When life gives you lemons, you can do one of 2 things...

You can either get really, really upset (which I've found does not help the situation at all, even though I do it time after time), or you can just accept that something unpleasant has happened and ask for help.

Help from anyone - friends, family, strangers, the US Army, and God.

Why am I telling you this?

Over the weekend our landlord came by "to talk to us briefly". Seems that he hasn't had any income for 6 months and can't afford this house, that we're currently living in, anymore. (At that moment, I said a silent prayer that I have a job, a great job, and wished for that to never change.)

He's decided to put the house up for sale - a short sale. At a very, very cheap price at that. (So cheap we have even toyed with the idea of buying it ourselves and renting it out when we move...) He just needs to get out of this money pit - like many, many landlords here on the island, he bought at a high price, with 100% financing, and an ARM mortgage.

So, you will recall that we just went through this 7 months ago with the house we lived in down the street. (Well, that ended up being a foreclosure, but the circumstances felt the same...) When that happened, I cried for a whole day. It didn't help, and truthfully, crying about it didn't even make me feel better - it just made my face swollen and a lot of people worried that I may have had a mini-breakdown. Instead, I prayed. We have WONDERFUL friends who offered to help, and we found a new place and moved to it in a matter of just a couple of days.

It all worked out. Beautifully.

So, when we got this news over the weekend, I just decided that I wasn't going to get upset about it. After all, it isn't my mortgage that is getting behind. We're just in the wrong place at the wrong time (again).

So I prayed. Again.

And yesterday, two things happened.

(1) Jon and I went to see a lawyer at Ft. Shafter to find out how this affects us. We were pleasantly surprised that any new owner cannot force us out easily. Per Hawaii LAW, they are bound to honor our lease. If they decide to end the lease with us, we have recourse - they pay us for the move and for the equivalent of 2 months' rent. We have a copy of the bylaw that states this.

(2) A realtor for our current landlord called me yesterday to say that there may already be a buyer - a man and his wife, both doctors, who want to buy the house as an investment and are happy that there are already renters here with another 18 months on their lease. They want to come by today to see the inside, check out the layout, etc.

Yay! (Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself...)

The power of prayer, and "giving it up to God", continually amazes and astounds me.

If they decide not to buy the house, and it doesn't sell and goes into foreclosure, well, we've already been there and done that. We know what our options are there, and we have recourse in that scenario, too.

So, where does this leave us? Well, Jon and I feel good that we're in a good place either way. The Army lawyer told us that too, in those exact words.

Which is a good thing, because we're still dealing with the aftermath of the last move, just 7 short months ago. Army bureaucracy has kept us from an entitlement (read:: monetary compensation) for that move, and Jon had to get his boss's boss involved just to keep the ball rolling. We, unfortunately, were guinea pigs for a new Department of Defense regulation regarding asisstance to renters due to foreclosure. We're teaching the Army how to handle situations like us. And, so far they have stumbled the entire way.

If you are in the military and find yourself in a similar situation, contact me. I can tell you exactly how to dodge these bullets.

Will keep you posted on the sale, etc.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!