Amazing Help

Garage and roof  leak
by garage door 

Tuesday I mentioned to Kenny, our caregiver neighbor, about the leak in the ceiling in the garage.

"Carol, you'll have to get that fixed or your house will have mold," Kenny warned.

I often have my head in the sand about repairs around here.  So often overwhelmed with mechanical repairs and the expense of maintaining a home with a husband who cannot help any longer due to his Alzheimer's, I am tempted to throw my hands up in despair. Sure there is a list of thinks to fix and what if one is the most important?  It can remain on that list with no action. However  I guess a roof would need action. How can I manage to get the roof repaired and how quickly can I afford to do it? Big concerns.

When it rains it pours and shows a leaky roof!

It was also last Tuesday that hubby woke up unable to walk again--no specific injury, just must have twisted his knee at night.  Jake also wasn't feeling well, so hubby and Jake did not go to Plant City Senior Center as is their usual activity on Tuesdays. When it rains it pours. They say trouble comes in threes. Waiting for the third trouble. However each day since Tuesday hubby is doing better.

Fitted knee brace

Not being able to walk is possibly a return of July when hubby did something to that same knee cartilage and came home from the hospital to be fitted with a knee brace. We still have that knee brace, a walker, and a wheel chair.  We had a port-a-potty, which also comes in handy. Kenny and I can lift hubby, and Kenny by himself has done this when I have been gone substitute teaching since Tuesday. Kenny, bless his heart, has been there for hubby. When I come home hubby has an illusion that he has been walking around. However, this Friday morning he asked what has been going on and I reviewed what has happened as I help him get dressed. Each day he has been able to put more weight on his braced knee. I am thinking that the hospital cannot help any more than what we can do at home. I could be wrong. There is so much mystery to being a caregiver and life at the hospital was so confusing to hubby in July. He is happy to be home and forgets about his knee during most of the day.

Bartering for services

Also, on Tuesday, Wayne came over to mow our yard. He introduced us to Pharis and his daughter. Wayne had mentioned a possibility that trading some of our equipment such as the riding lawn mower with Pharis, which would enable Pharis to get yard work which he needs for income. I wouldn't have to put equipment in a yard sale. Furthermore Pharis was willing to weed in our yard and help in other ways in exchange for this equipment. We struck a deal! But also, can you believe it--Pharis can repair roofs!

So not only did we strike a deal for the yard, but also for the roof and ceiling repair in the garage! Pharis will be over this weekend to repair the leak! We will go to Home Depot for supplies and take advantage of six month interest free on my Home Depot card. This plan is so much better than a yard sale. Someone weeding our large yard is so much better than my doing it now! Thank you LORD!

Meanwhile another deal has been struck. I am substituting for about five weeks in one special education class through September until the regular teacher returns. I have already fallen in love with thirteen sixth, seventh and eighth grade students whom I have all day except for PE. There are also two teacher's aides in the classroom.  So I have been working on lesson plans in my "spare" time like 5 am when I am also finishing off this blog post.

This week in my Daily Audio Bible yearly trip through the Bible I have been going through the book of Job and also 2 Corinthians 1.  Yes, my life reads like a suffering Job at times with all kinds of counselors advising me to put hubby in a nursing home and that not seeming right for us. Then I read 2 Cor. 1:3, 4 and it brought such peace this week:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

Oh I have so needed comfort about our situation! Both Sally and I have been down lately because of our caregiving responsibilities for our husbands. Sally comforted me with her prayers the other night. I prayed with Pharis and his daughter for their financial needs and trust that the new equipment that Pharis has will enable him to provide for his family. Blessings and comfort all around instead of trouble coming in threes. I am overwhelmed by blessings, not trials! 

And those blessings abound--hubby's knee is getting a little better each day,  we have help for the yard and the roof, Kenny continues to be there for us and I can earn money substitute teaching in a special education class.

Here's to blessings--not troubles!