Hopeful Thoughts

Excerpt from our contract with the home warranty company:

“Pre-existing conditions are not covered by this contract. However, for Buyer’s and Seller’s coverage only and for systems that become inoperative due to normal wear and tear, there is no denial of coverage (“No Fault” coverage) for: (a) malfunctions that existed on the effective date of the contract if, at that time, the malfunction was unknown and would not have been detectable by visual inspection or a simple mechanical test, (b) malfunctions caused by a lack of maintenance, rust or corrosion © malfunctions caused by improperly installed equipment and (d) malfunctions caused by mismatched system sizes. Undersized or poorly designed systems relative to the square footage are not covered by the “No Fault” coverage.”

Excerpt from our home inspection report which is being cited as the reason behind our denied coverage when the current issue is a fan motor that won’t function:

“The ambient air test was performed using thermometers on the air handler of both Air conditioners to determine if the difference in temperatures of the supply and return air are between 14 degrees and 22 degrees which indicates that the unit is cooling as intended. The supply air temperature at main home read 61 degrees, and the return air temperature was 70 degrees….This indicates that the main home unit is not cooling properly and a licensed Heat/Air contractor should inspect for cause of problem.”

It never ceases to amaze me how our God answers prayers and provides for our needs. He does things in ways we would never expect and could never imagine on our own. Often, just when we can’t see any options, He provides in unexpected ways.

Recently, I’ve been very frustrated with my “job options”. When I quit teaching a year ago, the plan was to begin tutoring out of my home in order to bring in a little extra income to support what Ryan was making working full time. This seemed like an easy goal, so I built a web site, made flyers, printed up business cards, and even paid for an ad in the local homeschool association parent newsletter. Over the first summer, I had one student, and didn’t get another until November when two kids came twice each. I finally landed a consistent student in January who stuck with me through the end of the school year, but my one kid for this summer fell through.

When things seemed bleak back in November, I took advantage of another opportunity and began selling Premier Designs jewelry at home shows. I’ve done direct sales before, and this seemed like a great way to make a little extra cash and maybe even meet parents who needed a tutor for their kids. I enjoy the jewelry parties, but my heart is in education. I want to work with kids, and it was really bumming me out that Hope4Math couldn’t seem to get off the ground.

Rewind to the spring of 2008. I was teaching Geometry for the first time ever (something I was a bit apprehensive about doing, but wound up loving!) There was a young lady in one of my classes who REALLY struggled. She struggled so much that her mom hired a tutor. When she continued to struggle, the tutor called me directly to touch base and see if we could work together on a plan to help her succeed.

I’m not sure how the conversation lead to this point, but the tutor, we’ll call her “Kay”, and I hit it off over the phone and I let her know of my future goal of quitting full time teaching and pursuing a tutoring business of my own. We ended up meeting for lunch and she shared her knowledge. We kept up communication during the rest of the year, and the following fall, I received a phone call from her. She and her husband were expecting another baby, and she was hoping I would be able to sub for some of her tutoring sessions after the baby came.

I started working for her in January of 2009 two afternoons a week. Kay eventually took back most of her students, but I remained on one day a week from that point on. During that time, I’ve learned about her business and met most of her students. We’ve become friends as we’ve shared her new baby, both of our husbands being laid off, and my own coming bundle.

What does this have to do with God and His provision?

Kay’s husband lost his job before Christmas this year, and just this month received a job offer in another state. To make a long story short, I’ve been asked to essentially take over the business that she has spent the last several years building.

I’ll be going from one student to a full load almost overnight.

God is awesome!

I knew being pregnant in the summer wasn’t going to exactly be “fun”. I expected to be hot and uncomfortable. I didn’t expect to be unable to be cool in my own home.

At 35 weeks pregnant, I’ve gained 28 pounds and am finding it much harder to assume comfortable positions around the watermelon that now resides where my stomach once was. Add to that the fact that our air conditioner hasn’t been functioning for nearly 2 weeks, and it’s pretty hard to take.

We knew the AC unit was old when we bought the place. However, it WAS cooling the house. At least it was until we woke up on June 21, the morning after the big party, to a house nearing 85 degrees at 8:30 in the morning and we heard a grinding noise coming from the unit. NOT cool! We shut it off, since it wasn’t working.

So, we called our Warranty company to send out an AC repair guy. Due to busy schedules, no one could come out until Tuesday. On Tuesday, the brilliant man who came out told us that there was absolutely nothing wrong, that it was just old. He claimed we needed a new unit. We turned the unit back on and left it running and grinding, however, so we could at least cool the air a bit.

Unhappy with this diagnosis, we called the AC company and asked that they send us another guy. This guy came on Wednesday. This time, the unit was cleaned, inspected, and we were told we needed a new fan motor, which couldn’t be replaced because the unit was so old they didn’t make the bracket needed to install it. He also tried to sell us a new unit, naming a price that he obviously pulled out of thin air. He claimed the warranty would cover part of the cost, but he didn’t tell us which part. These guys left, we still had no cool air, and later that night, the unit completely quit running altogether. Ryan even resorted to going to Wal-mart at midnight to purchase a small window unit which he finished installing in our bedroom at 3AM.

We again contacted the warranty company and asked that they send us a different AC company, because we felt the prior company wasn’t being honest with us about prices. We were finally assigned another company last Friday afternoon, but were unable to contact them until Monday. When I called this guy, I was told that he no longer worked with our Warranty company. He listed several other companies that he would be happy to do work for, but not ours. Needless to say, our confidence in the resolution of the situation was wearing thin.

The call was re-dispatched at least twice more, but it wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that we finally got another AC guy out to the house to look at the problem. This guy didn’t really tell us anything different, but it’s what he didn’t tell us that made us a bit more confident. He didn’t give us any estimates until he could talk to the Warranty company to see what they were willing to do. At last! Someone who seemed trustworthy!

However, our problems were still a long way from being solved. As I write this, it is Friday, a full 11 days since we first called the Warranty company with our complaint. We are waiting on them to decided what to do. They asked for a copy of our inspection report, which we’ve sent. However, no feedback has been given. Since this weekend is July 4th and many people will be off work on Monday, we can’t expect anything to be done until Tuesday at the earliest.

In the meantime, we’re spending lots of time in the bedroom and not even able to enjoy the rest of our house. I tried to cook once, which only resulted in my nearly having heat stroke with the additional heat from the over.

I’m trying to enjoy the cooler weather God has provided though the rains over the last week. I’m grateful for the break from the 100 degree days. However, I will be much happier when this whole situation is resolved.