and her son were ecstatic and couldn't believe we would serve them in this way. Soon after, my pastor's wife, Kathy showed up and we worked together packing the kitchen (nothing had been done). Then more people came from our church. Paul, our pastor Bob and a college guy names John helped load things onto pickup trucks (one being Bob's) while Kathy, Pat (our Realtor) and myself worked on putting things in boxes and bringing them to the truck. Then our associate pastor (Chad) showed up with his son Jackson, and two more church guys (Kyle and Jason) came by to help. We eventually had to tell people to quit coming, because we had so many and we were almost done. We opened all the windows and doors to air the place out. Kathy even cleaned the kitchen sink and the stove which grossed me out so I was so thankful. We all wore plastic gloves because it was so gross! The guys then drove to where they were moving and helped them unload and get settled in their new place while we finished up vacuuming the house and throwing out things.
The lady was so appreciative. She asked what church we went to because she had never been served like this before. She said she and her grown son hadn't been to a church in years. They always thought of Christian's as hypocrites and so never had a desire to go to church. But she said that now she wants to go to church and to our church! I think that is so cool. There is a reason for everything. Paul and I believe that. God gave us an opportunity to serve a lady in need today. Please pray for Viki and her son that they will come to church. She is a cashier at the local grocery store so we will be seeing her around and we hope to continue reaching out to her.
Tomorrow we will go back to the law office to close on the house and we will be proud owners of our first house! Let the adventure (and the craziness that is our life) continue.
