Part 2 " My Story "

I got back home and out of the Military in October 1960, just in time to vote for the very first time, for John F Kennedy who won the election, for Presidency of United States. Well after being home for a few weeks, I went back to work at the steel factory, and 6 months later I married my sweetheart, who had waited for me to come home. Everything was great I enjoyed married life, and it's struggles to get ahead, making just sixty dollar a week paying for rent, furniture, and car payments, was all new to me. My wife got a job also, just to help out with things and getting our own house, was a goal we achieved three year later. I just want to mention we bought a three bedroom house, with a full basement for ten thousand dollars back then, that was still a lot of money to us. How times have changed since then.

My wife and I struggled to make ends meet, from paycheck to paycheck, with three boys that where born, in the first ten years of our marriage. All this time we was attending the Catholic Church on Sundays. I forgot to mention, my wife was Lutheran so our wedding took place in her church, then we got married again, a few years later when my wife joined the Catholic Church. Now when the boys where born, they where all baptized in the church, because that was a big deal with family members and friends. You can see we were trying to do the right thing, so as not to be like my family with no religious background, again you got to remember the Catholic Church teaches, it's the only true church found on the rock of Peter the first real Pope as they claim.

Now it gets real interesting, because God has a different plan for my life, that goes beyond my wildest dreams. The factory I was working at, was now paying me a good sum of money, doing piece work on a daily bases, that made it possible for me to build a new home, in a new real estate development, and buy new cars every other year, of course I didn't save any money, now I was spending it trying to keep up with our wealthy neighbors. At this time my oldest boy, was attending kindergarten, in a catholic school. Well needless to say, the bottom fell out at work, the factory filed bankruptcy, and we had just a few months, to finish what was still on the assembly lines. I was forced to fined another job, and I did but it only paid about half of what I was making, needless to say I couldn't keep the new house, and cars, on what I was now making, this is where you wish you had saved some of the money, for a rainy day.

I worked at this low paying job for a few months, all the while looking for a better one, everyday I would look in the newspaper adds for work in my area, paying more then I was making, but to no avail. I started looking at out of state adds, and found a company in Reno Nevada, that was looking for someone with work skills related to what I do, then making a phone call that went well, they flew me to Reno for a interview. After arriving in Reno, the company owners Ned and Vivian took me out for dinner, at the Nugget Casino. Reno is a gambling town you know, and they showed me around, I liked what I saw, but it was way different then Missouri. Now after they left later that night, I checked in my room at the Nugget Hotel that they reserved for me.

Now it was way to early for me to go to bed, so I decided to check out the Casino gambling floor, with all the slot machines and card tables, not knowing anything about slot machines, I dropped a quarter in and pull down the handle, ding-ding jackpot. A person standing near by said, that machine has not paid out anything all night, lucky me I guess. So now what, go play another machine I guess, so I did the very same thing happened time after time, the machines keep paying off with jackpots. I noticed it was getting late, so I had to go outside to get to my room across the street, and there was a slot machine just outside the entrance, oh what the heck, put some money in and pull the handle, one more time before going to bed, yep jackpot.

Now when I got to my room, I just emptied all my pockets and bags with my winnings on the bed, I couldn't believe all the money there, so I decided to call my wife, and tell her my good luck story, with the slot machines, she said great I'm on way out there, she got a flight the next day to Reno, that meant I would be here a little longer then I expected. After her arrival here in Reno, we looked things over and we liked it, mountains with trees and valleys with wide open spaces, with the Truckee river running through the middle of town, just beautiful, except one thing, we had no family here that meant, living without them and that would be a first for us, because in Missouri most families live close by, and that was true for me and my wife's extended relatives. So we had to make a decision, and they gave us time to talk it over, because making a move like that, you better be sure it's the right one.

After a few weeks back in Missouri, my wife and I decided it would be better for me to drive to Reno alone, and work at this job to see if it was right for us. Every thing was going great at the job, so we decided to sell our home and make the move, but that meant leaving my wife alone with three small boys, and selling the house without my help, she did a great job with everything falling into place in just two months. I did go back to help pack things for our family flight to Reno, we arrived here on Halloween 1973, to start our new life out-west in cowboy country, to us it felt like a distant land some where else, being from the flat lands of Missouri.

We were now living in a motel while our new home was being built, my wife was beside herself, because we were dealing with mice running throughout the motel rooms all night long, finally after a month or so our new home was completed, and ready to move into. Our lives where now coming together here in Nevada, but we also longed to be with our family and love-ones in Missouri.

All that was mentioned here didn't happen without a lot of questioning God, plus a Hail Mary and Our Father here and there, at that time we didn't realize this was Gods plan all long. These things happen for a purpose, to bring us from darkness, to His light, and Saving Power, in His Son Jesus Christ.

To be continued:

Angels Watching Over Us, is also part of my Testimony after 41 years as a Believer in Jesus Christ as my Savior.

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/s...tching-Over-Us