Today I am blogging twice. I would have written these together but I don’t think it would have flowed very well. Not to mention I think this blog needs to stand alone because it is really a “WOW” blog, at least as far as I am concerned. I think it will give someone hope.

If you have read my blog, then you probably already know that the last year or so has been at its best, troublesome, and at its worst overwhelming. I have been dealing with huge financial challenges, health challenges, child challenges and more.

I started 2018 being laid off of work by my NP (Nurse Practitioner) due to my physical and mental health deteriorating due to stress, work related and personal. I had financial help for a while from my Employment Insurance (in Canada payments are automatically taken off your pay). But, at the start of September it ran out.

I have been looking for work, but without success. My family has helped in whatever way they can and my husband has had to work 6 days a week to try and keep bills paid and food on the table.

To add to it all, my ex-husband decided to take me to court to try and get child support for my daughter (who I had no say in leaving) and didn’t believe that I actually was ill, and had no money to pay him, even though I had proof showing I wasn’t making it up and it had been going on a long time. This all meant I needed to retain my lawyer (who over the last two years became a partner in her firm which meant the cost would be higher).

On top of all that, were various things like vehicles acting up, daughter not going to college, daughter leaving her dads to stay with friends, husband wanting to go to Haiti for missions trip, fridge making very ominous noises, so on and so on.

The last couple months have been the worst out of the year. My husband’s truck literally blew a sparkplug out of the motor (I mean shot it out of the motor), our water pump (brings water up from well), died. Our land taxes came due, I had 3 different court dates (to determine support) changed, which meant it was not getting resolved, which meant I had to keep trying to set aside what I thought I would owe and still pay lawyer fees. Then to add to it all, my daughter moved out of her dads to stay with friends because of tensions in the house, and didn’t apply to college (just university), and my husband said he wanted to do a missions trip to Haiti with his boss (and friend), when we have no money.

All this meant I have been progressively getting more stressed, which in turn meant my health started to deteriorate again. The issue of Haiti, was a very distressing thing for me, and added to the ex-husband/daughter issues going on. We agree it would be good to go but from when he told me about it I didn’t feel this was the time. There wasn’t just one issue, but I just felt it wasn’t the right time.

Then the recent issues in Haiti occurred, and now it’s postponed. I think this is a miracle. Why? Because he wasn’t heeding my concern and warnings that I didn’t think it was the time. In fact they would have been there right now, which, with the escalated protests and violence would have been a very bad situation. But due to the news that it is not safe right now, they had to postpone. I believe my spirit was telling me that this was coming. I just didn’t realise what the issue was at the time.

Another miracle is that we are now being looked at to get help (through a program we applied to a long time ago) to replace our dying fridge. We actually thought it was a no go and had just given up. We may not get help still, but you never know. In the mean time the Lord is keeping it alive.

The truck is working and so is my car. We keep praying the Lord will keep them going. This is a miracle because honestly, we don’t know how they are still going.

We were able to get a water pump via help from family and its working and we again have water.

Another miracle is I was able to talk my daughter into applying to college. This was just before the deadline. Second miracle is when she realised she applied to the wrong term (and had to re-apply for fall) she just found out she was accepted. So she is set to go in the fall.

But the biggest miracle came when my ex-husband drove 2.5 hours to my home to talk to me about my daughter. She is basically being an 18 year old, who is pushing all kinds of boundaries and not getting along with her step-mom. Not uncommon, but no less troubling. He came and we talked about her and what she was like living with us. Basically there is no new story, the same silly things she did here she’s trying there. It was a small miracle in my mind that he actually spoke with us about her. He hasn’t directly spoken with me for a very long time.

The real miracle was when he was about to leave and the topic of court came up. It was then that he looked at me and my husband and said “About all this, how about we just drop it? I will tell my lawyer I don’t want to continue, I’m done, we will both just walk away, you won’t have to pay anything. I mean I am doing alright and don’t really need the money, and I know you guys have been struggling, so maybe this will help”.

Knock me over with a feather. Did I hear that correctly? Yep I sure did. He was true to his word and called the lawyer on the next business day and told them to end it. My lawyer confirmed this and it’s in the process of being done. To add to the miracle, is that the money I had set aside to try and give him when they asked me to is the same amount (almost to the dollar) that our land tax is. Now, I don’t know about you but I call that a miracle.

God is good, and all the time he is good. I keep praying about work, I believe he will come through at the correct time. I just need to trust. I hope my story will give someone some hope that things will get better. Just trust Gods word that says he turns all things to good for those who love him. It may not be how you think it will go, but in the end his ways are greater.

God Bless

Brooke