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Tears streamed down my cheeks as I struggled to concentrate on driving. It was the perfect place to live. A two-bedroom condo on the ocean. The manager was happy to rent it to me. We went back to her office to sign the lease.
     Our conversation painfully played in my mind over and over again.
 I expressed how grateful I was and how nice it would be for me and my daughters. “You have children?” she asked. Yes, I smiled, “two girls, three and eight.”  “I’m sorry, we don’t except children here.” “What do you mean you don’t except children!” I exclaimed. “Isn’t there a law against that?”
 “I’m so sorry, these are the rules here and we can’t change them.” she added.
  Getting back in my car, sobbing, I drove to my store to open for the housing board, feeling utterly defeated.
     I put the key in the lock to open the heavy, glass door and stopped abruptly. The dark tint on the glass reflected a magnificent rainbow behind me.
I couldn’t help but turn around to look and said “Oh, God, how beautiful! Wasn’t meant to be, was it?”
      I relocated to the Florida Keys three weeks prior to Hurricane Georges hitting. It destroyed hundreds of homes, including mine.
     My shoe store, Inspiring Soles, was in the early stages of opening. It made sense to create the housing board. The local newspaper was only distributed twice weekly. The board helped people by giving them a place to post and search available rentals between publications.
     Later that day, a sweet elderly lady stopped in my sore to advertise her rental. “May I see it?” I asked. “Of course,” She said
     While driving to the address, another rainbow appeared as I drove over the top of the bridge.
I knew this was going to be the one.  
We spent two very happy years in that waterfront duplex. Watching sunrises, Dolphins play and fishing off our dock while eating cookies our sweet landlady from next door baked.
God had something far better planned for us than I could have ever imagined.
By J. R.