Newborn life with Micah was
absolute joy. He was so precious, and I was so relieved to be at home full time
away from all the stress and drama I had experienced at school while I was
teaching. We quickly saw as he approached his first year, he was the center of
our family’s universe. He was the first grandchild on my side, and with
Grandmama and Papa close by, we knew he needed another little person to share
all this joy with. So we prayed for a little sibling.
Not long after his 1st
birthday, we discovered a little sister was soon to join us! We were elated! As
we were staying in a 1 bedroom condo, we realized we had better start our
search for a larger place sooner rather than later due to the difficulty
finding god housing can be on a small island.
We found a place on craigslist
that was just the right price. Three bedrooms, and a view of the ocean, this
HAD to be the one. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, we started making it
happen. We had to meet a few timelines with leaving the other place that caused
some stress and inconvenience to everyone involved, but we had a mission—to get
ready for baby #2!
In hindsight, we really didn’t use
much grace, and I see our anxiety paving the way for the trouble that was
coming, instead of letting faith and patience guide us.
We had to move 2 times to get into
our new place. Some church friends let us crash for couple nights with ALL our
boxes at their house while we waited for the official move in date, because we
had to leave the old place in time for the new renters month to begin. We didn’t
care, we were thrilled to start fresh at a new place and leave bad memories
behind.
Everything seemed wonderful when
we arrived. Our shared house was an “Ohana” so we shared one house with 2 separate
living spaces. The downstairs neighbors, Lucy and Larry (names changed for this
story), were acting as the building managers for the landlord that was out of
the country.
We left for a few weeks to take a
missions trip with our youth group to Paris and enjoyed a wonderful experience
sharing joy and praying with people we met on the streets. It was the first
time I ever cried leaving a place, I didn’t want to go back home.
When we settled back into life,
strange things started happening. Doors started slamming downstairs more often.
Our neighbors started smoking next to our screen only windows, and being pregnant
and a bit paranoid, I started complaining to Jonathan about the constant
annoyance. A complaint was sent to the landlord that the building managers were
breaking the rental rules. Honestly, I can’t remember if we talked to them
directly or not.. that may or may not have helped.
Late One night, Lucy knocked on
our door. We answered and were worried for her when we saw she had been crying.
She unloaded her horrifying story of abuse and heartache with the man that had
been living with her in the same building as all of us. This was the most
horrible, bloody and violent story I’ve ever had anyone personally confide in
me, and of course we were very upset for her. We prayed with her that night and
strongly advised her to seek shelter and safety from the man that was causing
this.
Larry never left.
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