My mouth dropped and I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t think of a coherent response

T

wo months before our move, I was still in denial, and was pushing off packing up the house. My daughter, who’d just graduated, had some time on her hands.

“Mommy,” she said. “I really want to take up a job offer I got for the two weeks before we move. It’s something that will give me great experience and extra spending money for seminary. I’m going to help you as much as I can in the remaining weeks. Is that okay?”

I agreed, and she started to walk me through the closets. Sorting through 15 years of our lives was both exhilarating and draining, but I enjoyed the feeling of decluttering and organizing.

Sooner than we could believe, moving day arrived. I didn’t want to ever hear the sound of tape being torn or see another packing box. Even the colored stickers we used to color-code the boxes were grating on my nerves.

We moved into our new place and slowly started to unpack the many boxes. My husband mentioned to me that what he’d thought was a good arrangement for the car didn’t seem to be working out. Even though he hadn’t officially started teaching, he had one meeting after the other and often needed the car.

I reminded him that we’d made an agreement that I would have use of the car to be able to get around, and he was going to find rides to get to work. At that point, we weren’t able to consider buying or leasing another car. I started to feel resentful every time he asked to use the car. In my mind, I’d given up so much to move and this was yet another difficulty.

Still, I understood that in order for my husband to integrate and be really successful in his new job, he needed to use the car as well. After about two weeks of inner struggle, I approached my husband and said, “We made an agreement and I can’t say this new arrangement is easy for me. But I want you to be successful because it’s important for all of us. I want you to feel that you can take the car whenever you need it.”

“Estie,” my husband said. “I can work it out. It’s okay.”

“No,” I responded. “I really want to give you the use of the car. Please accept my offer.”

That night, my husband returned from work beaming. “Estie, you’ve done me such a chesed by giving me full use of the car. Now I can really give my all to my job.”

Shortly afterwards, I received a huge gift from Hashem.

I was discussing details with the contractor who was doing some renovations to the house and asked him what would be involved if we ever installed a larger, industrial type oven in the kitchen for the baking business I was hoping to grow. I wanted to know if it would be worthwhile to prepare the electric points now, even though we didn’t have the possibility to invest in such an oven at this point. He gave me a price, and I realized even the preparatory electrical work was difficult for us to swing financially.

The contractor’s father was an old friend of my husband from his yeshivah days and the contractor was anxious to please us. He started his renovation work, and it was going well. A few days into the job, when I was observing his workers, it seemed to me he was installing extra electrical points, even though we’d only discussed it and not signed on it.

He called me to the side and said, “Mrs. Samson, I really respect your husband for the special things he’s doing. And my father looks up to him from his yeshivah days. I decided I’d like to surprise him and  buy a 48” oven for you. I’m just checking that the model I have in mind is the size and type that will suit you. The Thermador model I’m thinking of is top of the line. I have a connection and was able to get a good price.”

My mouth dropped and I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t think of a coherent response. Who ever heard of a contractor buying an appliance for his customer? It was another of the many hugs I received from Hashem during that time.

to be continued...

(Excerpted from Family First, Issue 683)