It has been 1 1/2 years of struggles. I think our early years of marriage hasn’t been as hard as this last bit has been. There are days we didn’t think we could hang on anymore. Obviously giving up isn’t an option, so we just kept on trucking (thank you mom and dad for financially helping). I filed for bankruptcy and Doug did credit counselling, so our bills are all dealt with now. We still were just making it pay cheque to pay cheque (which was expected). There really isn’t much you can do when Doug is only making $12/hour and I don’t have 40 hours a week of clients.
Last week an email came in from CDI College…the director wants to see Doug for an interview. so on Thursday, we get ourselves into our dream car (the Mustang of course) and head to Metrotown. I go shopping and Doug went to his interview. I got a text from him that it was going well. We have had so many disappointments at this point, I was just not going to get excited. When we saw each other, he told me it went well and hopefully he would know soon. As you all know, it wasn’t until Saturday morning (at the Costco Gas Bar) when we found out he got the job. Now I got excited…finally…something is going our way. He is going to be making $25/hour and working 30 hours a week. How great is that. Sure he has to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but that means he will be home late afternoon too. Yes, it is about 2 hours of combined travel time on transit, but at least he doesn’t have to drive in rush hour traffic…he can let transit do that. For now we are happy with 30 hours a week since under my bankruptcy (only 3 more months left of the 9 that I have to do budgets for)…we can only make a certain amount of money any way, so this just means I work a little less so that we don’t make too much money.
So our next little dilemma was the fact I would have to get up with Doug to drive him to the park n ride to pick up the bus to Surrey. If he takes the bus from our place, it ads another half hour to the trip, and the park n ride is only 7 minutes away. I didn’t mind driving him but it seems kinda silly as I would just have to go back home again. So we thought about getting a motorcycle. It is much easier to park there as the lot is always full, so this way he can park the bike in the motorcycle parking area. A scooter isn’t an option…that would just be too embarrassing to ride and I doubt it would handle Doug driving it anyway.
Obviously we don’t have the money for anything right now, but we knew that with Doug making some money soon, we could probably manage to borrow a little bit of money from my parents and buy some early 80’s fixer upper to get too and from the park n ride. So off to Craigslist we go…we found a few, and would have even looked at them, if I hadn’t landed up talking to one of my clients who buys ICBC write offs and resells them. He is a generous man, and when he heard that we were looking for a bike, he told me he would work something out. So, with the money we are hoping to borrow from my parents and me working for him for the next few years, we managed to get a 2007 Yamaha V-Star 650. If you look on Craigslist for this bike, you will see how expensive they are. He is selling it to me for a little over cost and letting me work it off. How amazing is that. So now we have a reliable second vehicle. Sure we have to deal with rain a lot, but that just means we get some good rain gear for the short trips too and from the park n ride. For my little running around town to clients, I bet I will save money on gas if I use the bike over the Mustang. Yes, the Mustang guzzles gas for the short trips. It prefers the long highway trips.
So, I am going to say it…we are finally getting blessed by the bowl full. Sure we have been blessed with the little things for the last year and a half. We managed to keep our head above the water, but most days we just felt like we were drowning. I think I finally feel that I am actually out of the water. I haven’t felt like this in a few years. I have been so tired and so depressed about it all. Since most of our debt is wiped off our slate (paying back some via Credit Counselling), we can start all over. Our place is affordable, our car is affordable and now we have a bike to help us out with getting around, and food isn’t overly expensive since we can head to the US…so maybe, just maybe things will all come together.
Did I ever doubt God??? NOPE, never. I know he was always with us, and he can’t control what others do. This isn’t his fault. He can’t tell people to hire Doug. But he can bring people in our lives that want to bless us…and he has. The new job for Doug is what he has always wanted to do again…teaching. I might be able to slow down a bit with clients, which is nice since I have been really busy for awhile now. We can maybe even afford vacations for next year, which is probably the most exciting thing…because as you all know, I live for my vacations.
God is great, and I don’t blame him for the last year and a half. I also don’t believe the saying “all in his time”. I don’t believe he wanted us to live like this for the last year and a half either…that would be cruel. But I do know that he is with us no matter what this mean world throws at us. We live in a world of sin, and other than dying and leaving this world, there is no way to get out of it. So we take the lumps that get thrown at us and hopefully there are more smooth sailings than lumps. So today, we are happy! Doug’s last day at his old job is tomorrow and on Monday he starts his new job. I only have 3 months left on my bankruptcy and Christmas is less than 5 months away…and outside sits the two most beautiful vehicles in the world…the Mustang and the Motorcycle. I can’t even explain the pure joy my heart feels when I look out at my two vehicles…how can two objects like that bring a person such joy. Thank you God!