In December 2000 my husband lost his job. He had been working with a ministry who's leader and founder was no longer living the Christian life he was "preaching." This leader was no longer paying his employees correctly (if at all) and we decided we didn't want to be associated with this particular ministry as long as the reputation and integrity of this leader was in question. When Greg decided to leave, his employer told him he would continue to pay our medical insurance through March 2001 to give Greg enough time to find another job and get medical insurance. During the end of December - mid January we had several hospital visits and surgery happen in our family. My husband began working for Landrum Temporary Services to help him find another job. He was so unsure of what he wanted to do during this next phase of his life. He loved traveling with this ministry! It was a part of his life and this was like a bitter divorce! He needed time to grieve; time to heal.
In March, he went to get a prescription refilled and was presented a bill by our pharmacy for the last three months of prescriptions that had been filled. They stated that our insurance company said our policy had been cancelled effective November 1, 2000! What?! By now, this was just another one of many deceitful things this former "employer - ministry" had done to us. We tried to fight it. We even consulted a lawyer and the insurance commissioner. We had every legal ground to sue them and would more than likely win we were told but we would have to fight it in another state because this ministry is in another state from where we live. We decided to just let it go and let God handle it.
By October, Greg had landed a telemarketing job he loved and was really good at! He was catching the eye of the "powers-to-be" because he was so good at his job! In October I began working at our daughters' high school as a Color Guard instructor. Yet it wasn't enough....we had been behind for so long. We just couldn't ever get caught up!
By December 2001 we were drowning in medical bills ($25,000+) due to all those expenses from December - March being refunded to the insurance company because our former employer lied about the actual termination date of the insurance policy (and my husband's last date of employment!) We were getting ready to be evicted from the house we'd been renting for four years, our car was being repossessed...
My mom and step-dad opened up their home to us. So right after Christmas, we began packing, put some stuff in storage, got rid of a lot of stuff and moved in with my parents. Me, Greg, our twin 13-yr-old daughters and our 5-yr-old son all moved in to what was supposed to be a short-term solution just to help us get back on our feet. That was January 1, 2002.
It is now June 15th, 2007 - we have paid off most of that debt. Our daughters are married to military men and have kids of their own now and are stationed in Hawaii and California and our son is 10 1/2. Greg is the Assistant Call Center Manager at the same place he started working at as a telemarketer. I homeschool our son and work from home doing many odd jobs and selling on eBay. BUT, we still live with my parents! Why? Because our credit was ruined and we've been unable to get approved to move into anywhere else. Because we were evicted from our last house after living there and paying rent for 4 years. It is taking us a much, much slower time to crawl back out of this hole we got into 5 years ago. But we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There have been some really good things happen in the last 6 months that have been very reassuring that our time is getting closer to being in our own place again.
I picked up a book the other day called Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and once I started reading that book, I couldn't put it down! It was an incredible book! As I was reading it I could actually see myself being totally debt free this time next year if I can convince my husband to follow this man's guidelines! We are going on vacation as of Sunday, June 17th for one week. When we get back from vacation we are beginning this Total Money Makeover!!
Stay tuned for more details...
