Just Enough

It's late.

I should be sleeping right now.

About this time my mind usually comes alive with ideas of things to write, but my hubby is next to me in bed and to get up would be to disturb him. Tonight he is away at a men's meeting and I can't sleep without him so I'm taking the opportunity to get as much out as I can now! Go grab a cup of tea or joe, relax, and get ready to....read.

We had an amazing time visiting with my mom in Montana. I believe the Lord was in our having unlimited visiting hours with her. Every half-way house is a little different and with this one if you're from out of town visiting is open. Everyday we'd stop to get her a latte and whatever she wanted to eat, and take it there to enjoy while we chatted. I'll ever after relate the taste of McDonald's lattes and Chicken McNuggets to those wonderful afternoons spent with my mom. It was all so good.

When we dropped her off at the halfway house, my sister and I walked her in. No joke, the very first thing a lady asked was, "Are you here for church?"

We looked at each other in amazement as she said, "No, not exactly. But hey, if you want to have church, let's have church!"

She then noticed that Amy was carrying a suitcase that she had packed for my mom and said, "Now you do know this is no longer a motel, right?" We laughed and my mom said she definitely realized that and she was there to check in. The lady said, "Really? This is so unusual. New people are almost always escorted by police or federal marshalls. How did it happen that you got to come in on your own?" We all looked at each other again and smiled. The only answer was...."God!"

Somehow she miraculously left the prison in CA unescorted, and arrived at the halfway house unescorted. What a gift that was. The whole evening would have been so different, marred even, if police or federal marshalls had been there waiting for her, too. We have such a loving Heavenly Father!

And that was just the beginning.

Thursday morning my friend Amanda called to see when we could get together and mentioned that Gospel Baptist Church's Ladies Bible Study was meeting that evening. I told her I really wanted to go, but I couldn't make any promises.

My mom was supposed to get four hour passes to go to lunch and go shopping but we didn't learn until later that day that she wasn't eligible for that until after she had secured a job. The only other time she could leave was for church and she only got three hours for that. So we resigned ourselves to being stuck there until Sunday.

I mentioned in passing that I was hoping to go to the Bible study that night, and it occurred to her that they might classify that as a self-help class. She asked and they said that she had two hours free per week for a Bible study, effective immediately!

I can't tell you what a blessing it was to show up and surprise all the ladies that night! It was SO WONDERFUL. They were even having a surprise birthday party for a sweet lady, so it was like our very own welcome home party complete with cake and ice cream! Plus, I don't remember them ever having had Ladies Bible Study in the summer before. He knew what that would mean to us, and made a way! It was ideal too because it was a more relaxed atmosphere than church and we had time to talk to everyone and catch up a little bit without being so rushed. Again, I'm reminded how very much God is into details!

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We were all planning to stay at my mom and dad's house while we were there, but the man who has been taking care of things while they've been gone couldn't get the well pump primed enough to get much water. Amy and Johnny arrived several days before we did and worked on it that whole time and saw very little improvement. All we could think about was, "How is it going to work for 12 people to be in this tiny house for a week or more with no water?"

There was no other option though so in faith we settled in.

We got there on Wednesday night. All day Thursday and Friday Johnny and Josh tried to figure out what was wrong. They finally concluded that we were going to have to dig up the well and replace the pump.

But we had to FIND the well first.

They had contractors come in to give us estimates and try to locate it. Everyone seemed to think it was in front of the shed on the south side of the house.

So they rented an excavator, took my mom's clothesline and back yard fence down, cut some branches on one of the apple trees to make room (she was NOT happy about that!) and got digging. They dug and dug and dug some more, and couldn't find so much as a trace of that well. They finally decided to start digging from the cellar out to follow the water line.

It ended up being mere feet from the cellar door right under the sidewalk. Who digs a well and then puts a sidewalk in on top of it? Who, I ask you!?

We were just so thankful that we hadn't hired someone to fix it because we would have been paying them by the hour to do exactly what the guys had done...for NOTHING! Nobody would have thought to dig up the sidewalk.

Around 11:00 Saturday night, it was finally fixed. Just in time to get ready for church on Sunday! In the meantime though, we had just enough water pressure to get some laundry done, and take quick, light pressure showers, and even flush the toilet when it decided to work. I wouldn't have been surprised to have had no water at all when we arrived, but the Lord allowed it to work....just enough....to get by. That is just like Him!

I'm so thankful for our capable men. They worked so hard ~ truly that's almost all they did while we were there ~ and they did an excellent job. The Lord rewarded them by allowing them to hike up to a beautiful mountain lake, one of Josh's favorites, on Monday to go fishing. They had a supernaturally wonderful time!

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The way the halfway house works, they have to go through different levels to earn being able to go home. Part of those requirements is taking the aforementioned self-help classes.

When my mom met with her parole officer, and case worker one of the many strange questions they asked her was, "Why are you here? What did you do wrong."

She replied, "Okay, now do you want me to tell you what I think I did wrong, or what they say I did wrong?"

"Let's just start out with what you think."

"Well, I know I didn't do anything wrong."

"Okay then, what do they say you did wrong. What were you convicted of?"

So she went on to explain exactly what happened from her perspective (which was so good but it would take me forever to type out).

Her main point was that she knows she is innocent of any wrongdoing. And just because "the government" says that she did something wrong does not make it true.

They lady kindly but rather skeptically said in so many words that my mom had to be there for a reason.

My mom kindly explained to her that if somebody came up to her and said that she did something wrong that she never did, them saying it would not magically make it true. For example, someone could come up to me and call me a murderer and accuse me of having had an abortion. Their assertions and accusations would not automatically make it the truth. No, truth is truth and a lie is a lie. It's as simple as that. Nobody is going to convince my mom that she did something that she knows she did not do.

At the end of that discussion they decided to put her in a self-help class that would help her to see and admit to what she did wrong.

Oh, how we laughed! We laughed and we laughed and we laughed!!!

During her first class, the leader asked questions like, "When you were arrested for doing drugs, what response on your part could have changed the outcome of your situation." And, "When you gamble, how much money do you have to lose before you know it is time to quit?" My mom looked at her blankly. Clearly she was expecing an answer. So my mom said, "Do you want me to make it up as I go along? Just tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it."

The leader replied, "No, no, just draw from your own experiences and tell me what you would do differently now."

More blank looks ensued.

At the end of the class the leader said, "Okay, now what have we learned so far?"

"Well, ummmm nothing that I didn't already know."

"Oh, come on now. Surely you learned something."

"Okay, well I'll tell you what I learned. I learned that I am in this class not because I need to learn something, but because apparently there are some things that I need to teach you!"

So then we laughed some more. Oh my soul, can she shut people up in a hurry!

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Yesterday a lady named Virginaia called me. She said that she had been in prison with my mom, but was out now and she just had to call and ask me to tell her thank you for the impact she had on her life and on the lives of so many of the other ladies. She said she made such a difference there, and she and the two other ladies that were with her felt they had to call and tell me that right away. She also gave me a phone number where my mom could reach her because they miss her so much and need to hear her voice again. Words fail me to express what that meant to my heart.

All I can say is...."WOW. Father, you are unspeakably wonderful."

Okay, I think I can sleep now that I got all that off my chest finally. G'night!