Unbelievable 24 hours!!!

The last 24 hours has been nothing short of UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Now before you rush to judgement, let me clarify that I didn't say it was GOOD!!! I didn't say it was BAD!!! I just said it was UNBELIEVABLE!!! And that can go either way. And in my case, it went BOTH ways!

I like to save the good for last, so I will start with the bad!
Tuesday evening my wife came to me with nothing short of a meltdown! Poor woman, so much being thrust onto her plate! This meltdown was surrounding the rentals that I own & manage. I have been a landlord for 19 years. I currently have several rentals that involve about 20 or so tenants. She came saying, in tears, that she doesn't know how to screen & select tenants. She doesn't know how to handle repairs. She went on & on. I assured her that I can teach her the screening process of selecting a tenant. I said we don't really have much in the area of repairs... occasionally something pops up, but I will make sure there are people for her to turn to.

She relaxed some...

About an hour later I get a call from a tenant stating there was a strong smell of natural gas & so she called the gas company. They came & checked it out & said the water heater had a bad part & that the whole thing needed to be replaced. They also said the furnace had a clogged portion of the combustion chamber & needed to be cleand. They then shut off the gas. This tenant said she had a place to go for the night.

I immediately called a neighbor plumber in the area & asked him to please check it out the next day, which he did willingly.

Wednesday evening he stopped by & reported in that the water heater is now functioning, but eventually will need to be replaced. He also said the furnace was functioning, but may need a repair in the future. He lit both the furnace & the water heater. He also said the kitchen sink was dripping... Well he actually said it was streaming. He said it was all messed up but he reworked it & got it taken care of.

About an hour later, in the middle of a meeting at my house, my wife got a call that our old house we rent out, the basement flooded! I went to check it out & found that the girls that live there had called their home teachers to come help & they had several guys over using shop vacs to get the water up. I realized I wasn't up to the challenge, so I went back to my neighbor plumber & said HELP! He came over & immediately said the main sewer had backed up. He said he stopped servicing main sewer lines some time ago, but that he had a good friend that handled that. Within minutes he was on the phone & had arranged for this person to resolve the issue.

As I was heading home, I thought to myself (actually outloud) LORD why all this right now?

As a bit of time passed, I rethought my thoughts. I was totally exhausted & just needed to lay down. It became so clear to me the reason!

It wasn't that the Lord had abandoned me, or just "allowed" this to all be dumped on me. Or to totally undermind the confidence I had been attempting to provide my dear sweet wife. No, not at all!

And as I laid down I realized that I was laying down while the storm raged around me. But I was being able to rest while others were helping to carry the burden. The Lord had just shown us that when things come upon us... if my wife is left without me, and problems pop up at the rentals, that there ARE people that the Lord has placed in our path to help share the burden.

What an amazing lesson I just learned! What an amazing change of perspective! Same problem, different eyes!

Now for the UNBELIEVABLE from the good perspective.

I was able to go to the temple with my wife & Mom! I had to rely on a wheelchair to conserve strength, but I was able to attend!

When I got home, there had been & continued to be people stopping by with kind gestures of love.

One was from a tenant of mine. Keiko, THANKS!
One was from Carl Barton. Carl (and Jami) THANKS!

And one that I absolutely LOVE was from the dear Leonhardts. This made me laugh!
There was a bag & a card. The card started out saying "Dear Jim: Here's a little something to help you through your first day of chemo."

Inside the bag was some homemade caramels! (I LOVE caramel!!!)
It also had a mix for lemonade. It said When life give you lemons, make lemonade!
There were a couple of magazines to read.
And my ABSOLUTE MOST FAVORITE!!! That which will accomply me to my first (and probably every subsequent chemo trip) was a pair of socks.

It simply says on the socks "CANCER SUCKS!"

Laurie, I cried when I read the first line of your card. And I cried when I saw the socks. Tears of joy. Tears of appreciation. Tears of laughter.

Yes the last 24 hours has been UNBELIEVABLE!!!

I can hardly wait for the next 24 hours!!!!!!!!

Love to all that are following my blog & thanks to all the outpouring of love & support. It is helping me walk this scary path!

Jim