The Secret Is Out. . . . .finally!

Ok, so a while back I wrote about spring cleaning gone wild. If you remember, my parents were having to pack up their entire house and move out to have their foundation fixed. The foundation work was completed the week before Mom was diagnosed with leukemia. Mom and Dad had planned on doing a lot of work on the inside of the house to fix what had been messed up by the cracked foundation. The list of things needing to be done was not necessarily long but extensive; some of the work needing to be done was sheetrock repair, ceiling repair, wallpaper repair, taking out the popcorn ceiling, painting, restretching the carpet and repairing the linoleum. This is something that they have worried about along with the cancer, cost of living away from home, medical cost and so on and so forth. To help ease some of their burden, members from our church donated money, a contractor from our old church offered to do the work for the cost of the labor, their neighbor who has a hardware store supplied the paint and this is what they did. The sheetrock work ~ done (and looks great), painting ~ done (and looks beautiful), kitchen ~ reorganized and cleaned from top to bottom and a new beautiful tile backsplash, outside of house~all signs of construction being done cleaned up. AND we were able to keep this a secret from my parents. Tonight we were able to get some of the folks from church to gather at their house so we could surprise them. And surprised they were. Mom didn't notice the house at first because she was so excited about seeing all of their friends. Dad stopped in the entry hall and immediately noticed the new paint. We told Mom to look up at the ceiling and the waterworks turned on even harder! They could not believe that their friends would do something like that for them (note: my parents are doers and never expect anything in return and don't ever ask for anything from others) because even with professions doing most of the work it is a big job to tackle. The goal had been to have everything completed before they got home but the man who was to do the carpet has been very ill (poison ivy in his lungs) and has not been able to work. Once the carpet and flooring are redone those same friends will help get the furniture and everything else moved back into the house so Mom and Dad don't have to worry about it. I get tears in my eyes every time I think about all of the love that has been shown to our family since we began been worshiping with these Christians; they were so quick to do what they could when we lost our baby, they came to see Mom and Dad before they headed to the hospital when we got the leukemia diagnosis and they gathered again tonight to show their love and support to my parents. They will never know how much we appreciate and love them. Well, I had better go. I hope this reads ok, I am too tired to reread and edit. I am so happy that my parents have had this huge weight removed from their shoulders. I promise to try and get some pics up soon.