The God Of All Comfort

“Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again – my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 42:5 NLT)

Do you ever wish you had a telescope where you could see what God’s doing behind the scenes?

As I wrote in Roller-Coaster to Bungee Jumping, the nursing company we hired to care for Jeffrey’s needs the first couple of months in college had finally given us a deadline date when they would terminate care.  Jeffrey was not doing what he had agreed to do, and they had just had enough.

Gary and I were frantic as we waited for DDD payments to become approved for Jeffrey.  Would it happen before the deadline came?  What if it didn’t?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6 NIV)

Well of course DDD did come through right before the deadline.  And Jeffrey’s caseworker (we’ll call her Betty) was delightful, and stated she’d get going right away on getting caregivers set up.

Hurray!

However, then we were informed by the disability director that ERAU had some concerns about Jeffrey continuing to live on campus.  A lot of his antics were posing risks to the college.  While I won’t go into detail, the bottom line was that they said after Jeffrey completed his freshman year, he would no longer be able to live in the dorms.  He would have to live off-campus.

Jeffrey was not happy about that decision, but Betty stated she’d been told either he needed to move into some sort of residence home that would provide daily transportation to ERAU, or he’d have to leave college.  She told us she was going to get busy calling every licensed home she knew.

However as one month went into two, Betty stated she was having a difficult time finding placement for Jeffrey.  Prescott, Arizona is not a very big town, and although they had many licensed caregivers, the issue was that the caregivers were not comfortable caring for a young man with as many physical needs as Jeffrey had.

Again I started to wonder:  Were Jeffrey’s dreams of continuing college coming to an end?

Then about two months before school was to break for the summer, we receive a phone call from Betty.  She stated a wonderful couple she had worked with before had stated they were interested in taking Jeffrey into their home!  Betty arranged for a “trial” weekend to see how everyone reacted to each other.

Gary and I were thrilled; however our excitement came to a dashing halt as we were told after the trial weekend that it had been a disaster.

Jeffrey didn’t want to cooperate, and had treated everyone rudely and disrespectfully.

It was snowing on that trial weekend (Prescott can get very cold in the winter), but regardless, the man had gone outside to grill Jeffrey a wonderful steak for dinner, which was one of his favorites.  However once the steak was done, Jeffrey decided not to eat it, because “a friend” was coming to pick him up and take him out for dinner instead.

The couple tried to remain patient and upbeat, but when the “friend” failed to come pick Jeffrey up that evening, they started wondering what was really going on.

Jeffrey told Betty after the weekend that he just wasn’t interested in them, and the couple agreed that Jeffrey had made it pretty clear that he didn’t want to live there.

Oh boy – now what?

Betty did her best to try and find someplace else, but when the school year came to a close, there were no other options.  We had no choice but to drive back down to Arizona, pack up all Jeffrey’s things, and move him home for the summer.

However both Gary and I really believed in our hearts that since the Lord had opened so many doors for Jeffrey to attend ERAU in the first place, it just didn’t make sense it was all coming to a halt now.  We believed somehow – and in someway – he’d be able to return in the fall.  So we rented a storage facility down in Prescott, and moved the majority of Jeffrey’s stuff into it before driving home with him for the summer.

Now the waiting game began.  Betty promised she’d continue to work on trying to find a home during the summer months, but she could only do what she could do.

So we did our best to enjoy the summer with Jeffrey back home, praying all the while.