100th POST + THE REST OF THE STORY

This post is a continuation of my 100th Post, here if you haven't read it.

I ended with #100 : 1984-85 was the worse time of our entire 25 years of marriage. There were many extenuating circumstances, money pressure, problems with our oldest son, my mother so ill, problems within the marriage itself. We came very close to divorce. I just wanted to walk away but the hold Jesus had on me said, "No. that's not an option." I'm so thankful we worked it out.

"Stay tuned for the rest of the story!"

IT'S GOOD

101. 1984 - David had graduated and was in the Marines. We bought a home in Albuquerque that would handle both us, Marc and mother and officially moved in February 1st, 1984.

102. We made a very bad mistake. We never dreamed our Tulsa home would not sell within 3 months. We assumed a low interest loan on the house we were purchasing, put down a large equity, and signed a note for the balance of $25,000 equity to be paid within a year. We remodeled the new place spending another $15,000.

103. The Tulsa house did not sell. We were forced to put our Albuquerque home up for sale. Time was speeding by and we were getting very worried it was not going to sell. We were going to loose everything. These two Baptists were praying their hearts out........and one week before we were going to loose the house some Buddhists bought the house on a cash deal. I kid you not!!! Our God has such a great sense of humor!!! And He is never late.

104. We moved into a 3 bedroom, second floor apartment. Mother bought into a Retirement home where she had her own 1 bedroom apartment and the promise of care in the attached nursing home when the time came that she would need it. Mickey & I had never lived in an apartment before. We hated it!!

105. After 15 months of double house payments we finally decided to rent the Tulsa home to a young couple that had gone to school with Suzette. Her mother and I had taught Bible School together years before. They were wonderful renters. Again, God was so faithful to us.

106. As stated before these two years were the worst of our 25 year marriage. I am so glad we worked it out.

107. My mother passed away May 27, 1986.

108. When we first moved to Albuquerque and were having so many problems we sold "Suzy Blue". We later bought our second balloon, "Pink-A-Boo".

109. During this time in Albuquerque Mickey went to work for Brinks Armored Car Service.

110. We bought our first RV. It was an older class "C". We made a 3 week vacation trip in it to Seattle, WA to a Kenneth Copeland Meeting.

111. Our son Marc was working at the same place I worked as Office Manager and just before we left for Seattle made the remark, "One of two things will happen. Either mother will hate RVing and they'll come home and sell the RV, or she'll love it and they'll come back and buy a newer one".

112. After the Kenneth Copeland Meeting we crossed the border into Canada and visited Victoria, British Columbia. We fell in love with Canada and RVing and knew we wanted to keep the RV. No, we did not buy a newer or larger one at that point.

113. Two years of the time we were in Tulsa we opened and operated a Craft Store called Crafter's Showcase. It was not a success. In fact it actually cost us money to keep it opened but we had made a 2 year lease commitment and we keep our word and our lease. Even though it was not a success we are not sorry we attempted the venture and learned much from it.

114. In 1988 Mickey and I renewed our marriage vows on our 30th wedding anniversary. I will be posting separately about that!

115. In 1991 we made the decision to move back to Tulsa. Mickey was able to transfer with Brinks to Tulsa and we moved back to the home we owned and had been renting.

116 When we moved back to Tulsa in 1991 we unloaded the furniture, in Suzette's garage, picked her up and went to Nashville to visit Mickey's sister. Suzette flew back to Tulsa and we proceed on a 3 week trip to Virginia Beach to visit Mickey's brother who was quite ill. So glad we did.

117. After coming home from Virginia we stayed with Suzette while we spent a couple of weeks painting the entire house, having new carpet laid, etc. and then moved all the stuff out of her garage and into our home. Shortly after that we sold the class "C".

118. I had a hard time, for the first time in my life, finding a job when we moved back to Tulsa. I had always had a job within a week of deciding I wanted to work. Not so this time. They claim they don't age discriminate but let me tell you...when you're 54 years old you don't get hired as easily!!! They keep using the "You're over qualified".

119. My son, Marc, and I have worked at the same places of employment on 3 occasions. (1)In Albuquerque for a jewelry wholesaler of hand made Indian jewelry. When Marc was 16 they hired him to help around the place. He worked into a full time position and ended up working there for five years until we moved to Tulsa. (2) I finally got a job in Tulsa for a small private CPA. We needed extra help so hired Marc because of his experience with computers and I began to train him in accounting. (3) Later Marc had been working for his current employer, a CPA firm, and they needed someone part time. Marc called and asked if I was interested in working part time. The position quickly turned into a full time position and is the firm I retired from. He is still employed there, now as Firm Administrator.

120. I am very proud of the fact Marc & I did and could work together. Twice with him being under my supervision and the last time with him being my boss!!

121. In 1996 we made the decision for Mickey to retire 2 years early, at age 63, and make his life long dream trip to Alaska.

122. We bought a 25' Layton 5th wheel without even owning a pickup truck to pull it! We told the individual we bought it from, "We'll take it if you'll pull it to our back yard in Tulsa".

123. In May, 1997 we sold our Tulsa home. I took a 6 month leave of absence and we made our dreamed of trip to Alaska.

124. When we got back from the Alaska trip in November, 1997 we had loved it so much and knew we wanted to do a lot more traveling and seeing this great country. We traded in the 25' Layton on a brand new 30' Jayco with 2 slide-outs. We still own it.

125. We bought our current home here in Coweta in March, 1998. We had loved the small towns so much while traveling that we decided we didn't want to buy in Tulsa but wanted in a small town near Tulsa.

126. Our daughter, Suzette, worked with the girl who owned this house with her mother. They were "thinking" about selling but the house really wasn't on the market. Suzette called me about it. We came out to look. I walked in the front door and this was exactly what we were looking for. I KNEW it was my new home. We bought it the next day.

127. Coweta is a small town 25 miles S.E. of Tulsa, toward Arkansas.

128. I returned to my job at the CPA firm after our 6 months of travel.

129. In June, 2000 I retired. Our youth pastor, his wife and 3 children moved into our home for what was going to be another 6 month RV trip. The first 6 months we went West to Alaska. This time we went East to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

130. The youth pastor and his wife stored all their furniture and belongings, except for clothes. We left everything in place and in our house, except for our clothes. They used our bedding, dishes, pots and pans, etc. Even our children's pictures remained on the picture wall and Mickey's balloon plaque wall stayed in tact.

131. What was suppose to be a 6 months time of our being out of our home and living in the 5th wheel turned into 4 years. Part of that time we did return to Tulsa but just stayed in an RV park, because we knew we were going again, and didn't want to make the youth pastor and his family move out.

132. We returned to Coweta and our home in May, 2004 and have been here the past 3 years.

133. The past 22 years of our life and marriage have been nothing but pure joy. We've continued to have "situations" come up within our family and things we have had to deal with but our marriage is on solid ground.

134. Our story of working through marriage difficulties, standing firm and not quiting, and trusting God every step of the way is nothing but a testimony of God's grace and God's redeeming power. HE is the rock and the only firm foundation.

My prayer in sharing our story....the good and the bad....is the hope that anyone who reads it will be encouraged to put their faith and trust in God. Press on to that high calling to which Christ calls each and every one of us who know and serve HIM.

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!