I was divorced a few years ago due to the fact that a traumatic head injury caused a total personality change in my spouse. Because of denial over my spouse's issuses, and because I was not about to report to his parents that he was drinking and committing adultery, combined with numerous lies my ex told, the divorce estranged me from a family I had been a part of for over 20 years. Though his father was always polite to me after the divorce, he was distant.
It has bothered me a lot because I deeply respect and love in a daughter-like fashion this dear man who was my father in law. I lost my own father when I was 15, and from the day I began to date my spouse, this man and his side of my husband's family had embraced me like a daughter. The divorce had made things distantly awkward. Though my ex's parents were polite to me, the love was gone. Or so I thought.
This has been a really rough month. My daughter is getting married next week, so all of my money has gone to her wedding or to her brother's doctor bills. (Nothing serious, but expensive none the less). My furnance is out, my stove quit, my faucet started not just "leaking" but running at about a 2 gallons per hour, and the sink it runs into stopped up. Then, tonight, my car's battery light came on. I haven't gotten it to the shop yet, but it almost certainly going to be the alternator.
The Lord has been amazing though, and gave me the most beautiful gift in the last 48 hour. He has shown me His love through people around me.
When my daughter came by the house and realized the furnace was out during a cold snap she went to her fiance and discussed it with him, and decided their "early Christmas present" to me would be getting heat back into my house.
My sister called and when I told her I was bailing water from a sink she showed up with all kinds of tools, then spent all night in my kitchen with my teenage son and my daughter, fixing my sink. My sister is generally not a mechanical person, so it isn't like she does plumbing all the time. She says it was all just trying to think logically. I know it was God's guidance.
The greatest gift though, came tonight. I knew that my ex-spouse, who now lives with his parents and is much better than before because my father-in-law forces him to take his medications, had just purchased a new car. I knew, also, that he had not traded in his old truck to do this because he had told me and my son that he will give him that truck in a few weeks when my son gets his driver's license. I called to ask to borrow the truck IF the alternator actually killed the battery before I could get everything fixed. He refused. I explained that it would only be for about a week, at which time my paycheck for some outside work I did would arrive and that my concerns were just getting to work or getting our son to school until then, and he again refused.
I hung up, planning to make calls to other relatives later to see if they could help me, but before I made them I did some research to see what I was probably looking at price wise.
While I was on line, my ex knocked on the door, came in and shoved his wallet in my face and said, "My Dad said to give this to you." He began to peel $20's out of his wallet. I said, "I don't understand. Why would Tom send me money?" He said, "He says you obvious used all your money on the kids, and that we shouldn't let you do this alone." I said, "I didn't do it alone. You paid for a lot of this wedding, you paid for 1/2 the doctor bills." He said, "Yeah, but Dad had a list. Did you really pay for the dress, the veil, the cake, the groom's wedding ring, and the alterations on the dress?" I said, "Yes, but how did your Dad know that?" He said, "I don't know. All I know is that I'm not supposed to tell our daughter, and I'm supposed to give you this." I said, "Wait, your Dad said he would help her with any outstanding expenseses still left, this isn't the money he promised to her is it?" He said, "No. This has nothing to do with that. This is a gift from him and my mother to you. Use it on a new battery, and if you have any left over, do something for yourself. Dad wants me to be sure this money is yours. Don't Christmas shop with it, and don't spend it on the wedding. He wants you to use it on yourself, or your car. Nothing else."
This was such a loving gesture from this dear man that I just broke down and cried. I called my daughter, and asked her if she had called her grandfather. She was as stunned as I was. I asked her how her grandfather knew what part of the wedding I had paid for, she swears she doesn't know, unless, she said, she mentioned to him at some other time.
I felt like I received a love note from God, and another from my ex-in-laws. It means more to me than all the money in the world.
It has bothered me a lot because I deeply respect and love in a daughter-like fashion this dear man who was my father in law. I lost my own father when I was 15, and from the day I began to date my spouse, this man and his side of my husband's family had embraced me like a daughter. The divorce had made things distantly awkward. Though my ex's parents were polite to me, the love was gone. Or so I thought.
This has been a really rough month. My daughter is getting married next week, so all of my money has gone to her wedding or to her brother's doctor bills. (Nothing serious, but expensive none the less). My furnance is out, my stove quit, my faucet started not just "leaking" but running at about a 2 gallons per hour, and the sink it runs into stopped up. Then, tonight, my car's battery light came on. I haven't gotten it to the shop yet, but it almost certainly going to be the alternator.
The Lord has been amazing though, and gave me the most beautiful gift in the last 48 hour. He has shown me His love through people around me.
When my daughter came by the house and realized the furnace was out during a cold snap she went to her fiance and discussed it with him, and decided their "early Christmas present" to me would be getting heat back into my house.
My sister called and when I told her I was bailing water from a sink she showed up with all kinds of tools, then spent all night in my kitchen with my teenage son and my daughter, fixing my sink. My sister is generally not a mechanical person, so it isn't like she does plumbing all the time. She says it was all just trying to think logically. I know it was God's guidance.
The greatest gift though, came tonight. I knew that my ex-spouse, who now lives with his parents and is much better than before because my father-in-law forces him to take his medications, had just purchased a new car. I knew, also, that he had not traded in his old truck to do this because he had told me and my son that he will give him that truck in a few weeks when my son gets his driver's license. I called to ask to borrow the truck IF the alternator actually killed the battery before I could get everything fixed. He refused. I explained that it would only be for about a week, at which time my paycheck for some outside work I did would arrive and that my concerns were just getting to work or getting our son to school until then, and he again refused.
I hung up, planning to make calls to other relatives later to see if they could help me, but before I made them I did some research to see what I was probably looking at price wise.
While I was on line, my ex knocked on the door, came in and shoved his wallet in my face and said, "My Dad said to give this to you." He began to peel $20's out of his wallet. I said, "I don't understand. Why would Tom send me money?" He said, "He says you obvious used all your money on the kids, and that we shouldn't let you do this alone." I said, "I didn't do it alone. You paid for a lot of this wedding, you paid for 1/2 the doctor bills." He said, "Yeah, but Dad had a list. Did you really pay for the dress, the veil, the cake, the groom's wedding ring, and the alterations on the dress?" I said, "Yes, but how did your Dad know that?" He said, "I don't know. All I know is that I'm not supposed to tell our daughter, and I'm supposed to give you this." I said, "Wait, your Dad said he would help her with any outstanding expenseses still left, this isn't the money he promised to her is it?" He said, "No. This has nothing to do with that. This is a gift from him and my mother to you. Use it on a new battery, and if you have any left over, do something for yourself. Dad wants me to be sure this money is yours. Don't Christmas shop with it, and don't spend it on the wedding. He wants you to use it on yourself, or your car. Nothing else."
This was such a loving gesture from this dear man that I just broke down and cried. I called my daughter, and asked her if she had called her grandfather. She was as stunned as I was. I asked her how her grandfather knew what part of the wedding I had paid for, she swears she doesn't know, unless, she said, she mentioned to him at some other time.
I felt like I received a love note from God, and another from my ex-in-laws. It means more to me than all the money in the world.
