New Neighbors

I haven't said anything about this on here or on Facebook, but a few close friends and family know we've been having problems with our next door neighbors for the past 2 1/2 years. When we moved into our house in 2012 we really felt like we had found our dream home. A brick ranch with a full basement on 3 acres in Harrisburg - literally our dream come true. Scott and Julie who lived next door to us were the closest to us in age and Julie was the selling real estate agent for our house. We became friends with them - Chad and Scott were both interested in hunting and Julie even came to my book club for awhile. When we moved in they had 2 old dogs, one of which died not long after we moved in. Fast forward to February of 2014 and they had 5 dogs - 3 German Shepherds, 1 bird dog who pretty much lived tied to their deck, and 1 of the original old dogs. They never did anything with any of the dogs - no training, rarely walking them, hardly spending time with them, etc. The German Shepherds lived in a pen with an electric fence and they did bring them in at night and MOST of the time they brought Buck in (the one who was tied to the deck all the time). Sometimes, not often but enough to make my blood boil, Julie would take the 3 German Shepherds for a walk and leave Buck tied to the deck - howling and barking the WHOLE TIME they were gone. It killed me to see how they treated him - and really all the dogs because they never did anything with them. After living beside a barking dog kennel for 4 months Chad went over to talk to them. Julie wouldn't even come outside and Scott said "You're just gonna have to get over it." Chad said that wasn't going to happen and he wanted to work with them as friends and neighbors, but if we had to we would call the police. After that we never spoke with them again - they unfriended us on Facebook and blocked our cell phone numbers (even though we NEVER called them to complain about the dogs).

We did have to call the police probably 5 or 6 times and could have called dozens of times. The 2 1/2 years after they got all the dogs were probably the worst time of my whole life so far. Almost daily I was woken up by barking dogs. Because of how their house was positioned the barking was SO LOUD that we could hear it over the TV. We had to buy a white noise machine so we could sleep and not be woken up at 5am by barking dogs. Literally EVERY SINGLE TIME we opened the door and went outside the dogs would all run to the fence and bark like we were trying to kill them - and believe me I really wanted to. We contemplated moving, but I felt like that was "giving in" and I figured no one would buy our house once they saw all the dogs next door. It was an incredibly difficult time for both of us.

But, something good did come out of all that evilness. Because of how bad everything was Chad and I got serious about praying EVERY DAY. I'm not going to lie I prayed just about every way - for them, that God would rain fire down on their house, that Buck would escape and find some decent people to live with, that they would move, etc. I felt so bad for Buck tied to the deck all day every day that I did pray specifically for him every day too. I knew that our praying wouldn't necessarily mean they would be gone, but we both prayed and had close friends and family praying as well.

Then we had a good friend of Chad's tell us she had had a dream that she felt like applied to our situation, so that was pretty cool. This friend often had dreams where she felt like God was speaking to her. She asked if either of us had had any dreams and I was like "No, that stuff doesn't happen to us!" then on December 15, 2015 I did have a dream - Buck woke me up at 5am with his barking and when I fell back to sleep I dreamed that Scott and Julie came over to our house and told us they were moving on May 31. I contacted our friend and told her and she gave me an interpretation for some of the details of the dream that didn't make sense at the time. That dream honestly gave me a LOT of hope because I really felt like God was telling us that the end was in sight with this situation. When they put their house up for sale in March 2016 I thought maybe it would sell and close on May 31, but then that date came and went and nothing obvious happened. Their house was on the market for 6 months before it finally sold. I still don't know what May 31 was about, but someday maybe I'll find out something that was significant that happened on that day. So once their house went on the market I prayed EVERY DAY for 3 things: 1) that the new neighbors would be Christians, 2) that they wouldn't have any dogs, and 3) that they would turn the dog pen into a garden area. When our new neighbors moved in at the end of September we met them and they are a little younger than us and have a one year old son. I don't know if they are Christians or not, but the day we met them was truly and answered prayer - they don't have any dogs and don't intend on getting any AND they are planning to turn the former dog pen into a garden and the dog house into a chicken coop! It was really an awesome moment to see my prayer answered in these new neighbors. A few months after they moved in they bought some fruit trees and bushes and planted them in the new garden area.

While I would have never imagined or asked for this horrible neighbor situation, but it really did change us for the better. I don't believe God created the terrible situation, but I do believe that He used it to change us for the better. I pray now more than I ever did before this and more specifically because I saw God answer multiple prayers during this time - for specific things that I prayed for. I am more of a pessimist, but during this time Chad had a much harder time with this than I did. I was surprised to find myself encouraging him and feeling more positive about a terrible situation, which was not my nature, but how God used me to help Chad. I am also a fighter. I refused to give in and let our neighbors "win" by moving or showing them how much we were suffering. While that might not be the most Christ-like attitude, it did help me get through this. It sucks when you're in the middle of it, but God can do some of His best work in us when we go through terrible times - if we allow Him to help us and change us in the process. When this started I had no idea when or if it would end, but now that they are gone it's really cool to look back and see all that God did through this.