Friday Five: I Need Help--Day One

From Martha at RevGalBlogPals:  This time last Friday I was on my way to the airport to pick up your usual host for first Friday Five. We had a mighty to-do list for the Labor Day weekend, and her accomplishments were so far beyond impressive as to be heroic. A dumpster is now full of water-damaged junk from my basement.

This was not a job I could have accomplished by myself. I had to ask for help.

I hate to ask for help. I love to give it. You may identify with these feelings.

So, for this Friday Five, please list four ways you have been helped when you didn't want to ask for it and one way you had a chance to help that meant a lot to you.

If you know how to link to your post, God bless you, and if you don't, I promise to visit you anyway. And if you have a minute, leave a thank you to kathrynzj, the heroine mentioned above, who is retiring from Friday Five.

I'm going to take a little bit of liberty with this Friday Five and make it a Five Day event.  Partly because I don't have the time, at the moment, to ponder all five "helps" and partly because I want to take the time to do this one justice!

1st way I've received help when I didn't want to ask for it:

Actually that should be, I received help that I didn't know to ask for.

A year and a half ago I sent a venting text to a friend.  It went something like "I can't do this anymore."  The response came back immediately.  "Where are you?  I have something for you."  We met up briefly and this friend handed me an envelope.  I was in the midst of something else and I didn't open the envelope until about a half hour later.  When I did the floodgate of tears could not be stopped.  I sought this friend out and sat and cried and tried to give the envelope back, thanked my friend profusely and then...and then began to wonder.

My friend was God's messenger at that point, providing a way out, literally.  I knew, I KNEW what I needed to do at that moment and over the next two months I prayed and prayed and prayed until the moment was right.  Meetings were held, paperwork was handed in, goodbyes were said and for 6 months I survived because of the unbelievable love and generosity of a friend.  I wasn't asking for the kind of help my friend gave.  I couldn't conceive of asking for that kind of help and yet, there it was.  Offered without strings.  Offered without qualm and with a quite a forceful "you can't give this back!"

I'm forever grateful for the help I didn't know to ask for...

#12

If we can get the flights, a week from today I will be in Mississippi for the 12th time.  Prayers that everything comes together is much appreciated from a financial standpoint and flights/car rental/housing standpoint.  My teammates this trip are Yo Momma (whom you can pray for as Gail), Jolynn and Laurel.

Grateful for to work for a non-profit whose motto is "Service Above Self".

A Pearlington update

**Cross posted at Felton to Pearlington**

I heard from Mr. Ben today.  The conversation went something like this:

Cell phone vibrates.  I look at Caller ID and answer with, "I've been waiting. What's the news?"

The answer on the other end was "I really didn't want to call you with this but I told you I would check in."

"What's going on Ben?"

"I really don't want to tell you this but I'm just going to tell you like it is."

"Ok, Ben.  What's the news?"

"Well, I really don't want to tell you..."

The news finally came out.  This time it's Mr. Ben's house.  The laminate floor in the small bedroom needs to go.  That's not so bad.  All the sheet rock in the downstairs of the house needs to be torn out from about the 2 foot mark on.  Dang.  The siding on the outside of the house needs to be replaced from about the 3 foot mark on down.  Double dang.

Then the news on the pretty house (aka yellow house). While the water has receded from Mr. Ben's house, the yellow house now has a lake.  Underneath the house and surrounding it.  Lovely.  The sheet rock needs to come out from about the 2 ft. mark here as well.  The sheet rock that we put up two years ago.  DANG IT!

While a part of me wants to just get on a plane and go right now, the logical, practical side of me is sitting and praying for a moment.  Do we go or do we send the money we would have spent on the plane ticket to help with repairs?  That will be tomorrows conversation with Mr. Ben...which will start off something like this..."so what is it that you need the most?"


By the way, he really didn't want to tell me because it was his family in need.  That made me love Mr. Ben even more.

--As a side note, I've heard comments, already, from some who say "why would you live there?  This is just going to keep happening."  They are right.  It will keep happening.  But why do I choose to live on  a hill that could give way with one good rain storm (Ala 1982-83 rainstorms and floods), that could be wiped out in an earthquake (um 1989?) or burn down in a fire (just a few summers ago there was a close one!)?  We choose to live where we choose to live and deal with things as they come to us.   

Another hurricane

"Battened down the hatches" was the post from Mr. Ben in Mississippi today.  7 years after Hurricane Katrina tore apart the Gulf Coast they are staring down another storm, this one named Isaac.  Hunkering down and waiting for the winds, the rains and the predicted storm surges.  Of course, it doesn't look to be as bad, a Category 1 as opposed to Katrina's Category 5 but still...it's eerie.

Praying for those on the Gulf Coast.  For Mr. Ben, Ms. Sue, Tom, Captain John, Joel, Bordie and all those we know waiting for the storm to blow on by.

Songs running through my head

The other morning a song popped into my head.  Or rather a hymn, because clearly there is a difference between hymns and songs thus the "worship wars" and, yeah, tangent.

Anyway, I started humming "He giveth more grace when the burdens are greater" and then the next line that came into my head was "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold"...wait, what?  That's not the same song!  I kept running through those lines in my head but they kept mish-mashing up until I finally went in the other room and tried to get help from Yo Momma and G.G.  They humored me but weren't much help.  I drove all the way home from Tahoe with those two songs, sorry, hymns in my head.

I didn't remember to look them up until today.  A quick jaunt over to YouTube and guess what?!  They may not be the exact same tune but they are pretty darn close!  Which got me a'thinkin' about all the other hymns that use the same tune but change the lyrics.  Which made my mind trail off on a tangent about how hard it must be to come up with new tunes all the time.

Anyway, you can YouTube them yourself (sorry, I'm not going to attach the videos here) and decide for yourself.  Am I crazy or do "He Giveth More Grace" and "I'd Rather Have Jesus" sound pretty darn similar?

Monday evening dots of randomness

• Little Miss P turned three this past weekend.  Of course Auntie B had to make cupcakes and cake pops.  She had the best look on her face as people were singing "Happy Birthday" to her.  She had a good day and ate three fishy cupcakes.  Hard to believe it's been three years since she was born!
• I am very, very grateful for Papa Bear.  Last night when I arrived home after the drive from Tahoe, I wished Papa Bear was home as the rat trap had been activated.  This evening as I dealt with the dead rodent, I was really grateful that Papa Bear usually deals with this stuff.  The rat trap will go un-baited until he gets home.
• There are certain things that get me riled up.  Men denying the validity of rape turns out to be one issue.  I have spent the whole day stewing and being pissed off about the whole "legitimacy of rape" comment by a certain Missouri Representative.  I hope the women of Missouri wake up and refuse to vote this man into office.
• Monday night TV really stinks.  I refuse to watch Bachelor Pad, The Closer went off the air and NCIS re-runs don't run on Monday nights because of WWE.  Maybe I should just go to bed.
• One of the office coordinators in my office building came into my office last week and asked for change.  Her car was running on fumes, she had no more money in the bank and was just trying to get home from work (there's so much more to this story).  I gave her $5 and I thought she was going to cry.  Later, talking with Papa Bear, it occurred to me that when you have nothing, you don't need much to be grateful or happy.  I think that's a lesson that those in political power need to learn.
• This morning as I was waiting for the bus, there was a college student doing a practice run before school starts on Wednesday.  I made sure to tell him not to get on the wrong bus and how to know which one was the right bus.  I will NOT be one of those bus people who don't help out newbies!
• And that ends the dots of randomness this Monday evening.  Have a good week!

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• I thought I was done...Tonight I declare war on ants.  The swarm that made it's presence known in the kitchen in less than an hour has been eliminated.  The dishes are washed, there is no food on the counter and honest to goodness I will kill every single ant that I see.  That is all

Adventure Boy

Adventure Boy needed a ride from preschool this evening.  I happened to be arriving back from work about the time he needed to be picked up, so I stopped by and got him.  He quickly came over and we left preschool with the Bat cave and jet fighter in tow.  Love him.

Jumping into the Race Car he quickly spotted the bear that Aunt C had given me at Christmas.  It had taken up residence in the back seat and Adventure Boy picked it up.  He decided that the bear needed to fly in the wind (the top was down on the Race Car) and we discussed how the bear needed to fly within the boundaries of the car because "I would be sad if the bear flew away."

He talked all the way to his parents office and then as we walked to the front door he asked "when am I going to see you again?"

"I don't know," I replied.

"I think we need a play date at your house," he said.  I know his little mind.  I knew what he was thinking.  I waited and then...

"Because, you know, I can't play video games now, but I can watch Creative Guy play them!"  Um hmmm.

Adventure Boy was distracted by someone coming out the office door and we tromped down the back stairs to the play room that has been set up for Creative Guy and Adventure Boy.  Creative Guy was there trying to get a movie to work on Netflix and getting frustrated.  I sat down to help fix things.  Creative Guy and Adventure Boy tussled in the background and Adventure Boy was trying to get as much attention as possible.  Creative Guy escaped up the stairs for the moment and I made Adventure Boy stay with me.  He tried to get my attention by being, well, gross and it didn't work but I did pull him up onto my lap.  The next thing I knew he was just sitting there, perfectly willing to be held and hugged and loved.  Heart.melting.moment.

Creative Guy returned, Adventure Boy went back into his attention getting mode.  I got the movie working and went to leave but not before Adventure Boy asked, one last time, "When I am going to see you again?"  "For sure in 10 days" was my reply.  I left them grateful to be reminded that underneath the layers of exuberance and attention getting behavior is a little boy who just needs to be loved.  For one moment today he knew that he was loved, unconditionally loved and it was good.