The Problem with Dreams

Chapter 37 - Blessings of the Lord

The week following Matthew's visit felt like they were turning a corner for the Abernathy household. With both Greg and Susan's offices moved to the cottage, and the things from the farmhouse garage moved into their new one, the sense of transition for the family was felt by everyone. Nobody stayed home anymore at the farmhouse during the day. Since Greg or Susan or both of them were working from the cottage regularly, they also took Jessie and Zackary to their new bus stop every day. And every day someone met Jessie there afterwards while Zackary came to the cottage from the bus stop on his own after school. There were still sports practices after school on some days which required them to be picked up, but afterwards they generally came to the cottage where they did homework or Jessie rode her bike on the driveway until everyone was ready to go home. As a result, the daily routine for the entire the family had definitely changed.

More and more often, Greg was spending his days with the people at the studios during the week; building his crew, doing the planning and research for the pre-production phase of his project. As a result, he was hardly at the farmhouse or the cottage most of the days that week. In contrast, Susan, who after more than three weeks working there, was feeling more settled in their new office at the cottage. She was getting used to being there and the work men were getting used to having her there. At last she was beginning to feel productive and was able to work much more steadily on her programming projects than she had in her first few weeks of being there.

By the end of that week, even Mr. Thompson seemed to accept the new way the Abernathy's were handling things and reported his team's progress to Susan regularly. His inspectors showed up right on schedule, and he was pleased to tell her that the sunroom would be essentially finished by October 11th or the following Friday. They had only two more inspections to do, which would happen over the next two weeks, which meant his prediction they would be ready to sign off on the project by October 25th or the last Friday in October, was looking more and more likely.

"Shall I schedule time to take the day off?" Greg wondered when Susan gave him the news on Friday at the end of the week.

"You could, but remember my next ultrasound is on the 23rd and my twenty week visit is the same Friday as the walk through," Susan said.

Greg looked through the day planner he kept in his pocket. "I don't think I'll be able to make it to your ultrasound and take the whole of Friday off too," he said with a frown. "I could take half days both days and schedule things around your appointments, but I don't see how I can do that and be at the house for the final walk through with Mr. Thompson too. I'm sorry Susan."

"I was wondering about that. I know you're incredibly busy at the moment," Susan said. "If you can take the whole day off on Friday, I think I'd prefer that you do that rather than two half days. Come see Dr. Daniels with me first thing ... my appointment is early ... then do the walk through with me with Mr. Thompson on the house."

"Are you okay with having your ultrasound on your own?" Greg asked.

"I always did my ultrasounds on my own with the boys," Susan told him. "They'll give me pictures, and you know Dr. Daniels will review the images with us at my appointment, so I don't think you'll miss too much by not being there."

"That does sound like the best plan then. I'll have to work late several days next week to ensure I have the time," he warned.

"We'll manage, Greg," Susan assured him.

"We always do," Greg recognized. "As long as we stay focused on the Lord's plan, if we are faithful, our time apart usually yields its own rewards."

Susan shook her head.

"What is it?" Greg asked.

"What's gotten into you lately?" Susan wanted to know. "You are suddenly sounding like a rabbi instead of my husband from time to time."