Our Adversity this Month

This is not a complaining post. This is just the story of what we're facing right now. So much has been happening that I'm not sure I can explain it in just a few words.

We sold our house and are supposed to be out by the 21st of this month. Last week, we found a great place to rent where we are moving. My brother kindly drove down from where he lives, a 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive, and checked it out for us. He met the landlord. He said she seemed nice. The house was beautiful. However, there were some details about the whole thing that I was uncomfortable with. After weighing those details against the pros of renting this particular house, we decided to move forward with it. I went to the bank and had them cut me a cashier's check in the amount of $500, which was less than 1/3 of the total deposit that she wanted. I went straight to the post office and sent the check plus the application papers via Express Mail to arrive at her place on Monday (this was Friday). At first, I was happy to have found a great place. But the more I thought on it, the more uncomfortable I was with it all. On Sunday, we fasted and prayed about our decision. We sat down and crunched numbers. The finances would be tight, but if we really wanted this house, we could make it work. I still didn't feel calm. On Monday morning, we both felt the same way. We decided to call it off. We called the landlord and told her that it just wasn't going to work. She hadn't received the package we sent, so we asked her kindly to please return it to us so we could use the $500 for our other expenses.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the trial that came with this possible rental house. The landlord didn't refund us the money. Instead, she cashed the check. We are still trying to get hold of her to find out why and if we can get any of that back.

That was Monday morning. Then on Monday night, when my husband went to work, he found out that his company would not be able to move us as soon as August 21st. Something about not wanting us up there without him too long, and they wanted us to wait until they were closer to opening up there. So it turns out that we couldn't have moved then anyway. That presented a problem though. We are supposed to be out when we close on August 21st. So we talked to our real estate agent about talking with our buyers about the possibility of renting the house back from them for the rest of August and the month of September. They had mentioned when they put an offer on the house how they would only be living in it for half the year, in the winter, and asked if we be interested in renting from them, as the home was so clean and well-kept. So we were kind of taking them up on the offer. So now, our agent is working with the buyers, who are working with a property management company, to let us rent the house for about 6 weeks.

We are not moving out-of-state for at least 6 more weeks. If we have to, we will rent a house here in the neighborhood for 6 weeks and move twice. I hope it doesn't come to that. That sounds like a lot of work.

My last piece of adversity came in a very different form. My brother has a friend where we are moving to, someone he was roommates with in college. He owns a house that we were looking at renting. Because of this, I had been in touch with my brother's friend's real estate agent for information on the house. That agent happens to be friends with my parents from a previous ward we lived in growing up. Long story short--we decided not to rent his house. However, I got an email from the agent this morning letting me know that this man, my brother's friend, had passed away suddenly from a diabetic coma. He had tried to get in touch with my brother and my parents and couldn't find a way to contact them other than through me. I passed the information along to my brother, but I was suddenly struck with the reality of the situation. This man, one of my brother's close friends, someone he had lived with in college and afterward, was dead. Gone. No goodbyes or anything. I believe that recently my brother and he had not been speaking over some disagreement or misunderstanding. When I told my brother over the phone, I could hear the cracking in his voice. His friend was gone. I imagined how that must feel to hear that a friend had passed away suddenly, especially one that you hadn't talked to for a while because of a spat. It must be very hard indeed.

Then I thought of this friend. He was a single guy, lived alone, didn't have very many friends. His parents had passed away many years ago, leaving only him and a few siblings (I believe he had a couple sisters, not sure if he had any more than that). Now those sisters are without their brother. This was a young man--in his late twenties. He probably passed away at home, alone. I don't know the details. I imagine it was a little while before he was discovered. All of this, despite my knowledge of gospel principles and the life hereafter, make me feel very sad indeed. Sad for him, sad for his family, sad for my brother.

It's also a very strong reminder of how unpredictable life really is. Maybe it was just his time to go. Maybe his death was untimely. We don't really know. But if you think about it, any one of us could suddenly be gone, just like that. I will definitely give all my children and husband hugs and kisses tonight and let them know I love them. Because you never know.