Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I lost my Mom but my family gained an angel

So.. I think I mentioned before that my Dad has decided to start doing some things that he and Lea wanted to do together. They wanted to buy a motor home, a pontoon boat (since we live right on the Mississippi River but NEVER take advantage of it!), some camping ground space, etc. So, my Dad has actually done this within the last month or so.. I wasn't expecting it so soon..but it makes him happy to do these things and as he says "feel excited about something again".. plus it makes him happy to see Dylan and Addie so excited with it all. My family has never been known to have good luck (as you might have already noticed in so many situations) so it is rather weird how my Dad has came across the items he has purchased. My Dad and his first cousin Jimmy Jones (I always feel the need to use both his first and last name for whatever reason) were driving home from work which is about an hour and a half from home when they spotted a motorhome for sale.. my Dad thought it would be way to expensive for him.. but Jimmy Jones said they should at least go look at it. Within the hour, it was purchased at a super low price. It was an elderly couple who just wanted to get rid of the motor-home and they weren't looking to make a bunch of money off of it at all.
A camping space right next to Jimmy Jones came open in Illinois for leasing land on the river for like $365 a year!! Yea, you heard me.. for a YEAR!! Jimmy Jones just told my Dad a few days before the opening that openings very rarely come up because it's such good land for such a low price.. so my Dad wasn't relying on that spot. It's just amazing how it worked out.
Then for the past 2 weeks my Dad has expressed the interest in getting a pontoon boat.. he wasn't wanting to spend a lot of money on it.. but thought it would be fun for the family. It ends up that a man who lived down by the Illinois spot was actually getting ready to move to Waterloo within a day and he had a pontoon boat that he was taking with him to sell. A friend of my father was talking to this man and said that Joe (my dad) would be interested in the boat. Because my dad is working 12 hr days, 7 days a week.. he was not able to get there to look at it. He sent my Grandpa (the professional fisherman) to go look at the boat.. and my grandpa said it was a steal and my Dad should hop on it. The pontoon boat had just got the seats re-done and were never even sat on!! My Dad went last night to pay the man and found out that the older gentleman knew Lea!!! Lea had been on THAT pontoon boat many many years ago, right before Dad and Lea got together. (so that's like 11 years ago) When my Dad told me about that, I had goosebumps for an hour.. I always knew that Lea had a hand in this because it's not often to come across these items and at such a good deal. But then to hear that Lea had been on this pontoon boat, it just really sent chills (good chills) down my back. Without a doubt in my mind, I knew that she made this happen for my Dad and for our family. She wants us to be happy, to keep going and appreciate our lives and our family time. As hard as it is to be without Lea, it's very touching to know that her spirit is still living on with us and she is up in heaven protecting us.