When I wrote "ARM Freeze Offers Solution To All World Problems",
and "letting the chips fall where they may". I received many cheers
for voicing the opinions of those who agreed with me. (See TREA
Blog for the full Article dated January 2008)

The point of that article was that people learn best by being made
to deal with their mistakes, instead of having the government play
the role of "baby-daddy" to come along and "save" us every time we
start whining. Where the housing crisis is concerned, at the home
owners level, most people did "make their bed", and now they are
having to "lay in it".

I have consulted with and counseled dozens of individuals over the
past few years who are/were in trouble over bad financial decisions
involving personal homes or investing in houses using questionable
financing tactics. I know from direct personal experience that the
housing crisis ultimately boils down to personal responsibility and
common sense decision making. But those who now find themselves in
this dilemma demand a quick fix, instead of paying the price for
and learning from their mistakes. They want government to bail them
out, or the bank to bail them out, but few are really interested in
learning the lessons of their mistakes so that they won't be
repeated.

The comments I wrote in that article generated some interesting
responses from readers who were offended at the idea of learning
from mistakes and dealing with the consequences of their actions.
One email said that I didn't have to care about the "little people"
because "Millionaires like me" can sit around in our wonderful
world criticizing others because we have nothing better to do and
we don't understand what they are going through.

I find such assumptions rather interesting. Actually, I am not a
millionaire at all. I work for a living just like most people do.
Heck, as far as I know, most millionaires work harder than most
average people. I do have friends that are wealthy, but they are
among the hardest working people that I know. You don't get rich
sitting around on your "assets" all day.

But the bigger point I want to make here is that my story is very
similar to those of the people who are now going through financial
hardships in this housing crisis.

Due to events beyond my control I endured a total financial
melt-down, and stripped of virtually everything I owned, and wound
up almost homeless. And then began the process of rebuilding my
life and my business activities. A process that is well under way
today, but has taken years to restore what was lost.

In November of 2000, my husband and I were regular working folks.
He had a good paying job, and I had a budding career as a real
estate agent and investor. Then that Monday after Thanksgiving
weekend, my husband came home from work very ill, with what
appeared to be the worst case of the flu that I had ever seen. He
was so sick he couldn't even talk. He went up to bed and slept for
3 days before he even spoke to me.

To make a very long story short, we soon discovered over a period
of weeks that he was suffering not from the flu, but from liver
failure, brought on by Hepatitis C. We had known that he had Hep C
antibodies, but up to that point, he had not suffered any real
symptoms. Then that fateful day, he went over the edge, and
suddenly he was clinging to life by a thread. The doctors said he
needed a liver transplant, and gave him maybe a year to survive in
that condition.

Little did I know that it would become a 3 and 1/2 year ordeal that
would eventually strip us of all of our personal assets, our real
property and leave us virtually homeless, living in a camper at a
campground.

Within the first 45 days, my husband gained 100 pounds of fluid in
his body. Fluid that was leaking out of his severely damaged liver,
and literally filling up his body like a plastic bag full of water.
He swelled from a size 36 to a size 48 in 5 weeks. He could not get
up, sit down or get dressed without assistance. He could not eat
without getting sick. I had to eliminate all the salt, sugar and
preservatives from our diet, because he could only eat natural,
unprocessed foods.

Then as if that were not enough, he suddenly developed a condition
known as "Hepatic Encephalopathy" which is a fancy term that means
his blood had too much ammonia in it, due to poor liver function.
This would bring on episodes of "instant alzheimers" in which he
had no idea where he was or what he was doing. During these
episodes, which would last as long as two or three days, he would
not even know to get dressed, and was basically nothing more than a
300 pound toddler, who had to be watched constantly. He started a
fire in the kitchen one day and almost burned the house down. He
required constant supervision. And in all of this, neither one of
us was able to work a job, and our income had disappeared.

Needless to say, our lives were falling apart. We were selling
personal property and assets just to keep a roof over our heads,
generating medical bills for thousands of dollars, and within less
than one year we went from a thriving middle class household to one
that was on the brink of total financial and physical disaster.

Eventually we had sold everything we had left of any real value,
and we moved into a camper to cut our living expenses as much as
possible. It seemed that there was no way out, and my husbands
prospects for a liver transplant seemed to be slim to none. Just
getting on the transplant list was a major challenge, with many
hoops to jump through, and then, even if you made the transplant
list, the wait for an actual transplant could take more years.
Years that my husband did not have to wait. It seemed like the
situation was hopeless.

During this time, I learned first hand about dealing with financial
and physical trials in a way that I could not have imagined
previously. I still had to find a way to make an income, so that we
could afford to even live in a camper. We had no telephone line or
cable access, so I had no internet connection. When my husband
would go to the hospital to see a doctor, or on one of the many
occasions that he was admitted during his illness, I would take my
laptop, virtually the only asset I had left, get on the internet,
and try to do business.

I was still a real estate investor, only now I had to deal with
being in the "no cash no credit" scenario. Not because I didn't
have good credit, but because I had no documented income. I was a
full time caregiver for my terminally ill husband, and had to find
a way to generate income from a camper at a campground, or a
hospital room.

Even in the midst of these troubles, I tried to focus on doing what
I could to make money in real estate. Through a variety of events,
which I now look back and see were God's divine intervention, I was
contacted by an investment group that was buying houses. They
invited me to come to work with them, helping them locate
properties that they could buy, and would pay me a commission for
those deals. They had no idea at the time that I was virtually
broke and living in a camper with a terminally ill husband.

I went to work with them immediately. Real estate is a great
industry because it allows for flexibility in your schedule and can
be done to some extent from anywhere. And that was what I needed...An
opportunity that could permit me to make lots of money while not
going to an office, plus working all hours of the day or night, as
needed.

 I jumped on every opportunity afforded me at this investment
company, and slowly, over a period of months, I started to make
decent money. Eventually I got a pipeline going, and closed several
deals in a short period of time. This allowed us to finally move
out of the camper and back into a house. But my husband was still
terminally ill. By this time he had survived almost 3 years, but
was still not on the transplant list.

I could go on for there were many other events that transpired
during this time, but suffice to say, I have seen my share of
trials, hardships and financial challenges. All during that time,
no one offered us a bail out. I had a few dear friends who helped
out as best they could, but there was no magic bullet and no
instant miracle. But the miracles did come. As we slowly but surely
worked through the financial, personal, and health issues, day by
day, the real miracles did begin to manifest themselves.

In February of 2004, my husband finally made the liver transplant
list. Then, by a miracle that can only be ascribed to God alone, he
received a transplant on April 5th, 2004, just 5 weeks after
getting on the list. 

 It happened to be Easter Week in '04. I can tell you it was like
living through a real resurrection.  He not only survived the
transplant, but he went home only a few days afterward. Today he is
a healthy and restored man, and we are enjoying the fruits of a
marriage that has been transformed and made stronger through those
difficult trials.

And, as a result of the time spent living in the camper, I had a
vision for a new commercial business. At the time, that idea seemed
equally impossible. But through God all things really are possible.
Today that business is known as Marine Depot,
www.MarineDepotUSA.com and is my boat and RV storage business. We
acquired a small facility from a real estate developer. He told me
later that he didn't think I had a snowball's chance in hell, but
he graciously allowed me to acquire control of a commercial
property that was perfect for my business vision.  Today it is a
thriving business that will be expanding in the near future.

And of course, I am still involved in real estate. I don't know
what I would have done during those darkest days had it not been
for my faith in God, and my knowledge of real estate. Prayer and
hard work have been the only "bailout" that we have had.

Looking back on it now, I can honestly say that those trials turned
out to be the best thing that had ever happened to us. They changed
our lives spiritually, made us better decision makers, made us
better financial planners, and made us stronger. It radically
improved our marriage, and our business lives are today better than
ever. No I am not a millionaire yet, but I am on the way to
building a solid financial future. All because we did not have
anyone there to bail us out, and we had to learn to live in faith.
Today that faith influences everything we do, and has not only
restored us, but has made our life better than it was before it all
happened.

So don't despair if you now find yourself in the midst of a tough
trial. In the long run, it could be the best thing that ever
happened to you. It was for me. I am glad that I had to learn to
work through my trials, instead of getting an instant bail out. God
knows what is best for all of us, but we have to be willing to make
ourselves subject to him. The government means well, but they
simply can't do for you what God can do.***