I posted on Facebook the other day that we were selling our house, and that our cleaning for the last time was bittersweet (as were all the other things we experienced at the end).
We set out to make our house a place of rest for those who needed one. We had family in multiple times. D-man's immediate family stayed with
us (taking up all 4 bedrooms) when his grandmother died. His parents
stayed with us every time they came to visit. His aunt lived with us
when she left her daughter's house because they had a falling out. My
family came to visit and helped us furnish and decorate the house.
A woman from Alabama who we met in Brasil posted on Facebook a few years ago that her husband had been diagnosed with melanoma. They chose MD Anderson as his place of treatment, and they live in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Immediately I messaged her to invite them into our home. Even though our old house is far from the Medical Center (the area of the city where MD Anderson is located), they wouldn't have to be in a hotel room with just each other and no one else to talk to in a totally stressful time. We got into a routine of eating Andy's special food (steak, mushrooms, broccoli, and rice) the night before his PET scan and gorging on pizza the day of. We have become unlikely friends through the experience. Amelia's response to my Facebook post was that she and Andy wouldn't have gotten through the first 4 years of his cancer treatment without us. I know that it sounds a little dramatic, but so often we don't realize the effect we have on others by opening ourselves up to them.
We were just doing what we felt God wanted us to do (and what brought us joy!), and have come out with so much blessing. My heart has been full for days, realizing that He gave us exactly what we wanted. God is so faithful. He tells us to rejoice in Him, and He will give us the desires of our hearts. Our heart has been hospitality, and He has granted blessings from that.
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