The Weather

There used to be a time I would pray and tell God that I wasn't ready for it to be cold yet and in those times, the weather would stay nice. Then there were times when I'd tell God that I really wanted the cold weather and sure enough it would get bitterly cold. Of course some may argue that it wasn't just because I prayed that the weather responded the way that it did, but I always thanked God for hearing me and I believe that He did that for me.

Now I believe that He's allowing the weather to be bearable just for me. In my city that have an event for homeless awareness called "Box City." People would experience what it would be like being homeless and sleeping on the street. I was never interested in participating because I knew what it was like being homeless. Even though this is the first time that I've been homeless as an adult, this isn't the first time that I've been homeless.

When I was in the 4th grade. We got home from school and my mom told me and my sister to pack our things and that we were leaving. We ended up in a homeless shelter. I never knew why until a couple of years later, I found a letter my mom wrote for help. I said that my dad had threatened my mom and that she was afraid of him and that she needed to get away from him. I'm not sure if that's true or not because at that time I had never witnessed my dad be violent against my mom. The second time we were homeless was when I was a senior in high school. That summer I was at school at Eastern Illinois University. I was attending a summer program for soon to be seniors. I was having a wonderful time and I called home and was told that we were moving. The landlord had sold the house and we needed to get out by a certain time and my mom didn't have the money to move us anywhere else, so she moved us to my grandmothers. Because I wasn't there, I didn't know that everyone was sharing one room in my grandmothers house. At that time there was 8 of us--6 children, my mom and my dad. My dad would leave and I'm not sure where he would stay. When I got home from summer school my mom decided that it was too crowded so she packed the youngest children up and took them to a shelter. She allowed me and my sister to stay with grandma. It wasn't until late September that we found a place that we could afford to live.

So, sleeping in box city was not something that I needed to be aware of. Had it not been for my grandma, that would have been us. Box city is usually in November and I could remember one November when it was so bitter that it seemed your breath would freeze. I couldn't imagine even the ones who were going to sleep out there, how they managed. Now I know. They manage the best way they can.

Anyway, I thank God that He is keeping the weather warm so that I can manage in my car until I get my place.