I wish we could have skipped this week. Just getting over the trauma of Max's fall last week, we began this week with a fresh outlook, a little bit more caution, and an appreciation for life and health beyond a cut that will heal.
Monday started out OK except for the fact that there were very few work tasks for me during the day. It was kind of nice to be able to just focus on Max while he was awake. I worked that night making up my hours for the day. Tuesday was the same, barely any work during the day, so Max and I played and did some organizing and chores around the house. About mid-day, however, I noticed that it was getting pretty warm in the house. I checked out the thermostat. It was set to 73 but the temperature in the house was 77. I called Travis and he said to check a couple of things. It didn't help, so I called our A/C servicer. They said they could come out that afternoon. They said that it probably froze up, so I should turn the A/C off and leave just the fan running.
By the time they got here it was up to 80 degrees. Max and I were staying cool in front of the floor fan, but it was pretty uncomfortable, especially being big and pregnant. The guy checked out our system and said that we had a bad leak. He strongly recommended that we replace the A/C system, because it's 10 years old and this is probably the first of many leaks. It would cost them $800 to fix it and about $4000 to replace it. Whoa! That was tough news to hear! Travis and I discussed it and figured that we should probably just replace it because of the possibility of many costly future repairs.
We decided to get a second opinion and set up several estimate appointments for the next day to try to get the best price. Travis stayed home from work that morning, to help with the estimates. The second tech that came out gave us the same advice as the first, and we got 4 estimates for the repair ranging from $2600-$3600 depending on the brand. Travis went to work after lunch and Max and I headed to Target to buy some shelving for the garage.
I called Travis on the way home, because a lady wanted to come look at one of the desks we were selling, and I told him I preferred if he were home when she came. He said he was already home. I asked him why and he told me that he had been laid off! I didn't even know what to say. I was dumbfounded. I told him I was almost home and we would talk then.
When we got home, he told me that he went in to the office and couldn't log in. He asked around and after a while, they came around to his office and told him that the company was doing poorly after loosing a big government contract and that they had to let him go. They also told him that he would get no severance pay. It's a small company of around 30 employees, and they laid 40% of the company off that day, including his boss, and even the owner's uncle.
What a shock! What a week! Travis applied for unemployment and started his job hunt Thursday. I worked with a couple of companies who were bidding against each other for the A/C job, and we were able to get one of the companies to come down to $2320 with no credit card processing fee, which is normally 3.6%. We scheduled them to do the work Monday, with the hopes that the leak is slow enough that the freon will last though the weekend.
We don't know how long it will take or what God's plan is, but we have faith that he has something better for our family. The outpouring of encouraging words and prayers has been so wonderful. Lots of people have offered resources and contacts to Travis. Travis' former boss recommended him to his recruiter. Our brother-in-law, Pat, offered to put in a good word about Travis for a job opening at his company. The lady that bought the desk from us sent us a list of her recruiters. Our good friend Kristine has a friend that does the same work and offered to talk to her about any openings at her company. The list is long...we are so grateful!
As you can imagine, it's easy for us as humans to dwell on the possibility that he won't find work for a while. Our insurance will run out at the end of the month, which is not a good thing when you have a baby due in less than 4 months. The negative thoughts could be crippling if we let them take over. We're choosing, however, to focus on God. We choose to stay positive and have faith that he won't give us anything we can't handle. We claim his promise that He will neither leave us nor forsake us. We choose to let this make us appreciate what we have more, make us stronger as a family, and stronger as a couple. All that really matters in the end is that we're in heaven with the people that we love. We need your prayers. The next few weeks and maybe months aren't going to be easy, but with your prayers and encouragement, we know we will make it though.
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