Mz Sneaky Pie, staring out the bedroom window...
from time to time, the tip of her tail twitches...
as she watches the birdies flit about in the old plum tree...
she longs to be outside, but has never been...
for several reasons...
as I remind her that she wouldn't let me take her to the vet...
to get "chipped" and a rabies shot so she could be licensed...
and can't be out unless she is...
I also remind her how fast the cars go by...
that she's not learned how to be "safe" out there...
and it brings to my mind how this strange journey of mine...
has had it's turns and twists...
and how God has moved in unexpected ways to keep me "safe"...
the mortgage modification that hasn't done much yet...
[though the HUD counselor has done her job, and more...]
if it had been done, would have probably been cancelled...
when I filed the bankruptcy papers...
leaving me to owe the bank thousands of $ I wouldn't have had...
causing me to probably be foreclosed on, losing my home...
but the bank has ignored my requests, for 6 months now...
[hmmmm...]
in the meantime, I started getting Social Security benefits...
not much, but it put me just barely in the black each month...
then Fluff & Piglet died...
a painful loss, but suddenly I had about $50 more a month...
because I no longer had to buy special food for them...
and I would need about 2 jugs less kitty litter too...
so when I met with the lawyer re the lawsuit AMEX filed...
she looked at my budget and said that we might be able to file now...
without the mortgage modification...
especially with them reducing & restructuring their fee to me...
in the process of filling out inches of financial forms...
doing the required on-line credit counseling prior to bankruptcy...
[an hour of filling out forms online...]
copying tax returns, pension stubs, bank statements, etc.[AGAIN]...
and changing banks, because WFB freezes assets when bankruptcy is filed...
it began to become clear that this was the right time for all this to happen...
the tax return the court would see showed all my investments going to zero...
it showed the financial losses I had...
the money I went through, trying to pay my debts...
how my only income other than pension were from odd jobs...
by closing my WFB accounts, but continuing to pay my mortgage...
on time, but from another bank, I would get their attention...
and both the lawyer & HUD counselor agree...
that I may get a better deal once I've filed for bankruptcy...
because I then will have a more structured financial profile...
my living expenses are very minimal with no extras...
and my source of income is permanent...
not a job I can lose, but a pension & benefits that will continue for life...
so they may not modify my mortgage down to 30% of my income...
but they may lower the interest rate and thus lower the payments...
they might forgive part of the principal or extend the loan...
both things that would lower the payments...
so having what has been an annoying delay...
may prove to be the best scenario after all...
which occurred to me as I was admonishing Mz SPie this AM...
God has been "looking out" for me...
protecting me from dangers I don't "see"...
as I "protect" my kitties from the dangers of being outside...
and since He knows things I don't...
just as I know things that the kitties don't...
I need to just trust Him as I want them to trust me...
[a lesson...]
yesterday, the lawyer looked through all my paperwork...
she said that it looked good & that I had done a good job on it...
she had gone through it with me, editing things into the proper framework...
then gave them to the secretary to put into the "paid" drawer...
where another staffer would fill-out all the court papers...
she said that they would call me in 2 or 3 weeks to come in & sign them...
then we would file the Chp. 13 bankruptcy...
"You will not lose your home", she said...
"Your payments are current, as are your taxes & insurance...
your income is stable and can support the current payment...
especially after the bankruptcy...
and you are only $50K upside down from the first..."
"They have no reason to foreclose"...
a great relief... the "good"...
the "bad" ?
someone took 4 containers of kitty litter from my front porch...
[about $36 worth or the rest of this month...]
so I had to go to DP to get more in a hurry...
where I discovered that the 27# pails they had...
contained a bonus 3# AND they cost the same as at WallyWorld...
which is a 12 mile round trip and always a hassle...
the smaller jugs were much more expensive at DP...
the price for them at WW makes them the same basic cost as the big pail...
so I'll get jugs when I go to WW, but I can get pails at DP...
without over paying or spending the time, etc to go out to WW...
all in all, a good thing to know...
I'll be contacting my HUD counselor to apprise her of the filing...
and we'll go from there...
the "good" things... the "bad" things...?
they are all blending together to teach me things...
which is, after all, another "good" thing...
as well as another lesson...
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