NEVER give up…

Last year, at this time, things were pretty bad.

I didn’t go on about it at the time because I didn’t want everyone to feel sorry for us, but our house was bad by US standards.  The floors were crooked, sinking and holey, the walls had cracks so big you could look outside through them, the ceiling was partially caved in, there were rats, cockroaches and fleas.  We slept on mattresses on the floor.  There was no air conditioning and only a few of the windows opened.

Recovering from a catastrophic family event, it was all we could afford at the time.  We weren’t happy with it, but we knew it was temporary.  We pinched, scrimped and saved.  We cut every corner so much there weren’t any left.  We fought and clawed.  After almost six months we were able to move up.

Our new place wasn’t fancy, but to us it felt like a mansion.  The holes in the wall didn’t go all the way through.  The floors were straight.  We had air conditioning.  Still, we thought of it as temporary.  Again we scrimped, saved, pinched and squeezed.  We endured.  We prayed.  Prayers were answered.

Now, less than a year later we are moving into a house we love.  This is not temporary.  We are finally home.  It feels like we have been recovering forever but it shocks me to realize all this was in less than a year.  We each have our own personal mountains to overcome but they all have one thing in common – no one that quits survives.  No matter what, keep going.

Summa ope.