Lord, please give me a break! No, not one like that...

Today I had to take a few minutes out of the last minute rush around as we prepare for our move to Cape Town to pray a short little prayer - I simply prayed 'Lord, please give me a break'.

I can tell you that Megie and I are feeling quite stretched at the moment.

Moving is a stressful enterprise at the best of times, but when you have one partner in the marriage on crutches, and one child in the household with special medical needs, moving takes on a whole new dimension. I have to pay loving tribute to Megan, my ONLY wife of 14 years. She has taken up the slack, borne up under the pressure, and ensured that between having me in hospital, and Liam with his 4th bout of tonsillitis in as many weeks, we are ready to move when the removals company arrives on Thursday to 'deal with our belongings'.

Today, however, we received another bit of running interference... A month ago when we signed the contract for the home that we shall be renting in Somerset West, we followed the complex rules, as stipulated by Aida properties, so that we could have our pet doggie 'Wendy' with us. The rules stipulated that one may have one pet dog (tick), not too large (tick), and that one must apply in writing (tick), and have the permission of the owners if one is a tenant (tick). Everything was sorted out for our new (temporary) home. You see, even though we own a small townhouse in Somerset West, we cannot move into it ourselves. First, because SMALL is the operative word in the description 'small townhouse' - the small townhouse in question only has two bedrooms (we are four persons), and it has no garage and only space to park one car (we have two cars, a Vespa (praise the Lord), and a BMW motorcycle). Second, we could not move in there because we have a tenant, a good one at that, who lives in the small townhouse.

So, we sought a place to stay, turning down many cheaper, and more suitable complexes and free standing houses, in order to find a place where we could keep our little doggie Wendy.

Today, however, a very obnoxious managing agent told Megan that our request had been summarily denied, and that tenants are no longer allowed to have pets in the complex (the right to a single dog is only open to 'owners'), and that this rule had changed a year ago (even though the contract that they leasing agent had supplied us gave us the full procedure listed above). The contract that we signed clearly stipulated that we were allowed to have our dog if we applied for her, which we did. Moreover, to tell us on Tuesday, when we move on Thursday, that we cannot bring out pet is simply heartless!

Sometimes I think that we (and I include myself in the collective 'we') forget that rules affect the real lives of real people... Compassion, just a little compassion.

So, I prayed 'Lord, please GIVE ME A BREAK!' I feel helpless. I cannot carry a box, drive a car, or even walk without crutches because of the 'break' to my leg... I feel like I have been getting a lot of 'breaks' like that lately. I need encouragement, help, and solutions.

Tonight I shall have to tell my 8 year old daughter that we cannot take our dog with us to Cape Town... Then, in the next 3 days I need to find a good home for Wendy. I don't know how I am going to do it? 'Lord, please give me a break!'

Oh, and did I mention that my car which has been back to Hatfield VW too many times to count (for the same electrical fault) broke down on the way home from Church last night...!?