From RV to Cottage
Watching and Listening Intently for the God Glimmers in Times of Stress
I wasn’t sure what I would post in this Sunday slot but my hospital reflection reminded me of how well God cares for me in ways I do not expect. It is never a big monumental thing and could be easily missed if I wasn’t paying attention. I never doubt but that it is God giving me a glimmer of hope.
The day Scott was being evaluated by the Physical Therapist to determine if he would have the physical strength and supports at home that would enable him to be discharged, I realized that God was way out ahead of us in preparing the way for that to be possible.
Up until moving into the Cottage, we spent ten years living in houses with challenging entry stairs and in RVs. Without moving out of our RV and into the cottage, he would have needed to go into a rehab facility—which with his low white blood count would not have been the best scenario.
The physical therapist began asking me questions about our housing and as she did, I felt the glimmer.
Do you have entry stairs? No, we do not.
Are there stairs inside the house? No, it is all on one level.
Are there any differences in the levels from room to room? None.
What about coming into the house? Not there either, completely flat.
Are there narrow hallways, or spaces that would be difficult to navigate? No, it was built to be wheelchair accessible.
What about the shower? Handrails all around, step-in shower, large enough for a chair, and hand-held shower head.
What about the size of the bathroom? Wheelchair accessible.
What is the height of the toilet? It is higher than normal with rails all around it.
Finally, she just stopped and stared at me. I smiled—behind my mask—and said, “The cottage we live in was built specifically for our friend’s aging parents and there is really no handicap-accessible detail that they missed. I have some adjustments that I need to make furniture-wise, but other than that, we are good to go.”
She said, “Well I see no need for an Occupational Therapist to come for an evaluation of the home, we will just mark that off of the referral list.”
This is not the first time a glimmer wasn’t recognized until we needed it. When Scott and I had been married about a year, my dad retired and we all decided to share a house for a year to save money to move to Missouri for Scott to attend college. We had two rooms and one was a nursery with ABC/counting wallpaper. We were going to use the room for our living room and planned to remove the wallpaper . . . until we realized our daughter was on the way and the room was intended to be our nursery. The feelings I have had this week about this Cottage have been very similar. I don’t think God determines our future—but does seem to know what we will need when we get there.
I am so thankful for the cottage—that it meets your needs!