"Whoa! We're half way there!"--almost

Jeremy moved here in March of this year so we will reach the 6 month mark in the beginning of September.  We're half way there.  We have grown and learned SO much so far.  We've been blessed to have a few visitors in the short time we've been here.  My parents, little sister, and brother-in-law came in June for Hezekiah's dedication. My best-ie Bree came in July to surprise another friend of ours.  BUT as a pleasant gift to me, I got to see her too!

We are learning dependence on God in so many ways.  Pastor Aaron always says to "lean on God so hard that if He were to move you'd fall."  I very much try to live that life.   And for quite sometime felt I was.  I found when I came here that I was not.  I found that I felt sometimes I couldn't find God.  And then I realized He was where He said He would be and I had moved.  So I moved back and leaned again, and try ever so hard to stay put. But anyone who knows me well can tell you that "staying put" is not my strong suit.

I feel, though, that I'm doing well at leaning and trusting, staying put and having faith.  A wise sister of mine said to me today "it's easier to use a credit card than to have faith."  And she's right.  That applies so many places and in so many ways.  It's easier to find a solution that the world has for our problems than to run to our Abba Father and wait for his help.   Especially when I can fix it now.  That takes away the chance for God to show himself as our provider.  I can pray provide provide all day!  If  I never give you a chance to provide can I then turn around and say you didn't?  The answer seems a clear "No". But! we do this ALL THE TIME!  We say things like "I had to.  I needed _____."  And if you had waited a bit longer you might have seen a miracle.

 I was writing today in my journal and I was thinking about how we're expected to produce results.  So much is expected of us sometimes. And I will leave you with the conclusion I have come to. 

"There is always the comfort of knowing that God knows what He's assigned to you.
But hear this: God WILL GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDEL! BUT His promise is that he will make a way to escape temptation and he will pick up where you cannot carry on. (read carefully: 1 Cor. 10:13 and Mt.11:28-30)"

Grown Up

So this whole being a grown up thing...not what I thought it'd be. My strength is found right now in Philippians 4:4-8

"4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

There is so much here for me. 1st Rejoice in the Lord always. Always, not just when it feels right or is easy because things are going well but always.

2nd the Lord is near. Enough said there.

3rd Do not be anxious about ANYTHING but by prayer and petition WITH thanksgiving present your requests to God. And there it is again, I don't know about you but I can't give thanks with out rejoicing. It's kinda hard. And then after I've noticed all the things I have to be thankful for "magically" all the worries shrink. They're all still there. They all still beg for my attention. But they're not monsters any more. And that's a relief I can live on till they balloon back up and I have to deflate them again.

Every time I come to a new turn I think it's gonna be the answer and all the problems will be gone and it turns out that's not true. I just need to accept that I'm supposed to live my whole life dependant on God. Again, hard. So all that to say I got bumped up to full time at my job. And that is GREAT news but not quite the news that I thought it would be. The pay raise isn't that big. I'm not complaining we just still need more than what that raise will afford. And the insurance offered from my job is very affordable for me and very expensive to add my spouse. For me to have health and dental it's about 50/month. To add Jeremy is an additional 556/month. You read that right, and that's in American dollars. Also about a fourth of what I make a month. And more than our rent.

So problem NOT fixed...partially I guess. I feel very conflicted about what to do about all this. Do I need to keep looking for something else? Is Jeremy looking for another job the answer? That hasn't panned out so far considering his "temporary" job at Jimmy Johns has been his only job since we got here. Does none of that matter and we're supposed to just trust? And it wouldn't be so bad except he's the sick one. So...what to do, what to do...Pray with thanksgiving. Be anxious about nothing. And know that the peace of God, which surpasses our understanding, will GUARD my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. And that's where the battle is any how so. What have I to worry about?

PS we got a second vehicle. (I'll post a pic later Jeremy's at work right now :) ) It was a great buy and we're really happy with it. This was because I was supposed to be seeing kids and taking on a case load with my new full time hours. Which I'll still be doing for now.  I can't have kids jump on my moped with me! We'll see how it all pans out.

Till next time,

Xxoo



As promised, Voila!

Still Trying

Well, this has been quite the journey.  It's only been just over 2 months.  Somehow it feels like it's been so much longer that we've been gone.  Our current jobs are still going fine, however we still REALLY need someone to get a full time job with some insurance.  We're looking into our options, but it's been hard.  It seems there are a lot of really good possibilities and they keep not turning out.  We still strongly feel that God wants us here.  If we didn't I think we might be trying to find a way to come home :)  We really miss everyone a lot.  I've noticed that I gain a lot of encouragement when I run in the mornings.  I realized last week that I had started to lean away from God and more on myself.  It's hard when He doesn't move at my pace.  If He doesn't come I tend to just keep on. But He's guided me back to where He is and I keep trying to lean on him.  Things look really scary with out him.  But with him I am always reassured and encouraged.  I haven't dressed up or done anything special since my last post so I don't think I'll have a picture this time. :(  My parents are coming at the end of the month for Hezekiah's dedication.  It'll be really good to see them!  For those of you praying for us  please pray for a job (or combination of jobs?)  that will meet our needs, continue to pray for healing and health for Jeremy, and for God to strengthen us as we try to stay obedient.

I love you all!!!  xxo

Settling In

So life has assumed a pace for us here.  Jeremy is still looking for full time work.  He has an interview with Ashley Furniture next week, making deliveries.  We both have mixed feelings about this interview.  We're not 100% sure he's ready for such a labor intensive job yet.  So we're trusting God and the process. If Jeremy's not ready then he'll stay where he's been put.  He had a consultation with our lyme doctor this past week and she thinks he might be free of his lyme and ready to fight the co-infections Bartonella and Bebesia.  So he will be getting tested soon and switching up meds etc.  This is good news :)  I will have a consultation next week and we're expecting similar or better news. I've always been healthier than Jeremy so it'd be REALLY bad if it was worse news!

Jeremy has been given more hours at Jimmy John's.  There's a co-worker of his who is taking another job for the summer.  So Jeremy can have his hours for the summer.  That makes him full time and benefit eligible. So that's REALLY good :)  We really need coverage and the private coverage we were looking at was about $280.  That's so much for us right now.  So it looks like God has us covered again!  And we have another opportunity developing that would be really good for us.  I can't publicly disclose information about it right now, but I'll keep you posted...If you want to know more you can call or privately message/email me ;)

I am making curtains for our apartment.  I am almost done.  Then we'll borrow Ray's drill again (Thanks!) and put them up.  They'll be very nice to have up and done.  All in all we're doing well, eating well, feeling better and being blessed by a God who loves us.  And just for picture's sake, because I like to include one in each posting, a picture of me at our good bye party for our Executive Director at the Partnership.

Moped and More

Hello again!
So much happens in a week! I found out that my office isn't as close as we had thought it would be.  It's about 1.5 miles farther away.  I also have a bit of driving that I have to do for my job so using only one car proved to be a problem.  SO to remedy that we bought a moped! I have a matching helmet :)  It's a lot of fun.

I had a lot of training this past week at the Division of Youth Services (DYS).  We work directly with DYS and their trainings are phenomenal!  Their rehabilitation program is nationally known as the Missouri Model.  Juvenile  systems from all over the nation come to MO to learn from our DYS about how to be more effective at helping youth.  I am SO honored, excited, and blessed to be apart of this organization!  I could have NEVER known that this is what I was coming into. So, I love my job so far and it's going very well.   It's been a nice adjustment to go from 50+ hours a week to 29.  We'll feel that in the wallet but the experience I'm gaining here is invaluable.

As far as Jeremy finding a full time job, he is a ways along in the preview process at Evangel. There are two jobs that he's applied for and they keep emailing to let us know his resume is being passed along.  He'll be contacting them Monday to check on things and let them know he's interested :)

In other news: We've been using our health insurance, dental, and proscription coverage like we're gonna lose it...because we lose it on Tuesday!  We have a short term plan in place for the mean time but we are really hoping Jeremy gets one of those jobs because they have insurance plans.  Jeremy had a lot of work done on his mouth and found out he needs a root canal.  He will have that done Monday...ick.

God continues to supply for all our needs.  My last pay check from Biz Lab came and my first paycheck from my new job came so we are taken care of so far.  But again we REALLY need Jeremy to get a full time job.  If you're praying for us please pray about that :)  I thought I had lost all my cleaning supplies in the move and I found them this week.  I was very concerned about this because it would have been expensive to replace ALL my cleaning supplies.  But I found it this week and was SO happy!  We know that things could get really tough for us in about 3 weeks but God hasn't let us down this far and we know he won't let us down in 3 weeks.  He's been so faithful and we are so blessed.  We'll talk to you all soon!!!

xoxo

One week down

Hello all!  I'm not exactly sure who will read this but I figured it was the easiest way for the most ppl to stay up to date with me :)  I arrived here just over a week ago to take a drug test (Last Friday) in hopes that I would start working Monday.  Well it took longer than expected and I start tomorrow.  This "week off" has taught me at least one thing: when I retire I'll need a job...ha! (Sorry dad I don't know how you do it!)  So where to begin?  The plan all along was for Jeremy and I to do a detox diet when I got here, leading into a candida diet to get rid of this HORRIBLE disease (?)  So we began that on Thursday.  As part of the diet we can't have any animal bi-products (cheese, milk, eggs, etc.)  So we have had a few adventures making things we can eat.  I made a cake today (gluten free, 98% vegan, sugar free)  I used banana as my egg substitute.  This made it taste like banana bread but that's ok because we like banana bread :)  Jeremy is very excited that he has lost 5 lbs already!

As for my kitties.  They are doing well.  They fight less which is good.  I read that neutral territory might cause them to fight less. I think it's worked.  Stinker has shown a renewed love for the bath tub.  He loved to get in the tub after shows a lot when he was a kitten.  He stopped caring so much about  a year ago.  Ever since we've been here he's been really interested in the tub and the sink in the bathroom.  We figured it out tonight.  We have known all along that Stinker likes bleach. This is terrible I know.  We have to keep anything sprayed with bleach, and the bleach itself, away from him or he goes nuts for it.  Well our water is...bleachy smelling.  So Jeremy and I filter our water.  But we do not filter our shower water or our bathroom water.  I realized tonight that Stinker likes the water here so much because it smells like bleach! Gross...

That's all for now.  We are really liking our new home down town.  We spend a lot of time at the Bistro Market not far away from us, along with Mama Jeans.  Those are two places we can get the food we need.  They've been very nice to have so close.  I will keep you all posted about my new job this coming week.  Talk to you all soon!  Love!