A little more than a week ago, we moved from our roomy New Englander in the small shipbuilding city of Bath to a little fixer-upper in the woods.

“Do you need help?” a friend asked the previous day at church.

“Oh, no,” I confidently replied. “It should only take an hour or two to load up the last U-Haul. Then we should be on our way.”

After all, we’d already emptied the house of almost everything except mattresses, kitchen items, a couch, table, clothes, and a few things in the basement. How long could it take?

Our nearly disastrous experience staining the newly laid pine floors should have been a warning. The one-week job turned into two as my husband, Dana, doggedly worked to grind off the too-dark, too-orange second floor stain and re-stain it a tranquil rustic russet.

Unfortunately, this used all the remaining time we’d reserved to stain the living room. So at 4 o’clock on the morning of our big move, I crawled out of bed and drove north to smear four coats of polyurethane on the downstairs floor while Dana prepared to load the 20-foot U-Haul.

The timing would have been perfect, except what we thought would take a single trip, took two. So, late that afternoon, while I unpacked kitchen items and moved mountains of boxes, Dana, and our two oldest boys drove wearily back to Bath to redeem our remaining furniture.

Around 9 p.m. they finished loading the truck only to discover that the battery had died. After a series of desperate phone calls, a former neighbor, Sarah, arrived to give it a jump start. By the time it reached our new house, I was sleeping on the floor with our youngest boys while our 12- year-old daughter smartly chose the couch.

And that is how, a challenge that we’d expected to manage on our own, ended with all of us hauling mattresses upstairs at midnight. Early the next morning, Dana was back at work and the older kids caught the bus to school, leaving me with two very excited small boys while trying to figure out where to put everything.

You might not be in the middle of moving, but often in life, we foolishly try to handle difficulties on our own, certain that we don’t need help. When things don’t turn out the way we planned, we’re stuck and in need of a jump start. The good news is that help is available.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” Scripture says in Psalm 46:1.

Sometimes that help is available through a trusted friend. Sometimes it is through the wise words and experience of a professional councilor, support group, or church. Often I find the help I seek through prayer — asking God for divine help, wisdom, or strength.

The important thing is to remember that none of us has to carry our burdens alone. So, the next morning, when I still couldn’t figure out where to put everything, I called my friend Jenny — a former military wife with plenty of experience moving — and we sorted things out together.

MEADOW RUE MERRILL is a Mid-coast Maine writer who shares about God in her everyday life through “Faith Notes.” For more, go to www.meadowrue.com where you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.