Our amazing friend

My hubby has an amazing friend. It would take up a lot of posts to tell all about what Carlos means to us and what he has done for us. And if you know us (and aren't cyber friends) than you have met him already because he is 'family.'
Our kids have adopted him as their uncle since their real wonderful uncles are so far away. He can rattle off their birth dates faster than my hubby can. I have no doubt that he'd give his life for them without a hesitation. Actually, he's given up a good part of his life for all of us already.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend."

We saw this passage lived out in front of us in a big way. Carlos gave up 10 months of his life to add an addition onto our house without accepting any pay. (he only accepted dinners) He worked all day for 6 and sometimes 7 days a week, out of love and without one complaint. Except for sleeping here, he just about lived here all those months. (and the amazing thing is, he still likes us!) : )
He gave up another year's worth of weekends to help us finish up all our goals around here and to be used by God to give us "more than we ever asked or hoped for." (i.e.- two remodeled bedrooms, an extreme bathroom remodel and a pavered patio) Just incredible!

He is quite a guy. He's a certified auto mechanic by trade who didn't know a whole lot more about adding on to a house than my hubby who is a painter. But, he prayed, read books and acted like he had it all under control so that we would feel better. And when he was really stumped on how to do the next phase, God would give him a dream and then he would 'see' how to go about it. Amazing.
Anything he puts his mind to, he figures out and does it to perfection. He's meticulous. The only thing he says he can't fix 'are relationships'.

He is also an absolute riot. He's so funny. He's one big kid. He makes us laugh so hard that I have more than once, spit out my drink at the dinner table! (embarrassing) He's pretty proud of his bachelor status in life and can be a little crude and goofy. During those months, he would let Honey (our dog) lick his plate when he was finished eating and then hand the plate to me and tell me it was clean enough to go back in the cupboard. UGH! One time, I had my hand in the garbage disposal side of the sink to fish out something and he pretended to turn on the switch. I jumped a mile and a half. Another time, he put termite droppings next to the brand new wood we were building with and told my hubby that we had termites, just to see him freak out. (he likes to watch us freak out) Another time, he said there was someone at the door for me and it was the Rooms to Go truck, with furniture that he bought for us! (I was too shocked to freak out that time) He didn't want our "old furniture" going back in the living room that he had just worked on. He's pretty amazing like that.

My hubby stepped out in faith to add on to our little 800 + sq. ft. house on every weekend till Jesus comes : ) or just about! Then Carlos said he was between jobs and would work on it for us during the week. What a blessing!

You see we had a small house with two bedrooms and 4 kiddos, and we needed God to do something. We loved our street, we loved our neighbors and we really loved our tiny mortgage payment and our very low taxes. My hubby prayed and believed God to move on our behalf and to give us the space we desperately needed to raise the wonderful family He gave us. We refinanced our house to pay for the building materials and my hubby determined to add on more space (without debt) which meant doing all the work himself... and in stepped our amazing friend and the dream became a reality. ~Becky