We gathered at the Heeremas for dinner, presents and a family photo.
Charity received an Alepeka original which she immediately put on display...
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Lopez Update: 2008 ‘Year in Review’
Christmas 2007: We were blessed to celebrate Christmas with the Las Cruces Heeremas and the extended family enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Day dinner and get-together with the Verbergs, who have become dear friends. The first big event after Christmas was the joy of being able to attend Esther’s THIRD birthday party on December 27th.
January (Praying for deliverance): Rick was having more and more challenges with his job at Alma d’ Arte Charter High School. I didn’t have any work at all, but got to spend lots of quality time with Esther and Henry.
February (A new job, unprecedented deliverance!):The first part of the month, I spent job hunting. I almost accepted a full-time nanny position for a family with an infant. Providentially, the job didn’t work out. The day I officially withdrew my application for that position, we saw an ad in the paper for self-storage resident managers. We applied and were hired to manage Discount Self-Storage.
The storage facility was still under construction, but the opening was anticipated for early Apri. Rick continued working at Alma, but knew his deliverance was near!
March (A road trip): During Rick’s Easter break, we took a road trip to California and then up to Washington to visit the younger Lopez family – at that time about to expand from two to three. It was a wonderful time to reconnect with friends and loved ones we’d missed since our move to New Mexico in July of 2007. We spent several days with our dear friends the Gochnauers, and also visited with Grandpa Richard Lopez in Chico.
We were blessed to spend several days visiting with our son, Chris, and his wife, Christina, and to worship at Bellingham United Reformed Church on Easter Sunday. On the way back through California after our Bellingham visit, we cleaned out our own storage in Paradise, packed what we could in our car-top carrier and trunk, gave the remnants to Goodwill and drove straight through back to Las Cruces.
April (Move, part 1): When we were hired for the position at Discount, we were told the facility would be open in April. Based on that information we gave our 30-day notice on our rent house in downtown Las Cruces. On April 1 – the day after arriving home from 2,500 mile journey – one of the Discount owners called me to say, ‘Come to work, right now!’
A new manager was being trained for Holiday Storage too, and I was told we’d be training together for awhile. I was very thankful to have a chance to learn the job this way, and spent the next six weeks working at Holiday every day. Meanwhile, since Discount was nowhere near ready to open, and we had to be out of our house by April 15. I made the owners aware of this little detail, and they kindly provided a temporary apartment for us. Affectionately known as the ‘dust bowl’, we lived in a humble cinder-block home that previously had served as the office for Fiesta Homes. But, hey, it was rent/utility free, and we were drawing our Discount salary too! What more could we ask?!
During this time, we were all blessed by a visit from Oma and Opa Heerema who made the trip from California to celebrate Hendrik’s FIRST birthday and Charity’s ??? birthday on April 11…they were among the lucky few to be invited to our dustbowl residence!
May (A beginning and an end): As a result of a bad case of stomach flu, I made an unexpected trip to the emergency room. After spending the whole day in agony, I began to feel better and once again realized I have much to be thankful for – despite the huge hospital bill!
Rick terminated his employment with Alma at the end of May and we began to work at the Discount property on a daily business tending to more pre-opening details.
June (More delays): But the work on Discount progressed sooooo slowly. There were many, many hold-ups and slow-downs. So, we did what we could and w-a-i-t-e-d.
July (Final Approach): And we waited…….THEN on July 23, 2008, Discount Self-Storage was granted a ‘certificate of occupancy’ and we began moving in to our brand-new apartment! On July 24, Discount Self Storage passed the final inspection and we opened our doors for business! After so many months, it all felt very surreal!
August (Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work): Response to the new business was good, and Rick and I began to ‘learn’ the ropes of self-storage and property management. Office hours are Monday through Saturday, and we answer the phone from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has been very challenging, but we have so much related experience, it’s been great to put all of that job knowledge to use in this new career.
God richly blessed Rick and I as we celebrated 35 wonderful years of marriage on August 11!
A much-anticipated highlight of the year came on August 31 with the birth of a certain precious new granddaughter. After the arrival of ‘Autumn Jude Hilligje Lopez’ we were anxious to meet her, but we had to wait another couple of months! And we had become very good at waiting!
September (We adjust to a new life): Discount has 389 ‘units, and they were beginning to fill up. Business was good and by the end of September we were about 25% occupied. Rick applied to work as a sub-custodian with Las Cruces Public Schools and the District began utilizing his considerable experience and talents immediately.
October (Anticipation): We traveled to Bellingham – joining Oma and Opa Talstra as well as other members of the extended Talstra family – to witness with joy the baptism of our dear covenant grandchild, Autumn. The weather was utterly gorgeous and the fall colors were breathtaking.
At the end of October, the younger Heerema family traveled to California and Washington-state to visit family and take their turn meeting Autumn Lopez. They were gone for three weeks and during that time, we had a chance to reflect how much our day-to-day interaction with them means to us. We have been given a marvelous gift in the closeness of our relationship, but how we miss our Bellingham family! Thanks be to God for the internet!
November (Stress): Work got pretty stressful for awhile, lots of pressure to ‘perform’ – many new ‘rules’ and ‘procedures’ we didn’t quite understand…we eventually learned the management team at our ‘sister’ location was under extreme scrutiny and we were just experiencing some of the fallout from that situation. The owners are actually very happy with our job performance. The Heeremas returned in time to share another holiday feast with the Verbergs, and we were more-than-ready to give THANKS!
December (Forty-plus): Even though our percentages dipped at the end of November due to many move-outs, we’ve made a great recovery with new tenants moving in every day, and our occupancy rate is now over 40%. We’ve been having FUN, too, as preparations for Christmas are made – lots of cooking, baking, present-buying and general mirth and merriment! Rick’s custodial skills are still in high demand, and he works approximately four evenings per week at one school or another. His P.R. skills have even netted us a few new tenants with his fellow school employees.
We thank God for His goodness to us and for our relationship with you all! We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sola Deo Gloria!
