While we were in Florida, Uncle Seth and his boss (and our friend) Carl Jones were plotting to finish up the French Drain project (among other things). As you recall, we left the house a mess, with the basement packed in the living room. When we got back, we couldn't believe what we found! A crew of Carl's employees and our friends and family had clean out the living room, including the carpet that had two weeks of mud and clay ground into it! To clean out the living room, they needed to have a place to put everything, so they...
Built a work bench...
Assembled some shelving for storage and reloaded the entire basement!
But that wasn't all they did! They...
put the bullnose up in the Bathroom Project that the French Drain Project postponed. They also put the light in and the marble threshold down. (Paint job is mine, first coat)
They pressure washed our deck, sidewalk (getting all the mud off it!), and the doll house.
They fixed a broken upstairs bathroom sink, attaching it to the wall.
They also started a project that we weren't planning on starting for a couple years. Jen and I had been talking about knocking down a wall in our kitchen and redoing the room. The room was small (I have been in fishhouses bigger than our kitchen), and poorly conceived. (The largest storage cabinet has no access because it is hidden behind the oven.) The cabinets were the original 50 year old cabinets, and needed to be replaced. When we got back, that project was already started! Notice the absence of the wall that used to separate our dining room from the kitchen, and the addition of a much larger window. There was also a full plan drawn up by Carl of how the room might look. He also informed me that some money had been donated by some very generous people to jump-start this part of the project. We were blown away!
I can't tell you how amazing the experience was. We had driven back through the night, and from about 7:00 on we were getting text messages from Seth saying, "When are you getting back?" I thought maybe he had broke something, or he had to get the girls and the booze out (haha!), but when we got in at 10:30 he was waiting to show us what they had done. Being complete exhausted, and then having the emotion of this amazing act of love revealed to us was almost too much to bear. It was exhilarating and humbling all at the same time. (It was our own version of Extreme Home Makeover, except we didn't know it was coming!)
We don't understand, nor deserve the love God shows us through His people. Please know I don't share this with you to brag or gloat. I want you to know that God loves you and me. There are times like this, when that love is crystal clear. They aren't frequent! More often than not, I am left in my own ignorance wondering if God is there. There are many times when life is just the opposite, full of pain and hardship. I just hope that you will see my faith as strong and excited in those moments as it is now.
We don't deserve what we just received, but we are grateful, and we pray that God will use us to bless others in a similar way. To those of you who helped out, thank you! You were God's hands and feet, and those are amazing things to be. We feel so loved, and blessed to know you and call you friends and family. May He richly bless you!
