In the year 2012, my family and I were renting a house in Harrisburg, North Carolina. Renting a house was easier than owning a house for our family, but with a family of eleven, it’s hard to find a big enough house for all of us to fit in. My parent’s names are David and Stephanie, and my eight siblings are David Jr., Murray, Isaac, Josiah, Luke, Ryleigh, Joseph and Mary. (If you know your Bible stories, those last two names may have given you a good laugh.) My name is Seth, Seth Graves, and this is what being homeless taught me. Hopefully, reading this will teach you something too.
At that time, my dad had a job working in computer storage and my mom was a stay at home mom. We, the children, were all too young to get actual jobs, so we just helped our dad out with jobs in the neighborhood, doing things like mowing lawns, spreading mulch, and pressure washing houses and driveways. It was nice having five brothers and three sisters around the house; never a dull moment and always something fun to do.
On the 4th of July in 2012, we went to a park to join some of our old church friends to grill out, play some games, and shoot off some fireworks. Our friends also invited another couple who had nine kids to the park to join us; the Kapitan’s. On that day, we began a friendship that I, nor my family, could have known would become a complete blessing to us. God lead us to meet that family on that day to bless us. A few weeks after that 4th of July, my Dad got word that he would no longer be working his job for the computer storage company. Somehow, after dad was let go, the homeowner we were renting from found out that he had lost his job, so he gave my family and I a three week notice to be completely moved out. Three weeks to move out with the huge amount of stuff we had (things like our beds, furniture, appliances, clothes, etc…) seemed impossible at the time, but with eleven people, some friends from the neighborhood, and a lot of long days, we were able to get it all done. Having been evicted from our house, we had no time or money to be able to move into another house or rent one, so we put all of our household items in storage sheds and tried to figure out where we would go next.
Long before we knew we were being evicted, we had been invited by my grandparents to Atlanta to stay with them and enjoy family time with them. So, after we moved everything out, we got on the road for a four hour car ride down to Atlanta. In Atlanta everything was up in the air as to where we would go after the trip, however I didn’t really care and enjoyed being in Atlanta and eating good food. LIKE WHO WOULDN’T? Now that I think about it, at twelve years old, I didn’t really care about much of anything that happened to me, but I’d probably freak out and get really worried if that happened to me again being nineteen years old now. Praise God that isn’t the case today. It was so amazing to see how everything worked out in the end and to see where I am today.
You may be wondering where we ended up after the Atlanta trip. Well, the Kapitans (the other family of eleven) lived on a farm at the time, and thought it would be awesome to let us come stay with them and live on their farm.
For close to one year my family and I were homeless, staying in other people’s houses and learning to be happy with the life we had at that moment. Looking back on my experience of not having a home, I learned that everything that happened to me during that time was awesome. God knew and had a plan for us all along, but He was the only one that could see it. He knew we would be alright and safe from being on the streets. When I think back to that time, when something is happening in my life today, like maybe a troubling time, or if it seems like I won’t make it through tomorrow, I can always remember my twelve year old self being so calm and happy with anything that happened. It makes me realize that I am blessed, protected, and have a loving family. I know now that God will always be there for me, and that no matter what happens in my life, I will always and forever be Blessed.
Seths Blog 