What Needs to be Done

The other day I was talking with my husband about our house and how far it has come in the last nine months.  For those of you who don't know, we bought a house when we moved and to say it was "a bit of a fixer upper" would be the understatement of the year.  We looked at a few houses when we made the decision to move and we couldn't believe how expensive they were.  Anything we could afford didn't have enough room for our five person family-and we didn't want to rent.  Real estate in this area was more expensive than we were used to and we had no idea what kind of job my husband would get right away.  We were thinking maybe renting would just have to be the way to go-until we found the "cat house".  Our kids called it the cat house because when we walked in the door there was no mistaking the smell of cat urine.  The flooring was torn, the neon yellow and green paint was chipped and slopped all over the probably once amazing 1920s woodwork.  The finished basement had pink walls with stickers all over them.  Honestly, there's just no good way for me to explain how bad it was without pictures.  Even then, you wouldn't be able to smell the cats. Yuck.

We originally looked at the house on a day we set aside to look at houses in our new town.  We left that day deflated.  We didn't find anything we thought would work for our family, at least in our price range.  About halfway home, though, my husband's face lit up.  I knew he had an idea and I was scared of what he was going to say.  He had decided that if we took a couple weeks to completely clean and gut the "cat house", it should be livable after that.  We could continue working on it after we got it decent enough to live in.  Of course I did what any woman in this era would do and started looking at pinterest and got inspired.  I made a deal with my husband that we could buy the place if we could buy all new appliances to go in it.  Of course he was so excited by the idea that he was going to get to remodel a house (he loves that kind of stuff) that he agreed to buy new appliances. We also agreed that we would not show pictures to any of our friends or our parents, because they would probably all say that we were crazy.

For the first few weeks we lived in our new town, we spent every waking moment working on our house.  The kids stayed with my husband's parents and one of my lieutenants and his wife were nice enough to let my husband and me stay in their camper.  My husband worked every day from the time he got up until he went to bed.  I helped him on my days off.  We bleached, primed and painted walls, tore out carpet, and refinished old hard wood flooring.  We made it livable in 2 weeks.  When I look back on it now, I can hardly believe all the things we did.  I can't believe that in the months following, we worked on it as well. Remember-I said we made it livable in two weeks-not pretty.  We are still working on the pretty part. The inside looks pretty darn good, and in a few weeks we will paint the outside.  It has been quite the transformation.

Every time I think back to those first few weeks of working on this house I am amazed.  Its amazing how you just do what you have to do at the time and don't think a thing of it.  When you look back, you wonder how you did it-or if you could do it again.  Fire and EMS are the same way.  People ask me all the time how I can handle being around emergency situations.  I never really know what to say other than I just do what needs to be done.  When you're focused on a goal, getting tired or overwhelmed gets put on the back burner and you just act.  Your training takes over and you do the best you can.  Tension runs high for everyone involved, but focusing on your task becomes the most important thing you can do.

I think most of us will look back in 20 years at our lives now and wonder how we did it, but for now-we're just doing what we need to do, one day at a time.  The other day I said to a senior firefighter after we did a training that I didn't know how, at my size and strength, I would drag a large person out of a structure by myself if I had to.  He just smiled and said, "don't worry, if the time comes, you'll find it."  And I know he is right-when the time comes, we somehow find the strength to do what needs to be done.  We might hurt the next day.  We might look back and wonder how we did it-but we will get it done, and that is what counts.

For a Limited Time

I'm sure you've noticed I haven't written in awhile. A lot has been going on in these last couple of months. We buried my grandmother at the end of February, and then at the end of May, my other grandmother also went to be with Jesus. A couple of weeks ago, we learned that my husband's grandfather (the only grandparent he has left) was diagnosed with cancer.  He is not taking treatments.  He says he is ready to go.  Now, don't get me wrong- I don't write this for you to feel sorry for me.  Death is a part of life.  I feel blessed to have been able to keep my grandparents as long as I have.  As much as it hurts to lose someone from this life I can't help but rejoice for them that they are with their Lord and Savior.

I have to say, though, that with all of this happening lately I have put a lot of thought into what is truly important.  People always say of money and material things, "you can't take them with you", and they're right.  I won't take anything I own on this earth to heaven with me when my time is up.  I can't even take any of my accomplishments or knowledge with me.  I heard someone say once that the only things we can bring with us to heaven are other people.  Knowing and believing this I can't in good conscience write a blog that people read and not share my faith with all of you.  I know, most people have some form of religion in their lives.  There's nothing wrong with religion, with tradition-going to church on Sunday and putting some money in the offering plate.  But that's not what I'm talking about.  What I'm talking about is simply this: do you know where you're going when you die?

I was talking with a friend the other day who said, "I hope I'm worthy enough to go (to heaven)"  My response was that no human is worthy of that.  None of us, no matter how good, bad, or ugly we are are worthy of Heaven.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins because He is worthy-not because we are. All we have to do is accept that we are not worthy of Heaven, and ask Him to forgive our sins and come into our lives.

I don't know what all of you believe.  Please know that I love all of you no matter what.  I feel that it is my duty to share this with you, though.  I think that my grandmas would've wanted me to share it with you, as they did with my parents and my parents with me.  We never know how many days we have on this earth, but we do know that some day they will run out.  We are only here for a limited time.  Let's try our best to make a difference while we're here on earth, but more importantly, know where we will spend eternity.



"For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"

Romans 6:23