Construction Pains

I was so excited when we opened La Tienda de Esperanza, the Casa de Esperanza store. I was even more excited when construction began on the Bill Brumley cottage because when that is complete more children can be rescued.

Marc knew how much work Karen and I put into that store and the new cottage is more or less being built around the store. I have known since last week that the store had to be emptied to do some of the work. I was told on Monday, the work would be done on Friday, giving me plenty of time to empty the store. Yesterday, while I was with Marc and our guests, Karen called and said they were ready to start working on the store and it needed to be emptied. I am in town and Karen is on duty with the children. I told her to tell the workers to wait until today to do their work. In a few minutes, Karen called back and said the workers said they would just cover the merchandise. I knew how well my stuff was not covered while work was being done on my house. Some of the merchandise is very fragile and the tshirts would never sell if they were dirty. Then I had Marc call Milton and tell him to wait until today. And that was that.

We got home last night it was raining, of course, and I was tired. I don't normally put off until tomorrow what I can do to today, but yesterday that is exactly what I did.

This morning I got up at 5:00 and spent my time with God. At 5:30, I walked up to the store, unlocked the door, and assessed the situation. I was sure it would not take long to empty the store, as everything desperately needed to be restocked since all the summer groups have come and gone. Thankfully, it needed to be restocked. At 5:30 a.m., no one is up at Casa de Esperanza except the night guard. I began to carry one load at a time down to my house. I could only find one box and I was glad for it. Everytime I got to the house though, I had to unload the box. I walked up and down that hill from my house to the store and back until 7:10. A few times it sprinkled as I walked back and forth. I was very thankful the hard rains did not fall this morning. Every single time I walked into my house, I thought someone would be up. I probably would not have asked our guests to help me, but might not have refused their help if they had offered.

I regularly walk in the morning, but not for an hour and forty minutes. I can hardly move tonight. While I ran errands in town, the work in the store was complete. I am glad that work is complete. They still need to do the electrical work. I will finally have a light in the store. I can hardly wait until I can haul all this back to the store. If I was a betting person, I would bet that I choose a more normal time of day and recruit some help.

Hope I can get out of bed tomorrow.

Terri