It Just Keeps On A-Comin'

Thank you for all of your sweet comments from my last post. I wish I had better news, but this weekend has been absolutely unbelievable in many ways. Well, sort of. We're kind of getting used to everything being both a physical and spiritual battle (LOL), but it's getting exciting to see how the Lord is going to work out the most impossible situations!

Josh decided to fix our roof this weekend since we have other things planned for the weekends in the coming months. He went out Thursday evening to get all the materials. Praise the Lord we got a great deal on architechtual shingles so they were actually cheaper than the three-tab ones. We were still about $100 over budget though.

Riky and Amanda went away for their anniversary this weekend, and Josh and I watched their three boys. They're great kids! Except for little Jordan being sick to his stomach a few times, we hardly even knew eight kids were around. Michael especially pitched in wholeheartedly with all the work. We never even had to ask him.

From about 4:30 'till 10:00 Friday night Josh, Michael, and Jordan were out scraping the old roofing off. They were all out there bright and early Saturday morning even before I was up. It was slow going trying to get the tar paper laid just right, but when Josh came in for his lunch break it looked perfect.

We were just getting some of the shingles put on the edges when a humongous dust storm blew in. Wind and rain were not in the forecast except for a 20% chance of spotty showers. Stuff just started flying off the roof ~ shingles, tar paper, tools, packaging. One package of shingles was open, and the top shingle blew right into Jordan's face. We were sure he'd have a black eye for church, but it wasn't too bad.

Jordan, Michael and I had to lay spread eagle all over the tar paper while Josh added more staples. But no matter where we laid, it just blew off someplace else. Once we looked up and the whole top row of tar paper was air born; just floating away. Josh had run out of tar paper right before lunch, and had me run to get one more roll, and that's the one that blew away. It was a sickening feeling to think of all that money gone with the wind.

The dust storm was followed by strong winds, and then rain. The whole time I was laying with my face in tar paper just begging God to please let it stop, and asking Him what the purpose could possibly be in all this. I even asked Josh if he had a guess. He said he'd probably not ever find out this side of heaven. The thoughts that kept going through my mind were "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it", and "the Lord works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."

After at least 45 minutes of unrelenting wind and dust, my fear was about to clobber my faith. I could see gusts of wind waving through the trees on the top of the hill before our house, so I was at least able to forewarn the boys that we had a given number of big gusts coming our way, and to brace for them. Jordan was actually lifted off the roof, the wind was so strong. We were all pretty shook up by that one! We eventually got the tar paper stapled well enough that it stayed where it was, but we had a lot of patching to do.


We had a certain amount of money set aside specifically for the roof, and used all that and then some. A guy in our church that was letting us borrow all his tools came over and gave us an estimate on finishing it up for us. Just putting the remaining shingles on the roof was going to cost $850. That was more than we have set aside for out trip to see my sister later this month, and we had already spent $730 on materials.

Josh was so discouraged. Michael had told us at around noon on Saturday that some stores delivered the shingles for free, and had conveyor belts that put the shingles where you wanted them on the roof. We did not know that. Josh had to lift them from his truck, to the garbage trailer, up onto the roof, and then carry them to where he wanted them. They weighed 80 lbs each.

I knew that Josh was fully capable of doing this job with the Lord's help. He is so meticulous that it's a given. Plus, I really, really want to go see my sister! So I prayed for help.

Shortly thereafter, Amanda arrived to pick up her boys. Riky was home resting from their trip. It sounded like they had a wonderful time.

She was surprised to see me up on the roof, in pants no less! This is the first time in at least thirteen years that I've worn pants (except for a skiing snowsuit), but culottes in that wind were not an option. When we walked in the house, it looked like eight kids had had free reign for the whole weekend when in reality it was only an afternoon. She helped me clean up, and then left to get dinner for Riky. She offered their help before she left, but Josh would not ask them to do that on their anniversary weekend.

Ten minutes later, they pulled into the driveway, and they brought pizza for dinner for all of us!!! Riky practically inhaled his dinner, and then started lifting the remaining shingles up onto the roof. Josh could not believe that they were willing to do that! What a tremendous blessing they have been. They even came yesterday afternoon, and are planning on being here right after Riky gets off work today to help finish up. They're quite the popular helpers, too; Riky had to reschedule helping his brother with a project so that we can get this roof done. We don't know many people that aren't family that would do that. For the first time in a long time, Josh has a true friend closeby. He probably expressed his amazement five times before we went to bed Saturday night. We are so grateful!

Every cloud really does have a silver lining. The Lord is so good!