2013 ~ That was the Year that Was!

     i have had this post rattling around in my head for the past week or so.  i want to try to recap the last 12 months which have been doozies!
    The year started off with my husband and i preparing for a move half-way across the country ~ from the middle to the far northwest.  i have blogged about this before but basically the move is the culmination of about 3 years of working and waiting.  Our big old house in Kansas took about 2 1/2 years to sell. 

We had been working and planning for this move all that time ~ decluttering, clearing out, etc.  My husband had recently retired and my daughter and her family had been wanting us to come live with/near them for some time.  We had no idea that it would take so long to make our dream come true.  i have always loved the Pacific Northwest, including the climate and couldn't wait to make it my home.  Not to mention, being able to live near 4 beautiful grandchildren who were just as anxious as we were to make the move.  So, in mid January, just one year ago we set out.  All of our worldly goods loaded into a large moving semi-truck and what wouldn't fit there in our pick-up truck with my little car hooked on behind. (Here we are at the carwash trying to clean some of the road crud off before appearing at my daughters house.)  We arrived on January 18th, 2013 to much excitement!

     We settled into a spacious bedroom in my daughters house with all the rest of our stuff being unloaded into a storage unit.  Not ideal, but we thought it would be a short time until we had a home of our own and all of our things about us once more.  We were very naive.  We set to work right away to make a home of our own a reality.  We had visited with some modular home sales lots before and so we made the rounds again only to find that the prices had gone up and up in the past 3 years.  We were priced out of that market.  (Our goal was to use the money from the sale of our home in Kansas to pay cash for our new home.)  We looked at used homes and at one point we spoke to an architect who then drew up plans to add on to my daughter's garage and convert that into our home.  The plans she drew up for us were so cute and we were very excited to have finally found the answer.  But, alas, it was not to be.  Once again the ugly business of cost reared it's ugly head and we were discouraged once again.
     So, we were on the trail again, visiting home sales lots, looking at Craigs List, answering ads ~ leaving no stone unturned so to speak.  During the course of this quest, we did stumble onto a possibility which led us back to the first place we had looked 3 years ago and also earlier last year.  They had a new manufactured home that was roomy (we have quite a bit of stuff), beautiful and ~ the most important of all ~ Affordable!  We were thrilled and immediately put money down and began choosing carpet, etc.  That was around June, 2013 and i happily anticipated being in my new home within the month.  Again, i was very naive.  (i didn't actually move in until October!)  There was clearing of the land to be done, a septic to be installed and a myriad of other things which had to be completed, inspected and checked off before the next thing could be done.    

Before too long, though, my house was set up and (almost) ready to move into.  The house just behind mine is my daughters house where i had been living ~ just a hop, skip and jump away!

 

About mid-August an event occurred which was to change my life and the lives of many, many people in the family forever.  My husband molested my  granddaughter while we were  living in her family's home.  There are no words to express the shock and anger we all felt upon realizing what had happened.  (My granddaughter had been taught what to do in  such a case and immediately called her parents.)  He was ejected from the home immediately and a arrested a few days later.  As far as we knew and as he said this had never happened before.  Since that occurrence 2 more girls have come forward with nearly identical stories.  Both of these other girls are also very close to the family.  Over the past 5 months, i have been moving forward and trying to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.  The house project was completed and i moved in early in October.  He has remained in jail since his arrest pending sentencing.  

     In all of the horror and pain of this ordeal, one thing stands out ~ the faithfulness of the Lord.  He has provided everything i need including love and support from family and friends.  Not one person has treated me with anything but kindness and concern.  i am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people.  My future is in some ways uncertain but i know i can count on Him and the people He has placed in my life.