We were looking at the 12 bedroom house this last week and I had to step outside because the combination of mold and rotten wood was enough to make me gag.

I was standing outside of the behemoth of a house with my father and mother-in-law when a woman came by asking for a cigarette/ money for a cigarette. 

None of us had anything on us, but she stuck around asking my mother-in-law, Karen, all kinds of questions.

“Are you buying this house?”

“No, my son is looking at it”

“Well, it’s nice around here, but the neighborhoods are no good.  It’s not a good area.  There are crackheads and prostitutes everywhere, you know?”

“Yea...”

“Is this your daughter?”

“No, this is my daughter-in-law”

“Oh HI PRECIOUS!”

At that precise moment she leaned in for a hug.  It completely caught me off guard, but I hugged back.  I asked her her name, which I now can’t remember.  She told me she loved my ring and I thanked her. 

“How many diamonds is that?”

“Um, I don’t know”

And as quickly as she came she was gone again.  She found a friend to bum a cigarette from and walked away with him.

As weird as it was to get a hug from a random stranger on Main St. it felt right.  It felt like that is the type of thing we want to be doing. 

Please pray for us as we go to look at two more houses today.