What a crazy few weeks this has been! Now I feel I can share more of the details with you about what God has been doing. I have been pretty silent here because;
1. I have been using this time to pray.
2. I just didn't feel I should share too many details.
3. I was waiting to see what God was going to do.
Well, He is showing Himself to us in so many ways! As of this past Sunday, Carlton is the new youth minister at FBC Blanco. If you don't know where that it is...you can google it, but it's in the Texas Hill Country....beautiful! I still don't have a job there so things are going to be a bit strange for a little while.
Two days after C was asked to resign, a friend of his sent him an email. That email read something like,
"hey man, I don't know if this is something that will work out or not, but
my home church in Blanco is looking for a youth guy. I called the chairman
of the committee and shared a little of your situation with him. He is a
Godly man and I think you will enjoy talking to him. I will send them
your resume. Not sure if this will work out or not, but I think it would be
a good fit."
That was back on Jan. 13th or 14th and now we are here. God has really blessed us through all this. We spent some time one day in our living room with the chairman of that committee. We had a really good visit. About a week later he called and asked if we could come there for an interview with the committee. So we packed up the kids and headed that direction. It was a BUSY weekend (of which they teased the chairman about for a while...we had something scheduled for every waking moment of the day!) :) Then in about a week, he called again to see if we would come back "in view of a call". So, once again, we packed up the kids and headed to Blanco.
That weekend we met with a few more people, Carlton shared his testimony and his philosophy of ministry, we had lunch with some of the youth, then headed home. The church waited a week (because that's what their bylaws say to do) (good ole' church bylaws!) then they voted. The vote was 106 for and 4 against (you almost always have a few against...those that always vote that way... :) ) That vote took place this past Sunday!
During all this, God has allowed us to grow closer as a family. He has allowed us to teach our children about faith, His provision and His protection all at a personal and up close level.
Movers will be at our house TOMORROW to pack us up and move us out and we are excited. Well, there are some glitches.....I still don't have a job there. SO, I will go to Blanco this weekend to help unpack (the kids rooms and the kitchen are my MAIN goal), then I will go to church, have lunch with my family, then get in my car and make the 5 hour trip back to Nederland.
I am getting a lot of advice/opinions on this right now. "How can you be that far from the kids?" "I think you should just quit your job and go." "You can make it on his salary alone." "How are you going to do this?" "What about the kids?"
Trust me, those are all things we thought about. But the truth is, we have always been a 2 income family, and you can't just go from 2 to 1 within a couple of weeks. The sell of our house is going to almost delete our debt, with the exception of one vehicle, and possibly part of the other one (but not much of it), and after that, we could possibly surrvive that way, but to be honest, if I have a job, I want that job.
I struggled with that for a very long time. (being a SAHM) (over a couple of years) Did I want to stay home with my babies? ABSOLUTELY....but as they got older, they loved the daycare. They loved playing with the other kids, and doing all the things they did there. Did I love some of the behaviors they picked up while they were there? NO, but we used those things as teaching tools. I don't want to get into the whole "working mom vs SAHM" thing....I admire those women who do stay at home. I use to envy them! But after my summers at home, I need to get back to work. My work, at school. Its what I feel called to do. How many people do you know feel CALLED to work with Special Ed. kiddos; kids that kick at you, yell at you, hit you, bite you, curse at you, call you evil(even though you are far from it), jr. high and high school kids that need help going to the bathroom, that have a tracheotomy or a feeding tube, that seize 15 to 20 times a day. Not many people feel CALLED to do those things, but I do! I love these kids and they deserve to have some to love them.
Please don't get me wrong....MY FAMILY COMES BEFORE THEM, and if God opens something up there for me, these kids will quickly become a memory to me, but until then, I will serve them.
OK, that's enough of that.
God is working so fast. We put a sign in the yard on Monday evening. The realtor took pictures Wednesday morning. We had one person look at it yesterday and 3 are scheduled for this afternoon. God is so good! His timing is perfect! I just know that this house will be sold in no time. SO, now I need to pray for a place to stay in the meantime!
Through all this I will say that God has allowed at least one of us (Carlton and myself) to remain calm. In his moments of panic, I am calm. In my moments of insanity and near breakdown, he is calm.
God is good! I can't say that enough!
