Part 4: A funny thing happened on the way to St. Louis

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Psalm 130:5,6

Well, for those of you who have been following this series, this section will be a little easier on the eyes, as we will bullet-point much of the action. Here goes:

• Next up was the appraisal.
• The appraisal included an inspection of sorts, and if the house didn't cut the mustard, the deal was off unless things were fixed.
• We had concerns that without some basic simple cleaning and repairs, the house would not cut the mustard.
  
• Dave informs me that its supposed to be "cut the muster" not mustard, and I am so embarassed. I want to assure everyone that I really didn't think you could cut mustard, though one of my children does now -- AKK!
  
• The house was as-is, so the seller would do no work on the house.
• Since the loan hinged on the appraisal, we pondered: Should we get permission from the sellers to do some cleaning and repairs (cracked windows, missing vent covers, peeling paint)? (We were told this was permissible.)
  
• We tried to work out an arrangement with the sellers, but were not able to.
  
• We realized: Duh, if we want the LORD to show us his will, let's not force anything. We said, "Order the appraisal."
  
• The week of the appraisal, the area received torrential rains.
• The appraisal was A.O.K. except for the basement. There was some water in the basement. If the basement was shown to be waterproofed, it would be approved.
• I should point out that the appraisal demonstrated that taking a trip to St Louis, fixing windows and peeling paint, etc. would have made NO difference in the outcome of the appraisal. The only thing that came up was something we could do nothing about!
  
• Waterproofing the basement would cost $3,500. 00 .
  
• We didn't have $3,500.00.

There are other interesting details I am leaving out, such as the fact that the basement had been waterproofed, and the sellers provided documentation to prove it, and the waterproofing carried a 20 year transferrable warranty. And that the loan officer assured us that would be good enough for the underwriters (foreshadowing alert). But I am jumping ahead.

As we waited, the Lord really did refining work in our lives through the waiting. You know how the native Americans could find a use for just about every single part of a bison they hunted? Well, the LORD can use ALL of our circumstances to accomplish his will.

For example, we knew we had to be content. Ok. We were content.

Here's what we were content with:

a) Staying in Wisconsin and Dave finding a local job, or,

b) Moving to St Louis.

However, here is what we had:

c) No idea what would happen.

C. was not our choice, but that is what the Lord wanted to use in our lives, with all the implications thereof. Just pressing on with daily things and NOT knowing. Not renovating the house (so we could more easily function as a family of 15 in it), not fixing it up as a normal home for a family of 4 (so we could sell it). As the seasons began to change, I started pondering: where will we put the snow suits, boots, scarves, and mittens? (These were things which we had already systematized and had many ideas for improvement, but none of that was conducive to marketing a house.)

There was a lot of time that we spent waiting for emails and phone calls during this time. We continued to hover in "maybe" mode Dave continued his weekly commute to St Louis. Fall began to set in, the days became shorter. We continued to wonder, not just when would we move, but when would this all be over??????

Our perspective got a much needed improvement after receiving a phone call from a friend one afternoon. She was asking for prayer. Her 10 year old daughter had begun staggering, vomiting and having extreme headaches. She was life-flighted to Madison where they found she had ruptured a blood vessel in her brain. The blood vessel was not supposed to be in her brain, but had never caused problems until now. Her prognosis was uncertain, and brain surgery was a possibility.

We began to pray, and asked to be called if anything changed.

At 3 AM, we received the call that their daughter was going in for surgery. It seemed like a long wait, but later that morning, we heard that surgery appeared to have been successful.

Next we heard that some of her organs were showing signs of shutting down.

In ICU, she was in critical but stable condition, sedated, on a ventilator, kept chilled and loosely covered to help prevent swelling in the brain. Her organs seemed to be improving a bit, but the doctors were hoping for quicker progress.

The concern with waking her up from sedation was the pressure in her head. It was carefully monitored, and found to not be decreasing as they would like. So, they continued to keep her sedated, and her parents rarely left her side.

The days passed in ICU. Her dad would lean her baby brother over her feet, and he would happily tickle her toes. But her only movement came from the ventilator, which kept her breathing like clockwork.

Her mom and dad really leaned on the LORD and were almost constantly by her side. While the hospital staff was always positive and helpful, no promises were made. She developed pneumonia after some time on the ventilator.

As the days passed, the family hoped to get closer to waking her up, but there seemed to be something always coming up that made it not such a good idea. One night, her mom told me, "She's just got to get better."

Regardless, the family had assurance, that no matter what, their daughter knew the LORD Jesus Christ, had repented of her sins, and was safe in the LORD, whether she lived or died. It was in the LORD's hands.

But the day came to wake her up from sedation, and she opened her eyes. She was unable to speak because of the ventilator, but she continued to take baby steps towards recovery. There were good days and hard days. There was concern about how much, if any, damage was done to her brain.

Finally the ventilator tube was removed. She began to walk and talk again. She went home.

Today she has no apparent long term damage, praise the LORD!

The LORD used that family's trial in many ways, including in our family. How much more we realized what it is to be in the LORD's hands. Not to know either way, but to just wait on the LORD. The other stuff will happen later; for now, wait.

So we kept waiting. And waiting. You know, it seemed like it took forever for the loan officer to get back to us.

We realized why when she finally got back to us.

"Never mind the issue about the waterproofing....

I've still been working on loan approval.

I'm really sorry, but

you're not getting the loan after all...."