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by: bboop I don’t believe that God would set me up for failure .. and I have faith that he will see me through. --------------------------------- My husband worked in maintenance for 28 years at a local manufacturer.  In the mid-80’s, he was working on a reaction injection molding machine when an o-ring broke and he was sprayed with isocyanate.  At the time, reaction-injection molding was new technology in this area, and the people at the hospital were not prepared to deal with it.  The poison control center in Atlanta was not prepared to deal with it.  They didn’t call and tell me anything about the accident – he just didn’t come home from work that night.  When he did come home, his flaming red hair was white – and he had a thick white coating covering his body. Over the years, he has had multiple ‘growths’ on his body, has been ‘mis-diagnosed’ (twice) with prostrate cancer, and in late 2000, had surgery on both shoulders to separate the bones where they had ‘fused’ together.  The surgery left him in a condition where he was no longer able to perform the job – and the company ‘disqualified’ him. He attempted to get another job – driving truck – but found that, with the condition of his arms, he wasn’t able to do that either.  He was too young for retirement and not eligible for unemployment.  Some people say that we should have sued the company – but we didn’t.  At the time, I made enough money to support us, so he just quit and stayed home. About the same time, the company where I had worked for 20 years was sold.  In 1998, it was apparent that they would soon go out of business, so I quit and went elsewhere. For a couple of years, I worked in software development.  After three years, I was assigned the task of upgrading the ERP system from Unix to Windows.  The company was a young company– in business 13 years – and were running the same ERP system that was purchased when the company was new – so this was a major upgrade planned over a two year period.  After about 18 months into it, in the spring of 2002, I got sick.  I had fevers off and on, cramps, my legs randomly quit working for no reason … and then I woke up one morning hemorrhaging.  I went to the doctor right away and was diagnosed with a growth on my uterus which had grown through the wall – bleeding into my internal organs.  I was scheduled for surgery two days later. The plan was that I would be in surgery about 2 hours – in recovery for 3 hours – in the hospital 3 days – and off work six weeks. Back at work, I had two days to hand off the ERP upgrade to others at the company and get my affairs in order. The day that I went in for surgery, I was delusional from the fever and my blood count was so high that they were not comfortable doing the surgery.  Not doing the surgery, however, was not an option.  So they did it with a saddle block.  I barely remember talking to the doctor before the surgery.  I was in recovery three days.  In the hospital a week.  Off work three months. After the surgery (a complete abdominal hysterectomy), I had severe emotional/hormonal issues and was unable to sleep at night (I still only sleep 2-4 hours at a time). I went back to work on the 16th of August – our go-live date was September 1st.  I had two weeks to take control of the project and get things on track.  After the go-live, I automated procedures, documented the system, and trained people throughout the company how to use and maintain it. Needless to say, 2002 was a very very stressful year. On the 11th of November, I woke up in the morning –stressed about the job – had just had a dream about it – and said to my husband that “no one should have to go through this much stress for a job”.  At the moment that I said it, I had a “premonition” that in six weeks I would not have to worry about it anymore. Six weeks to the day later – On December 16th – I was let go.  “Not a good fit” (after five years of employment with the company). I was devastated.  We were severely in debt.  My husband wasn’t working.  The economy wasn’t good.  I felt that we had worked all our lives to get to where we were – and now we would lose it all. I couldn’t call my husband, couldn’t call my mom, couldn’t call my son and didn’t feel like I could go home.  So I went out to the lake - and I sat and cried. And then – in an instant – it just stopped.  A calm came over me – and I felt that everything would be okay. On January 1st 2003, I got a call from a colleague asking me to help (on a contract basis) with maintenance of their database system.  When I finished with that job, I got a call from another company. In June 2003, I registered my company – Big Blue Water – as an LLC with the state.  By the end of the year, I had paid off all of our debt with the exception of the house.  I now have my son working with me fulltime and another employee part-time.  I’ve partnered with other local companies who provide complementary services. We aren’t getting rich – but we are surviving – and I honestly believe that God gave it to me.  I don’t know where it will lead – and there are days that I wonder – but I don’t believe that God would set me up for failure - and I have faith that he will see me through. Betty Hardin. the owner of “Big Blue Water” lives in West Michigan with her husband Moe. View the story online at: http://www.storiesaboutgod.org/index.php/stories/story_page/big-blue-water/

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