Timing is Everything

Flashback to June 13, 2010:   I fell down, got hurt, yada, yada, yada.  (For those late to the party, here's the scoop, from an earlier blog entry found HERE.)

Flashback to January 1, 2011:  My husband, who has worked virtually every day of his life since the age of 14, begins a season of involuntary unemployment that we are still riding out.

The single biggest financial issue facing us right now is health insurance. Our current coverage is set to expire today. We have received no COBRA information, but that hardly matters -- without his income, affording it for both of us would be out of the question. He needs it more than I do, because he has some pre-existing conditions and I do not. Assuming the risk that I will remain healthy until we can afford to buy coverage for me seems reasonable, until we think about Flashback #1 up there.

So, why am I telling you this now?

My best friends will tell you that I am constantly on the search to find the gift in EVERYTHING.

I'm going to wait a minute while they nod their heads, and roll their eyes.

Okay -- done?  Good.  Because here is where this gets interesting.

Today in the mail we received a check from Allstate Insurance, in payment of an accident/disability claim it has taken us since just after I fell until now to submit to their satisfaction.  The amount of the settlement should cover one month's COBRA payment, and although that may not seem like much to you, what it means for us is at least a couple more weeks of not walking around scared of living.

I have never, ever, for one instant lost my faith in God. Not when I fell down and got hurt for no good reason and not when Henry was blindsided and lost his job. God knows I enjoy a good laugh more than anything in the world, and today, when I opened that envelope and slid that check out, I could almost hear Him say "gotcha!'

Thank God. I well and truly do.

Sweeping Changes

"A new broom sweeps clean, but the old one knows all the corners."

I have been enjoying reading other blogger's 2010 retrospectives and hopes for the coming year, and decided I'd add my very own brief one to the mix.

If 2010 in the Lucas Household had a soundtrack, it might very well include this ditty. 

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First there was the little tumble I took in June, but I'm still standing.  While I am not unchanged by the experience, I have had a very good recovery.  As far as my walking is concerned, I've shaved about a minute per mile off my 2009 average time, which is just a pretty cool thing.  I hated not participating in this year's half-marathon, although serving as an encourager along the route yielded a tremendous sense of satisfaction.  I am looking forward with great anticipation to the 2011 Half, with a goal of beating my 2009 time handily.

We really thought that would stand as the Big Event of the year, but we were in for a surprise that came the Monday after Christmas, when my husband was told that as of December 31 he would no longer be employed.  

We have been so sustained this week by the love and prayers and concern of our family and friends. We both believe it is very important to be honest about how scary this is, but how certain we are that this broken road, like all the others onto which we have been compelled to detour, will lead us to some place amazing that we can't begin to imagine right this minute.

(Okay, so I will be very honest here.  I really just wanted to write this blog

 so that I could shout out publicly what my heart has been holding privately all week.)

My husband's depth of character, his ability to forgive, his resiliency,

 his emotional strength, and his integrity never fail to humble me.

One of the most amazing gifts we've already received as a result of this turn of events has been discovering that both of our sons deeply understand about their father what I have always known about him.   It has been a teachable moment for all of us.

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We didn't choose either of the new brooms that have swept our life into dark corners in 2010.

But the old broom made of the straws of laughter, and hope, and faith, and love -- amazing, amazing love -- will take care of those corners in 2011.

And that's exactly the way I see it.