Work

When our accident happened, I was just twenty-one years old with only a few “real” jobs under my belt: I had done plenty of work in my life, but only had three jobs that required me to fill out a tax form. Because of this, I didn’t earn enough work credits then to qualify for disability income now.
We’re so thankful for Emily’s job as a nurse, because God has provided for us through it. But we really don’t prefer that she’s our only source of income. I want to work. I miss working for us. Emily is remarkable at being a selfless wife and mother in addition to being the breadwinner, she’s just great. But that’s an awful lot to ask of anybody, especially considering that she also does the majority of my care.  For all these reasons, I’ve been looking (unsuccessfully) for work for the past couple of years.
A physical disability as severe and extensive as mine obviously limits the options for employment; I can’t do anything that requires arms, legs or lots of talking. My physical limitations wouldn’t be as much of an issue if they were offset by a marketable education. But, though I don’t feel insufficiently educated, beyond high school I only have an unaccredited Bible degree to my name.
I’m not posting this to complain, but to present my situation with honesty and humbly ask if you know of any jobs I might be qualified for. I can skillfully write, edit, and proofread; words are my thing, and I know how to handle them well. I have also been learning the basics of website design via WordPress, and am willing and able to do or learn anything else computer-or-word-related, online or offline.
I realize my list of skills isn’t very impressive, but if you have or know of any sort of work I could do, would you please contact me? My email address is lanebargeron@gmail.com, or you can send us a message on Facebook.
Love you guys.
Lane

Trusting in our Father’s plan….

We met with our general contractor this week to talk realistic pricing of the type of home our family will need. With the elevator, extra concrete for a yard walk, amount of basement we’ll need finished for lanes therapy room etc, it was honestly overwhelming to say the least (and this didn’t even include land). We knew it’d be around this price range, we just were reminded that we aren’t in a position financially to comfortably begin the build right away. We know God has brought us this far for a reason and we know this proposed price is before anything is deducted from insurance and all y’all have helped with. I (Emily) especially could use prayer for contentment and patience as I’m the type that likes to stay at task with one thing and focus on that only until it’s finished well. And in my eyes the sooner it gets done the better. We have no timeline yet though and this desire is totally out of our hands until we have the supplies/finances/subcontractors willing to stand beside us. Recognizing this fact is a lot harder some days than others, but know it will be beautiful in the end because God is teaching us trust in another huge way.

Will you join us in praying for our continued patience and trust in this area tonight? And that our house committee would have tons of open doors as they start contacting subcontractors regarding their time & assistance with our house.

Eternally grateful,

Emily

House Update: Moving Forward!

It’s been about 3 months since we’ve posted about our house building project. Although the ground hasn’t been broken and some days it seems that the process is taking way longer than anticipated, we’re making baby steps towards our end goal.

Speaking of ground, we’re pretty sure we’ve found the future Lane Bargeron family property! It’s in a great location close to our Michigan family and has nearby access to sidewalks (a plus for Lane’s wheelchair). It’s close to a couple parks and isn’t far from our church, Lane’s therapy facility/ doctors/ Emily’s job etc. are all just a max of 30 minutes away. We hope to move forward with the property purchase (made possible by you dear friends) in August.

As far as the actual house goes, we’ve picked out many of the necessary home selections/accessories, but meet with Lane’s case manager and our general contractor soon to get everything needed accessibility-wise written up and sent via a letter of medical necessity to Lane’s auto insurance so (hopefully) it will be covered. This process can take around 2 weeks after it’s sent from our claims adjuster from Geico to Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association. But if everything that’s necessary isn’t approved, the entire process of writing the letter will need to be started all over again. Please pray that we’d find favor in Geico’s/MCCA’s eyes and that all of Lane’s necessary accommodations would be approved right away (elevator, supplies needed to make doorways/hallways ADA compliant, ramps, therapy room, roll-in shower, yard sidewalk, bigger garage for unloading, etc). Once this step is done we’ll have a better picture of overall costs of the entire house. We have a house committee that has been and will be working on lining up subcontractors and supplies. Our end goal is to do this with as little (preferably no) debt as possible because we have no idea what medical/accessibility costs lay ahead with the nature of Lane’s injury. So finances may be another area that puts the building on pause for a bit while our committee presents our building project to local subcontractors & businesses to see how they can help (via supplies or time). Please pray with us that this step would not hold us back. As you can see via our our fundraiser a major piece of our overall housing cost has already  been provided!!

With our general contractor and committee working side by side with us (and so many of you),  our house is becoming more and more of a reality. God is continuing to provide in incredible ways and is daily teaching Lane and I the importance of patience and trust. We know He has the ultimate timetable in mind and will give us wisdom as we lay the desire of this earthly house at His feet.

Thank YOU for not ceasing to pray for, encourage, and support our little family as we continue to walk this TBI road. It means more than you’ll ever know.

Emily