A Change in Perspective

 

 

I hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours wasn’t so great, and by the end of it, well, let me just tell you about all of it.

 

Earlier in the week we went up to Kentucky to see Ashley’s side of the family. Prior to us going, my 5-year-old came down with some sort of sickness that had a bad headache, high fever and body aches. It was pretty bad, but he was feeling lots better and not running a fever by the time we needed to go. So, we thought that it was just something he got into since no one else had symptoms.

On the way up, however, Ashley started feeling poorly, but we got to her dad’s house, and she could tell Pawpaw really wanted us to be there. So, we stayed for an hour before heading off to our Vrbo for the night.

 

Not long after we got there, my youngest started running a fever. He’s the one we have to pay attention to because he’s prone to febrile seizures. And sure enough, at 5 a.m. while we were trying to cool him off in the bathtub, he had full blown one.

 

Thankfully we know the signs now and watch him like a hawk, otherwise, had we turned our backs or walked to grab a towel, he would have been under water. Instead, I saw the lights go out, his head thrash back and I caught him before he hit. I laid him on his side on the bathroom rug and Ashley and I prayed for it to pass quickly. Thankfully, the shaking stopped, he started breathing and it was over.

 

That day was the family get-together, and despite the illness, Pawpaw still asked us to come. And Ashley did one of those amazing things only a strong woman can do: she willed her body to act right and not be sick. We had a good day, good food, no more seizures, and lots of joy.

 

The next day was our ride home. That’s when the illness rebounded on Ashley and she was a poor baby all the way home. That ride was not great. It rained all the way, traffic was terrible and the kids, especially the littles, were sick and restless. I was pretty grumpy by the time we got home Tuesday evening.

 

Wednesday was the worst day for Ashley, and I couldn’t just stay home for her. We had homemade sweet potato pies made to pass out to all our tenants as a Thanksgiving present, and I had to get them all handed out that day. Despite knowing the importance of this gesture to our tenants, I was tired and really didn’t want to spend another full day driving door-to-door. But because showing them our gratitude is so important, I loaded the pies up from the office and headed out.

 

As I did, a phone call came in for me. It was from an attorney down in Cartersville. She was hired by a neighbor on a property we recently purchased where there’s a land dispute going on. To make a long story short, part of the house and, more importantly, the septic system for the house we just bought is sitting on a separate parcel.

 

This dispute was not something I was aware of until minutes before we purchased the property. And the way I was told about it made it sound like it was just a formality where a closing attorney messed up and it could be fixed. This attorney was telling me the neighbor has the claim to the parcel and wants me to move the trailer off their land.

If that’s correct, this will be very expensive for us.

 

I had a flood of emotions after that call that I won’t get into in this column, but I was so upset by them that I had a hard time sleeping that night. We also found out that a tenant who owes us money moved out on us while I was delivering pies.

 

Waking up after all that Thursday morning I just felt negative. Normally on Thanksgiving, I start the day off by doing the Babb Family Thanksgiving Run. I normally do a 10k with a bunch of friends, come home and then head off to my uncle’s house for Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family. Not only did I have negativity at work, but I wasn’t getting to do any of my favorite things this Thanksgiving. To put it in country terms, I was plain out rurnt.

 

Have you ever needed a slap to the face to bring you back to reality? Well, apparently, I did.

Thursday morning, I met with a person I was buying some things from on Marketplace. As we talked, he told me about his family’s struggles. He had a little boy that had been born with a brain tumor. This had caused some paralysis early on, but they were able to remove the benign tumor and feeling was restored. By age one, their little boy had been through multiple surgeries and rounds of chemo and radiation. All had been good until recently. The boy, now three, has cancer running down his entire spinal column. His lower body is paralyzed, and they have to feed him through a feeding tube to get enough calories in him.

 

As I listened to the dad talk about the physical, financial and emotional struggles his family was enduring, my heart went out to them and I had a big change in perspective. All of a sudden, all those things that had been bothering me didn’t seem that big after all.

 

Later at dinner (my wonderful mom made sure we got some turkey and dressing), we went around the table and told what we were thankful for. When it was my turn, I choked back tears telling my family what I was thankful for and how I was ashamed for taking our blessing for granted. I apologized for being grumpy, and told them about the little boy who gave me the change of perspective.

 

We finished the night by praying for little Lucas and his family and I hope you’ll pray for him too.

 

Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.