In the Fog

God, give your people a break

From this run of bad luck.

Psalm 25:22

from The Message

I feel like I am lost in this fog we had recently. We were supposed to have moved yesterday. The boxes were packed. The U-haul was reserved. The lease was signed on the new house, and the utilities were turned on. But 4 days before, my husband's boss took him aside and said that he needed to tell him something. All our plans fell apart in that instant. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to us though.

About a year ago we decided to relocate from the Ozarks to the prairie in hopes of it providing my husband with better job opportunities. He does contract work in the manufacturing industry. That means he is employed by one company but actually works in a facility that is owned by someone else. He had been doing that for awhile and had been staying at the same facility. He was able to remain in one plant, but that meant that each year as the contract was awarded to a new company, he had to reapply for his job. It also meant that he could never get promoted because he never had any seniority. He was technically always a "new hire" even though he had been at the same facility for awhile.

Last year we decided to move with his current company when they left our area, because my husband was offered a job at their headquarters. We thought it would help. We were wrong. Shortly after we got settled on the prairie, the world economy collapsed. That cut all overtime, which meant that our income was CUT in HALF overnight. I couldn't find a job to replace our lost income either, because thousands of local people had just been laid off. We soon discovered that expenses in our new area were many times greater than where we had moved from. For the past year we have been living off of our savings.

A few months ago when my husband was offered a chance to go back to an area near where we came from, he took it. We knew that at least our expenses would decrease and maybe I could find employment there before we go completely bankrupt.

After months of searching, my husband finally found a decent house to rent in our price range. He signed the lease and began cleaning and painting the place so I could move in. He even took loads of our belongings to the new house.

We were ready to move this past weekend. Then my husband received word that everything at the new facility had fallen through. He has been temporarily reassigned to another plant in another state.

Now we are in a real pickle. All of our funds are gone. Between the high expenses of the past year and the cost of the move which we had started, our bank account is empty. On top of that, we don't know how much longer my husband will have a job, or if he does, where it will be, or how we can afford to get there. UGH!

But please don't feel sorry for us. I am not telling you this story because I want you to feel bad for us. There are many people in America worse off than us right now. I am sharing this story with you because I know we are not alone in facing adversity at this moment. I simply want to encourage all those other people who are struggling right now as well. I want to tell them that we will survive, and so can they. I know because I have been down in this pit before. I know how overwhelming and frightening it can be to face such an unsure future. But I also know that I am not alone. God is with me. He has lifted me out of dark pits before, and I believe he will pull us out of this situation as well, and give us a firm future again. I just hope that he does it soon, cause I am getting weary. But I am not defeated, because God is in control! Blessings to you and your families.