Travel | FFH

Meridee’s Monday

5 CommentsJuly 6, 2010

You may or may not have caught my posting on Facebook this week asking for help with some mold questions. I was a little nondescript in the posting because we weren’t exactly sure what we were dealing with. We know a little more now. I’d like to share it with you and then tell you what this past weekend was like. To bring you up to speed, here is an email I sent to some of my church friends at the end of last week describing what is going on with our home…

For the past several years Jennifer and I have been patching and re-patching an annoying roof leak around our chimney. During the flood things got really messy and bucketfuls of water leaked into our bonus room. We were away at the time and our AC was off. When yet another contractor opened it up to find the source of the leak he discovered mold. When the mold “specialist” came to remove it last week he took a sample to have it tested. Turns out it’s a very toxic strain of black mold called Stachybotrys. It’s nasty stuff, causing all kinds of health problems with prolonged exposure.

Three nationally recognized and trusted mold experts told Jennifer and I yesterday that we CAN NOT go back home until the entire house is tested and every room containing traces of the mold is cleaned with a bio agent. Anything in that room will have to be either thrown away or bio-cleaned, whatever that means. Best-Case Scenario: it’s all contained in the bonus room and we can move back in as soon as the things from the bonus room are either throw away or deemed safe and the rest of the house is proven to be mold free. (The furniture and kids toys are being thrown away today) Worst-Case Scenario: The mold has traveled through the HVAC and has infected the whole house in which case we lose most everything. Chances are we will land somewhere between the two extremes. Either way, we can’t go home until we get the process going which Jennifer is beginning today with a Consumer Advocate mold specialist in Atlanta. He will be coming up to Franklin to head up the project.

Right now we are in St Louis at Jennifer’s family farm. This was a planned visit. I’m driving back down to Nashville tomorrow to get Fritz and lead worship at Fellowship for the weekend. I’ll stay at Brian and Jannell’s and will likely drive back up here and we will commute to our shows and to Nashville from St Louis at least for the next three weeks. Our Consumer Advocate told us that as soon as the house is assessed and tests are completed and results come back we will know the next step. It may mean renting a place in Nashville for a couple of months while we get this all sorted.

WISDOM is what we are asking you to pray for us to receive. WISDOM and PATIENCE to walk in step with Jesus as he opens and closes doors for us, and to not get ahead of ourselves but take it an hour at a time, reminding ourselves that “it’s just a house”, we’re safe, kids are healthy, etc.

Thanks for listening and thanks for caring.

The ten or so people I sent to message to were kind and generous in their responses, several offering their homes to me for the weekend while I traveled back to Franklin to lead worship. I was able to stay at Jennifer’s sisters place but the additional invitations were nice nonetheless.

It was strange to come home and not be able to really go home. Our mold adviser strongly discouraged us from even entering the house briefly so I just stopped over to get the dog and a few things from the garage and left. Fritz had been being let out by a friend for about a week and was so happy to see me that he peed. He and I went over to Jannell and Brian’s and got settled and then went to Merridee’s for a salad and then up Main Street to Starbucks.

Under normal circumstances this would be a night I’d look forward to, even if I were by myself. I was at my favorite bakery, having my favorite sandwich, walking to my coffee shop having my favorite drink. (Grande – Decaf – Mocha – Frappachino Light – With Extra Ice – In a Venti Cup – With Whip) But it wasn’t fun at all. It was depressing. I saw some friends and walked the other way. The whole weekend was like this. Same town, same car, same dog, but no Jennifer, no kids, no house. Everything was turned on it’s head. I know it’s “just a house” but it’s what happens there that is special. It’s where our life happens and I felt like an outsider not being able to go back.

The only time I felt normal all weekend was at Fellowship. The Body of Jesus really is a family and I felt at home when I was there. I only know a handful of people at Fellowship really well. Most are loose acquaintances and lots more I’ve never even met. None of that mattered. I was with family, I could tell in my spirit, and it felt good. Again God used something hard to show me something new.

Have a restful week. If you have any black mold experience we’d definitely appreciate hearing about it. Be safe –

Jeromy

Jeromy Deibler (FFH)

Category: Posted Under: Church, Family, Friends, House, Kids, Mold, Travel@9:59 am

Mid-Week Wandering

6 CommentsMarch 3, 2010

It’s just the kids and me tonight. Jennifer is out with her sister Jannell for a special night alone before her baby comes. Jannell and Brian are expecting their second son in two years this month and instead of a shower Jennifer decided to take Jannell away for some quiet time. It’s been anything but quiet here. I took the kids to Toys R Us for something to do and they tried to loose me. They needed me for check-out though, so I got them back. Sadie-Claire skipped her nap and rode her scooter around the living room most of the afternoon and we watched the new Lego movie. We had freezer pizza and ice cream for dinner and now Hutch is begging me to play Legos with him.

I got a call tonight from Addison Road’s bus driver tonight. They are borrowing our bus for their tour while we are home for a while. Strangely enough, the call came right after I downloaded their album from iTunes. I didn’t realize that Jennifer’s favorite song (Hope Now) was theirs. We’ve been trying to figure out who recorded the song for a few weeks, catching only bits and pieces of it on the radio, where they never announce who the artist is that performs the song. I got chills as I downloaded the song. Then their driver called to ask me how to get the bus generator started and the chills went away. Addison Road’s has had as many problems with the bus in one week as we’ve had over the past year. Figures.

Hutch needs to get to bed so I’m gonna go. A lot went on this week that I need to tell you about but I need to get past it a bit before I can collect the thoughts. Remind me if I forget. Talk to you Monday if not sooner –

Jeromy Deibler

Category: Posted Under: Addison Road, Bus, Travel@10:30 pm

Meridee’s (Midway) Monday

2 CommentsJanuary 19, 2010

I would normally be at Merridee’s this morning but instead I’m at Midway Airport in Chicago, standing at gate B1, smelling the popcorn popping from across the building. We’ve been here this weekend for show. No pre-boarding today, the kids stayed in Franklin with family this weekend so we have to line up with the rest of the cattle. This was the first time Jennifer and I have gone away to play shows without them in over a year. When we returned home from Africa in 2007 we decided that, if and when we ever returned to turing, we’d make every effort to bring them with us and we have, until now. The kids’ cousin Elias was in town this weekend so we knew they’d much rather be home playing Wii than on another airplane so we decided to let them stay. Jennifer is in the terminal toy store buying gifts for them, probably partly out of guilt because we miss them and also because this was a really nice break for us to be alone together.

In downtown Chicagao today the fog covered all the tops of towering buildings making them seem all the same height. Brian (our drummer and Jennifer’s sister’s husband) was in the backseat of the van taking a sales call about one of the cars he has in inventory, and as I drove through the city center I thought about how, even with the suffering in Haiti, everyone in Chicago still has to go to work. We all watch as networks broadcast the unimaginable scenes of devestation; orphans sleeping in the streets, people fighting over food, and yet we have to go on with life up here, life as normal. But everything that is usual for us seems so pointlees with the knowledge of such suffering happening simultanously. We do our best to help while we go through our normal motions, from celeberties organizing telethons, to $10 text donations, to church bake sales, but we can only do so much. After that all we can do is pray and remember. Remembering is important though. I think it’s written into the fabric of our beings. It’s why we remember Dr King, or the sufferings of the Holacost, Pearl Harbor, or the 9/11 attacks. It’s not just a wistful thought. It’s an acknowledgement that something happened then that effects us now, even at a distance, and will continue to effect the course of history.

One of the most striking interviews that I’ve watched during the Haiti coverage was with their President. Like most of the city’s buildings, his palace had collapsed and was unlivable. He said that he was trying to figure out, among other things, where he would sleep that night. In an instant he was like everyone else in the city… displaced, homeless, uncertain. Like the fog made everything the same height this morning, suffering levels the playing field. And as we pray for the Hatians and remember there need we are reminded that we are all small, all human, and all vonerable. And that gives birth to compassion and compassion give birth to action.

Jeromy Deibler (FFH)

Category: Posted Under: Martin Luther King Jr., Meridee's Monday, Travel@11:50 am