These photos were taken in July, 2016 at sunrise.
Taken with a Canon Powershot SX1 IS
The story behind the shot
In July, 2016, due to a series of unfortunate events, I was faced with eviction with no immediate place to go.
We begged and borrowed from any place we could and managed to have a little money in the bank - just not enough to save our house. We were out of time and needed to make some hard decisions.
What I soon found out was once residents are served eviction papers in Florida, you have 24 hours to get out of the house. 24 hours!
Sitting between a rock and a hard place, we had secured a moving truck and a storage unit.
We make a great team
My husband and I have been through so much adversity throughout our relationship. Death in the family, job loss, the dynamics of raising kids and dealing with my poisonous ex-husband, moving, starting a business, closing the business, cars repossessed... Pretty much anything that could test the strength of our marriage is what we went through.
Sometimes I think back and go: How does this keep happening? What decisions are we making that keep us stuck in this terrible cycle of unfortunate events?
We balance each other
My husband is high-strung where I've learned to be grounded and stable. So the higher he goes, the lower I go. Do you know what I mean?
If he's bouncing off the walls and completely stressed, I remain still and calm. So if he's a skyscraper, I'm the basement foundation. I'll let him reach for the skies but I keep him grounded and pull him back down to earth too.
Conversely, when I'm too low and feel like I can't take another step, he lifts me up. He is my soul provider. Maybe being casual friends for 20 years before we began dating has something to do with it. There are no secrets between us, which also means we have the freedom of expression without being crucified for having opposing views sometimes.
Facing homelessness
Even though there is a 24 hour eviction, a few benefits of living in Florida includes decent weather. You can camp all year without fear of dying from exposure or hypothermia. Available houses are everywhere and you can generally get into them rather quickly.
As things generally go with my husband and I, nothing happens easily. Well... Okay, that's not entirely true. If things are meant to be, they come very easily but when we try to force something, it becomes impossible and we may as well be knocking our heads against a brick wall. LOL
image source: pixabay
My husband was doing his usual pacing when I said, "I've got an idea and I want you to hear me out."
I had been doing some online research and found a local motel that could accommodate 3 people and pets. Being off-season in Florida, the weekly rate was under $500. But spending $500 meant that it was $500 less in the bank for a security deposit should we find a place to go.
It took him about an hour to say, "Do it."
Literally working through the day and night to get our things off property, we got everything out but my bucket garden and potted blueberry bush.
We've got a week to find a home
Even through all of this, I remained calm - almost peaceful. Good things happen for us when we don't force it and the stars align. So I just my faith out to the universe and knew that no matter what, we would work hard and we would be provided for.
Being in the motel meant free wi-fi so we were pretty diligent about home searches. We looked at a few properties and quickly rejected them. Mind you, we don't look at the cosmetics of a house - stuff that can be cleaned or painted; we look at the bones of the house - water pump, electric panel, roof, walls, floor...
Most of the housing we looked at didn't even have good bones or were located in seriously bad neighborhoods. We don't require a lot but we do have our limits.
One week turned into two. Luckily my husband is employed full time, but we were eating through our savings. I cut costs where I could, like the food budget. With nothing but a little microwave in the room, I kept our daily food budget down to about $10 a day to feed 3 adults. Living conditions included one room with 2 queen-sized beds, 3 adults, 2 dogs and 4 ferrets.
But it wasn't so bad!
We didn't have neighbors in the rooms next to us. We had free wi-fi and access to the pool. The cleaning ladies were polite and kept us in clean towels and toilet paper. Most importantly, we had a roof over our head and food in our belly.
I have a hard time saying we actually were homeless because we weren't living out of our car. We had niceties. But at the same time we weren't there because we were on vacation, you know? There was no other place to go.
BONUS: Our room faced east for stunning sunrises like this.
A wider view of sunrise over Buccaneer Bay
And then the stars began to align
With 3 more days left in week two, I admit I was beginning to stress a little. Ya think?!?
And then we got the call. There's a house available as long as we can commit to a six-month lease. And because my husband had helped them with some of their plumbing problems in the past, they were willing to stretch out the security deposit over a few of his paychecks. A stepping stone.
In that time a friend of mine introduced me to #Steemit
So here we are, in a 'stepping stone' house, recovering from the last series of unfortunate events.
Call me crazy, but I feel truly blessed.
To quote from the movie Bridge of Spies, 2015
James Donovan: "Do you ever worry?"
Rudolph Abel: "Would it help?"
Well, would it?
Wall of #Steemit love:
This awesome name in peppers was created by @papa-pepper: 
And @poeticsnake graced me with her beautiful artwork!
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Meredith Loughran blogs at ScribblingBandits.com | Follow her on Twitter & SnapChat or LinkedIn