Happy Birthday Brillo Man!

We drove to the hearing. On the way there, Brillo Man asked me to pull off the road because he wanted us to pray. We stopped. We prayed. We drove on.

We arrived in plenty of time to stop at DQ for a quick lunch.

When we got to the hearing, we were searched for hidden weapons and were found to have none. Whew! What a relief. We were allowed admission into the courtroom waiting area.

After some time, I looked at the clock. I was beginning to feel nervous. I had read the same paragraph in a magazine ten times and still hadn't comprehended one word...I looked at the clock. 1:40pm. Take a deep breath, Deb, they'll be calling us in any minute. Deep breath. Sigh...calm....much better. (When I got home, I read an email from my precious friend, Dawna which said, "It's 1:39pm and I'm praying for you NOW.") God is so good.

They called us in. We bumbled around with our suitcase full of medical records- literally hundreds of pages. The CD which they had provided us containing the files of all the documents they already had entered into evidence wouldn't read in any computer. The judge asked that someone burn new copy. ....fidgeting...waiting....more paper bumbling....dropping stuff on the floor....me thinking that we looked like quite a pair of bumbling bozos. The judge said, "It's just me and I don't bite. I understand that you're nervous. It's okay..."

She asked Randy several questions which he answered at length. Then she proposed a hypothetical situation to the vocational expert who was present to validate or not validate our claim. "Miss X, Consider that you have a 50 year old male who is unable to stand except for a total of one hour in any given eight hour period. He is able to sit for no more than 15-20 minutes at a time before he must get up and walk around. He must lie down for 15-20 minutes every two hours. Is he capable of performing the work that he previously performed?" Miss X's response: "No".
Then the judge asked: "Is there any job that he would be able to perform given the aforementioned conditions?" Miss X's response: "No."

The judge said, "Randy, I hope to have my decision submitted by the end of the week or early next week. I will be ruling in your favor. Happy Birthday."

I just wanted to hug her! God is so good. His timing is impeccible...for this is the last month that I will receive a disability payment as my "trial work period" has ended. I have decided that I'm going to continue to work. As Brillo Man said, "Deb, you can do what you want, but I think that when you're working, you're happier." And he's right. I am happy to be back at work - doing what I enjoy. It's nice to now know that the pressure is off to work full-time hours and I will be able to work less...but still get out of the house for a change of atmosphere.

My disability pay stops. His will begin. Originally, the SS office told us that his hearing would not be scheduled until May of 2009. How would we make it financially without that needed income from November to May? Guess what? They moved the hearing forward. God's timing.

And today....is Brillo Man's 50th Birthday.

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you --so much more than you will ever know!

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"Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink;
or about your body,
what you will wear.
Is not life more important than food,
and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes?
See how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,
will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?'
or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
-Matthew 6:25-34

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