[Magdalen] Prayers have a funny way of being answered

[Jay Weigel]

Or, when God closes a door, God opens a window.

I have fussed and fretted about the house I still own in Tennessee. I'd
wanted my son to move into it, but he didn't really want to. So it sits
there, getting overgrown and falling into disrepair.

Meanwhile, my daughter and her husband were struggling to get it all
together to buy my mom and dad's house in Tennessee, and just about had it
done, despite the fact that my brother continued to throw all kinds of
clods in the churn and last week threw a big one in that basically clogged
the churn.

So I asked for your prayers before I told my brother something I really
didn't want to say. Then, after some prayers of my own, I called my
son-in-law and something quite different came out of my mouth.

Two days later he called me back and asked me the following: Could they fix
up the house fit to live in, move in, finish fixing it up until it was
salable, then buy it from me? They had been discussing that non-stop for
almost 24 hours and that was the solution they came up with. He said it
felt like the best thing for all of them. His mother is in that town, much
of my daughter's support system is there, her other-mother is two doors up
the street, there is an Episcopal school the boys may be able to attend
through 8th grade (pending tuition affordability), the church Betsy grew up
in is there......etc, etc. The pros far outweighed the cons. And as I told
him, they didn't necessarily have to stay there forever......they could
flip it to their hearts' content and then sell at a profit once they buy it
from me, and then move wherever they want to.

And oddly enough, my brother hasn't said anything at all to me. Not one
word. Nor I to him. The only thing I have to say to him is that he can do
what he wants with the house, and anything due me from the sale will go
directly into trust funds for my grandsons' education. Whether our
relationship is repairable may be up to him.

Thank you all for your prayers, and please keep them coming for my daughter
and her family as they work on the house, and for my peace of mind.