Loan Modification / Eye Surgery

Hi All. What a pain in the pa-too-ee!! LOL We have been trying for over a year to get our lenders to work with us for a mortgage loan modification. They keep changing the rules, their requirements and not returning phone calls until deadlines are past and we are booted out of their programs. This last month they sent us to preliminary foreclosure with a sale date of December 22nd. (Haha... Merry Christmas!) It has been a nightmare!!!!! Ugh! We are in the process once again. We want to keep our home, so I keep pushing and pushing. It's SOOO much fun!

If any of you are trying this process... this is my advice. Call them. Call them. Call them. Leave messages. Daily if you have to. Talk to customer service. Hound them. Hound them. I don't know if it will get them to move forward any better or not, but it did get our preliminary foreclosure date removed. So I guess it is worth something. LOL

They say this time they are serious about helping us.

We'll see.

In the meantime, Jestin and I feel a great peace about it. We know that we are being lead by a higher power. We know that we will be taken care of by His grace, after all we can do. And we have done all we can really do. :) There is great peace in that.

I have this theory... I don't know how true it will be... but I have this feeling that: Jes needs his eye surgeries done, then the right job will come, and then because we will have steady income again all of this loan stuff will fall into place. And I am taking comfort in that faith.

Jestin is going to have eye surgery on Wed. They need to make a repair in the eye that we had them laser repair for his Diabetic Retinopathy 2 years ago. See...

A few months ago, when Jes was working out of town, he finally confided in me that his vision in that eye was getting much worse... and that the other eye had begun to get black floaters - meaning his Retinopathy was destroying that other eye. He hadn't wanted to worry me... but while he was out of town we found out he needed his drivers license re-newed and all of a sudden he was afraid they may take his license and finally talked to me about it. It was not fun to talk or think about. We both kind of shut down and spent a great deal of time processing and trying to cope.

(He had not gone back after the 1st eye (right eye) was worked on because it had always been cloudy since the surgery was done and they would not believe him that his vision was compromised, so he was NOT going to go back and give them the only eye he could really see out of! And I didn't blame him! At that time the opposite eye had very little effects from his diabetes so he felt safe. However since it became the only eye he really used, it now progressed quite rapidly.)

It was heartbreaking to think my sweetheart was going blind, and there was nothing we could financially do about it. We cried together. We prayed together. We knew he would likely loose his ability to work at some soon future point, and I was rapidly trying to figure out how to become the breadwinner of our family in his stead with my heart condition. Everything seemed bleak, and if you go back and read my posts (like I did recently) you realize how despairing I felt, how we both felt.

That is when, by the grace of God, we were qualified for the adult program for health insurance here in our state. We did not have enough income to qualify ourselves out of it believe it or not! It does not cover hardly anything, but it covers some of our huge prescription costs (which is phenomenal) and it did cover a visit to the eye Dr. for a basic exam so we could get our bearings as to how bad it  really is.

We met with our eye Dr, Dr. Jones , and he was did the complete eye exam. (GO SEE HIM! He is THE best!) He said Jestin's right eye (the good eye) was being quickly over run by the Retinopathy and that if we didn't act fast his retina could detach and he would loose all vision in that eye. We knew that was likely going to be the response, and we gulped a deep breath as he moved to the next eye.

In Jes' right eye, Dr. Jones was dumbfounded! He could not believe what he was seeing. Jestin has a cataract! He is WAY too young for such a thing, but there it was! This HUGE cataract. Dr. Jones explained that it could have been from the laser repair 2 years ago, and has just steadily gotten worse...which is why it had! He told us to go to the Retinal Surgeon ASAP and consult with him.

(At this point I burst into tears! A cataract is repairable!!!!!! We could barely dare to hope!)

Now here I have to admit... we did not do as we were asked. At that time, we had the yardsale to make the house payment to qualify for the loan modification that we didn't get approved for. We had no way to pay to go see this guy. So we didn't go.

And here is where Dr. Jones true colors showed through. He called. And he called again. He wanted to know if we had made the appt. He wanted to know what he could do to help. He called the Retinal Surgeon and together they put their knowledge together and sent us in for this program for the visually impaired, Vocational Rehabilitation. Dr. Jones chased and pushed as lovingly as he could.

We talked to a specialist at Voc. Rehab. and they without question said that Jestin qualified for their obscure program. He was loosing his sight and needed a job, and they could help with both. He is basically blind in the one eye (he can see some shapes and outlines of people). They said his vision was 20/400 in that eye. LOL. And they can offer services to help cover costs for the surgeries, and get us discounts on other costs, as well as some classes on resumes, help with Jes' continuing education and what not! We could not believe it!

They sent us through the process and were wonderful a quick in getting his surgery approved. He has cataract surgery on Wed. And they believe that it will give him almost ALL of his vision in that right eye! (Oooo! Just typing this I burst into tears!) They are going to help save his vision! And then 4 weeks later, they will do the laser repair of the Retinopathy in the left eye, and baring any complications, he will have that eye saved as well!! Possibly LONG TERM!!! I get chills just thinking about it.

And so... in hind sight I can see 110% that the Lord has had a plan the whole time. Jestin couldn't get a job with benefits, because he would have to wait a year for the pre-existing condition clause to lapse, and in the mean time may have lost his eye sight. We had to struggle so terribly financially to qualify for the adult insurance, to the get us the appointment, to get us to the right doctor, to get us to the right surgeon, who knows about the Voc. Rehab. that we never would have even thought existed, to then still not have employment and to be able qualify for it, to get it done and repaired in the time frame it HAD to be done.

We are not being left alone to wallow. I am ashamed that I even allowed myself to doubt or worry. I still DEEPLY want this trial to be over, but there is so much good that has come of it.

So how can I doubt that somehow this loan stuff won't work out as well? And if we do loose our house? I have full faith that we are just being led to the next place we are needed in God's plan for us. As long as we do all that we can do... He makes up the rest!

And that brings us such a great peace...