We moved into our apartment and we had plenty of space and the rent was a bit cheaper than our previous apartment. The apartment wasn't in a nice area, but we knew that thois would be temporary. Our next step was to get a house. We had been praying a while and we believed that it would come to pass through our Lord Jesus Christ.

A week after I gave birth to our daughter Marissa, the apartment across the hall from us caught on fire. It was the grace of God that Robert heard the woman scream because there were no smoke alarms. Robert opened the door and he saw nothing but smoke. He came in the room calm as usual and told me that the apartment were on fire and to call 911. I reacted as quickly as possible. We grabbed the children and we were out of there. Smoke and soot filled our apartment and the landlords showed no concern.

There were many other things that needed to be fixed and our landlords were extremely slow about coming to fix them and most of the time they never came. They had excuses for everything. The heat went out, the garbage disposal exploded, the burners on the stove would half way work, cigarette smoke from other tenants would come through the vents, the toliet seat fell apart, dish water from the dishwasher was in the sink, the dryer took forever to dry our clothes and the list goes on and on. We had never experienced this because at our previous apartments, whenever we had a problem, they came and fixed it right away. Sometimes we have to go through things in order the get where God wants for us to be. My husband robert was calm most of the time, but I was a mess. I called the Health Department when I should have called on God. They acted like they didn't want to help. I was truly frustrated with everything, but Robert and everyone in my life told me that things could be worse. When you're going through, it's hard to see sometimes. My prayer life was going down and I wasn't getting to church like I should have because of circumstances. It hurted a lot because I needed to hear a word from God to soothe my soul. I should have picked up my word, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. I could have given my own self some encouragement. God is the way, the truth and the light. Thank you Jesus.

Robert and I both wanted to get out of these apartments desperately. We were recommended to go through this program to get a house. we were excited and they gave us advice financially and they recommended for us to file bankruptcy because what was going out had far exceeded what was coming in. We didn't know if we should do it, but we gave it some thought and we agreed. Everything looked good, but the people over the program started acting up. We were discouraged once again, but we were praying and believing. We weren't going to let anything get us down. We were trying to be positive no matter what happened. robert and I said that we were going to believe and see ourselves in our home. We had to have a vision and be in the will of God.

Shortly therafter, my brother-in-law told my husband about a home in a nice area of town that he thought that he would be interested in. The man that was selling the home remembered my brother-in-law and everything strated from there. We looked at the home on a few days before Christmas. We loved it! The children did too. A couple of days later we sat down with the man who owned the home and discussed arrangements to purchase the home. The day after Christmas we gave the man our earnest money (Thank God for family). We closed the middle of January and moved in a couple days after that.

It's one thing when we try to do things on our own, but when God moves and paves the way, we're talking about the true blessing where you don't have room to receive. The man who sold us the home was God-sent. Our family and our friends went out of their way to help us through the grace of God. Thank you Jesus!

Through all of this I've learned that I have to trust and believe in God and never doubt what my God can do. I had to be patient and wait on God. God is everything I need him to be. I just have to believe in my heart and know that it is true. As long as I'm in the will of God and I'm obedient to his word, he will give me the desires of my heart. Prayer and the hearing of the word is the key. My faith and commitment to the Lord are extremely important as well because I must uphold my part because He always up holds His. Thank you Lord for not giving up on me. Help me in the name of Jesus.

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