I am sorry that I cannot give much advice. What I wanted to say is that I often feel believers are tested harder than others.
I will pray for you at Mass this morning PF. That your well problem will be resolved. I can't believe God is behind your difficulties. He has permitted them perhaps but look at the fruit of your struggles. Offered up to Him it has produced graces for your family. I would ask St Joseph for immediate help on this. "Go to Joseph"
Powerful witness Border Collie. Would you be willing to share a link to your online prayer site? I will pray for you at Mass today. I had no idea you had such sufferings.
Before I read this post I advised in another post below to "Go to Joseph" as i had a strong sense he could fix it. I had no idea you had prayed the 30 day novena to him( a very favorite devotion)
Offering up prayers and Mass this morning. I wish I could give practical advise but I am probably the most unpractical person on the planet. I read some of the posts here and was impressed how wise and caring they are. If it helps any I have found when I have problems if I give it time and prayer a solution eventually pops into my head and heart from somewhere.
This makes me smile maryrose. We too left a comfortable house in a beautiful little city to move to the country to a dilapidated house because we felt a strong gut feeling we had to have land. The roof leaked the first few months we were in it. The basement flooded. It had no insulation. We froze. Our children hated it. Our oldest at 13 threatened to run away. But bit by bit we worked on it. We cleared debris. Rebuilt the barn. Planted fruit trees. Had wonderful gardens. We had a basement overhaul so no more floods. Roof redone so no leaky roof. Bit by bit. But the first year we were there I questioned what we had done. I even regretted it although the house was found after much prayer to St Joseph and sold to us in spite of 5 other offers for more money. That first year I called my wonderful holy friend who had survived the Nazis and the Russians and had such true faith and a prophetic spirit. I whined about the house. She got very stern with me. She said " God is doing this FOR YOUR CHILDREN" and I was not to turn back. It gave me courage. Now all these years later I thank God every day for the gift of this house and land. Our children love it. Our grandchildren love it. It has been such a blessing. PF I hope you read this too. Maryrose and I can reassure you!!!
So, so beautiful, AED. Your sharing reminds me of the way we came to own our present home and the way it has sheltered our precious family through ups and downs, 24 years now.
Isn't it? It was truly God's word for my heart. The minute it came to me, all the horses galloped out of my heart
Will be praying for you! My dream too was a small farm and 7 years ago I sold my house in the city and bought a small 1 acre property on the edge of town and adjacent to farms. I have my goats and dogs and have done all my dreams of gardening! But it is an older house, and have had many issues with learning about septic systems, flooding, furnace troubles etc.... I live alone so there is no one to share the burden either financially or emotionally. Sometimes I feel like I'm going through weeks of just literally surviving! But it all works out. The Lord is very kind and lets us experience these things so He can then graciously answer our prayers. There really seems to be a shortage of people to work in the building trades, and when you can find someone, they end up not showing up or overcharging or just putting you off to work on bigger and better projects. Since my wonderful handy man I had retired, I have learned to do a LOT of repairs myself. This week I need to pull a rotten board off my deck and replace it, mix some concrete and fill in some cracks on a sidewalk that is getting very bad, and somehow figure out why my pilot light on my gas fireplace is not staying on. Every week seems to be the same. BUT I had a wonderful dad who encouraged me to try even though I was a girl, I have the Lord and St Joseph who of course WERE carpenters, You Tube, and friends to advise. Just think how this property will REALLY become yours when you have nurtured it and finished everything. But yes, the best advice I have is to learn to do as much as you can yourselves. I would not hesitate to install a wood burning fireplace myself and even build the chimney. I even looked into it when I moved here and would have done it except that some friends gave me a gas freestanding fireplace I put in instead.
When we bought our fixer-upper retirement house our friends thought we were mad. But I have always longed to be in the country. The only downside is the lack of daily masses. Spiritually I’m in a bit of an oasis. We have a local Catholic church but it’s a seventies time warp. The Lord spared us the aggro that many of you here experienced, perhaps because of our age. Our renovations went well. We love it here and our friends now agree, it’s a piece of heaven. It’s interesting how so many here felt the pull of land and clean air. I certainly have. I’d be a prepper too if the OH agreed. I wonder if God is calling us to leave the cities and be more self sufficient? Perhaps it’s the simpler healthier life that he wants us to have. I’ve dreamed of having land and being able to grow much of my food for years. We don’t have enough land for that but we do have some fruit trees and a veggie patch. I’d like to keep chickens too but not got round to it yet. Prayers for you, PF, that your home will soon be habitable and a joy for all of you.
This is interesting because it's part of why I feel worried at times that I did the wrong thing. I've wanted to move to the country for many years. My husband and I would look at properties and drive around the country areas to see if something in particular called to us, but we could never find "the one." So we kept trusting that if we waited, God would eventually drop something in our lap or give us a big nudge in a certain direction. We prayed and waited for years with nothing happening. Then we started to wonder if we had to take a leap of faith and go for it, selling our house before we knew where to go, because we had to have the funds from our home sale to be able to make an offer on any new house. So we went for it. To this day, my husband and I both feel very sure that we were meant to sell our house (we even got a specific sign from St. Joseph on the day we accepted someone's offer on it), but it's the new place that has just felt so uncertain and full of struggle after struggle... We constantly question whether we made the right choice, and we wonder if we'll move on from it to somewhere out of state. Part of that is how awful this last TX summer was, lol. We are worried about actually being able to grow anything here. Another part is my brother and my son both want to go into the FSSP seminary, which is in Nebraska. We could see ourselves wanting to follow them out there. Which seems crazy because we thought all along that we wanted to go into the country and live there in our forever home...forever. Lol. So much uncertainty. I do long for some stability and normalcy and feeling like I'm where God wants me to be.
Yes St. Joseph has been very much a part of this process. We have prayed the 30 day novena to him three times so far during the whole thing, and he has helped us with a few VERY important parts. One thing he has not done is make it feel any smoother or faster, haha. So we trust God is doing something that we just don't understand...but we keep worrying that we're missing something He wants us to do, or we're making mistakes.
We do want to become more self-reliant! I just don't know if we trust ourselves enough to do something as important as installing a fireplace and chimney.
If your husband is at all handy you can use insulated metal stove pipe rather than masonry. People here do all sorts of genius installations. Look on line. Better yet I bet Brian could advise you. PM him.
