I have always believed in God, my mum was a Christian as my Nanna, my dad isn't but he was raised Methodist and he supports what I do with volunteering and going to church. For a number of years I was angry with my parents for the hurt they caused me when I was 19 and angry with God for allowing them to get away with hurting me. It took 23 years for me to start forgiving them although I understood before then that God didn't deserve my anger. Since then (2004) I have been through good times and very bad times yet have held onto my faith as God has been the one constant in my life.
One of our worries over the years has been money. No matter how tough it's been over the years I have managed to make sure we have paid our bills and that we have had enough food in for our pets and ourselves. God has supplied when it's been really hard no matter what. A few years ago we thought we would be living on baked beans on toast for a few days, the pets were okay as we had enough in for them. We went to church in the morning then about 45 minutes after we got home two young ladies from our church and said they felt the Lord wanted them to bless us with Sunday dinner. There is no way they could have known our situation as we didn't tell anybody. We asked them to stay for lunch which they did which was brave for them as they were scared of dogs but by the time they left they liked our dogs. Not only did the food feed us on the Sunday there was enough for the Monday and we went shopping on the Tuesday.
The past couple of years has been tough in other ways. We have had to deal with a neighbour from hell, I went through several months of cyber bullying from one person and both of us from one person causing us trouble with mutual acquaintances. It got to the point that I couldn't take any more and our housing association was dragging it's feet over the neighbour despite us getting the police involved. The police were supportive as our neighbour was completely honest over what he was doing as he believed we deserved it and he was right to make our lives a living hell. He suffers with bipolar and his wife was excusing his behaviour because of that. She knows we also suffer with depression and that his behaviour was affecting our mental health.
Despite every thing our faith never faltered. I started searching for property so we could either try a mutual exchange or do a transfer. With about 4 or 5 days we got a telephone call to say we had a choice of three of the four properties I had bidded on. The lady said she would show us the better two and got the ball rolling with a rent reference as it's a different housing association to the one we were renting from. We saw them on the Thursday and signing up the tenancy the following Monday. We had a tough couple of months financially but it was worth it. We had wanted to move closer the church we were attending but there wasn't anything available near it. Instead we are a minute's work from another church and I have got quite involved with that one and attend there Sunday mornings. My husband is more involved with another church and is now a steward there. They are within two different circuits which are oining together from the 1st September. Financially we are far better off as we live closer to supermarkets so it's cheaper on taxi fares to get our main shopping home now. My husband got awarded the lower rate of PIP in May and was backdated to the previous May. My claim for PIP has been dealt with now and was backdated to last October and am getting the enhanced rate and the motability component. We decided to get a car on motability as it will make our lives easier and won't have to rely on buses, taxis or friends for transport for getting further afield. The tax, insurance and servicing will be taken care off so all we need to worry about is petrol.
God has been good to us as we have been faithful no matter how bad life has got.
