Silver Linings

My mom took this picture! I stole it from her facebook to use here. :)

We've been traveling for 3 weeks on business. Busy busy busy!  Yesterday (Saturday) we came home! After a long time on the road, we were happy to be back in our town and go home.  We were in a taxi, on the way home from the airport when we got a call from Andre, a Chinese friend of ours. He told us that our landlord was in our house right then and was mad about something.  #1. We were thinking, "What!!?? Why is he in our house!???" But, we had heard that this has happened to some people. It's still not ok, but it happens.  #2. We were thinking, "We don't want to have to deal with this now because we are so so so so tired from traveling." #3. "What's he mad about???" #4. "What!!?? Why is he in OUR HOUSE!???" (Haha! Yes, I know I already mentioned that one.)  :)

So, we stepped out of the elevator and our door was wide open and the landlord (whom we had never met before) was standing outside our door.  After some awkward glances (because we knew we couldn't communicate very well with each other) we walked inside and he made himself at home while we put our baggage in our room.  We called Andre back and asked him to translate.  After it was all said and done, the landlord said we had damaged the apartment and he wanted us out by the end of the month.  Keep in mind, this apartment was never in our name and we were not responsible for those damages.  We took over the rent from some friends who we work with.  The damages were minor and the previous owners had cleared it with the landlord.  5 months ago those damages were not a big deal to him, but suddenly now they are.

There is so much more to tell, however, I didn't write this blogpost to complain. So I won't say anymore about how unfair this situation is.  The bottom line is we have to leave our apartment by the end of the month.

Silver linings....

#1. We are leaving China on May 16th, to come to America! We will be there until sometime in July. While this is pretty stressful to have to move everything out of our house when we just got settled, we have some friends who are going to allow us to keep some of our things in their house while we are gone.  When we get back we will have to find a new place to live, but meanwhile, we will at least have a place to put our things.

#2. This month, we have had a few extra bills that we have to pay.  Because we are essentially going to be homeless, we will not have to pay rent and utilities, and that will free up some money! Not that we couldn't pay it before, but this is so helpful!

#3. If we were going to continue living here, our rent would be due on May 15th.  Like I said before, we will be leaving China on May 16th. How much more perfect could that be?  I mean, really?

This situation stinks so much. It's not fun, and it makes me feel so stressed every time I think about it.  But when I think about the good things which are coming from this, it makes the stress not matter at all.  Sometimes I don't know if God has his hand in things directly, or if he just turns a bad situation into a good one.  It doesn't really matter if I know or not, He gets the credit and the glory no matter what!

I am thankful for this horrible situation and I pray I can keep this positive frame of mind until we get back to China in July. In July, we will have to begin the search for a new apartment. We will not have enough time to look for an apartment before we leave to come to America.  I pray I will have patience and the right frame of mind to deal with the frustrations of that.  A verse has come to mind during this situation.

Phil. 4:8

I pray we all can look for those silver linings in our lives. Thanks for reading! I love you all!