Before and After

Before - the windows were all broken out,
the roof was caving into the bathroom, the porch was falling down, the sills were rotting out,  and
I'm sure I'm forgetting somethings.






                    After......                  

Before - center stairs directly in front of the front door.

what is now the living area,  there is a pellet stove in the corner now.

 this would be the area through the door to the left of the stairs that no longer exist.

after - no stairs

And here we have the before and after of the kitchen.  Keith Cochran was gracious to build me one before he left to go home a week ago Saturday.

dining area

girls room before

not a very good pic but you can kinda get the idea.  The stairs were located where I took the pic from

 The last month has been a whirlwind.  We left one house and moved in with another family for almost a month.  Curtis worked crazy crazy hours.  The stress of the last few months has caught up with us and we are just plain worn out and tired.  I go to bed tired, wake up tired and desire naps everyday. 

Curtis is working now and it looks as though he has work through the summer.  Hopefully we'll be able to save and budget now that we are in our house and not spending every penny of ours plus all those other pennies that God blessed us with during the course of the last several months.  

I can't even explain to you all the emotional roller coaster we have been riding.  Just today I dropped Barbara off for strings rehearsal and quickly realized this wasn't the fall but the spring.  I have lost a year. It makes my heart so sad to realize the kids have been going through this for 9 whole months. The crazy up and downs of this transition is something that you just can't explain you would need to experience it.  Going from a decent home in a decent neighborhood to a condemned house in a rough neighborhood in and of itself presents lots of internal conflict.  I think it was much easier to talk about living downtown and ministering to the poor all those years than actually doing it and becoming poor.  I am learning lots about the church in relationship to the poor neighborhood.  I am experiencing conflicts that I never would have needed to experience before.   I used to use the "us and them" language.  Well, guess what,  I am now the them.  I am having to check my heart continually with that type of thinking as I still have the same mentality but it is unfortunately reversed.  

I want to be a person that can bridge the gap between rich and poor. 
I want to always empathize even when I have correction to give.  I can't think of a time when an empathetic ear has not been welcomed. 
I want to be able to feed,  laugh, pray, and worship with people.  

There is much joy in being in my own space again, but I can also say there has been a little heartache.  I wish you were all here to share in our excitement  and to minister here with us.  Thank-you all so much for making this week a reality for us.   We are far from done, there is still much to do but for now the 2nd floor electrical , the stairs, the 3rd floor, window trim, and all the other things that take time and work are going to have to wait

Things that have happened in the 3 days we've been here:

• due to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee and people not wanting to pay for parking (even though they had enough to pay for their night out) they graciously chosen our little dead end street to park in, apparently they see no need to allow us that live here the oppurtunity to park on our own street or even be able to turn around....Very frustrating. (this has happened twice)  

• The police have shown up to our neighbors - I was wishing it was my drug dealing neighbors but that was a no go
• I was able to talk to some neighbors that we used to visit with in the ice cream shoppe
• Someone put bread in my car this morning.....