Something happened today that I wanted to share so that God can receive praise and thanks. We had our chimney cleaned and inspected today, considering our late night visit from the fire department about a month ago. (scroll down to find that story)
Well, we paid $110 to find out we cannot use our chimney. It will take $1450 to fix. It's really not that big of a deal, we have central heat and air but wanted to offset the electricity bill with the wood stove.
Here is the cool part. When we were going to buy this house, we were turned down by our credit union because the house did not have central heat and air. We found a mortgage broker who worked with us to get another loan. Then that company required a central heat and air system. Our plan was just to heat with the wood stove and cool with the window units already here. The mortgage broker worked it out for the seller to pay half of the cost to install the HVAC and then rolled the rest into our loan amount. We were so frustrated at this whole process because our closing kept getting put off again and again. The HVAC was the big hold-up on getting the house.
Thankfulness #1: If we hadn't had to wait, we would be really cold right now. God provided us a brand new HVAC with a 10 year warranty. (actually we have two HVAC because of the house set-up). We would have bought this house and froze to death this winter with a new baby come February. GOD PROVIDES
Thankfulness #2: The chimney inspector told us today that there had been a chimney fire before that had severely damaged our entire chimney. Basically, if we use this chimney, we will burn our house down from inside the walls. Since the chimney runs upstairs near our kids room, that's very serious. The stove pipe issue that brought the fire department out was a different issue. But I feel now it was a warning from God not to use it again until someone looked at it. It is a very sobering thought to know just how much God is looking out for us and to realize how serious of a situation it was. GOD PROTECTS
Tera made the point tonight that when it seems God is doing things we don't like or understand, He is really just keeping us safe. How awesome to be reminded of how much God loves us and protects us.