In January 2001, my home burned.  We did not have home owner's insurance, and the house could not really be repaired.  The cost to repair it would have been more than what was originally paid for the home.  It too was a singlewide mobile home.  My family didn't really know what we were going to do.  We didn't have the money for another home, we had just welcomed our yougest son into our family 2 weeks earlier, and we could not repair our home.  I began to pray and we moved in with my inlaws.

 

Every time I looked at my burned home, I prayed.  Since my home sat on the back of my inlaws property, that meant I saw it every day.  Red Cross did not help us because I could not walk them through the burned home.  The floors were rather unstable, and I had just given birth.  I knew there was a solution to our dilema, even though I didn't see it at the time.  I kept praying.

 

In the spring of 2001, my prayers were answered.  My grandfather in law sent us a two bedroom, one bath, single wide mobile home from Georgia.  The cost?  Nothing.  A gift to my family.  The interior was rather outdated, and it was a bit obvious that the home was from the 70's era, but it was ours.

 

At first, we planned on this home being temporary.  But, then my husband became disabled and my oldest son got diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.  What we once thought of as "temporary" had become permanant. 

 

People often criticized my old home because it wasn't as "fancy" as newer mobile homes are.  But it was my home.  Mine and my family's safe haven from the world.  This home taught my family and I many lessons.  The biggest one was NOT being materilistic.  We had decisions that had to be made when my husband became disabled.  Those decisions were "what is really important to us as a family"?  We came to the conclusion that we could adjust our budget, drop the "I want" items from it, and fairly comfortably live on my husband's disability every month.  So, being a materilistic family went out the window.  For a while, it was difficult to adjust.  But after about a year or so, we realized we were actually happier this way.  Credit cards were gone, debt was pretty much gone.  We were really more free this way.

 

In 2004, our house got it's name of "the battleship" during the Florida hurricane season.  Why?  Because it looked like an old ship against the storm clouds of Hurricane Ivan.

 

Now, to read the saga of this home and my family, click on the links below.