His Will

The last few months have been trying.. to say the least.

Most of you know that in August Darin felt led out of the youth ministry at the church we were serving at. It was about a 6 month process.. he felt God telling him that a change was coming in Jan of last year. After going to 2 weeks of church camp in June with our youth, Darin felt like God was telling us it was time for a new ministry... one that concentrated on speaking and coaching. God totally gifted him with a speaking ability and his biggest ministry is coaching. Soooo.. those two abilities don't really pay a great deal so we looked towards flipping homes to make our earnings. At the beginning of September we found a little house that needed a lot of love in the same town we live in. As he coached football in the fall, during the day he worked on our little flip home. He also had a few speaking engagements and went to a camp directors meeting to get his name out.

Living on no income for the past 5 months has been tough, to say the least. We completed our little flip house (See it HERE) in December and it's currently on the market. The last week as we pushed and pushed to get the house finished, we both realized that we couldn't do another flip house as our sole income. After a lot of prayer, conversation and tears.. we decided that Darin should go and talk to the principal at the high school he coaches at. You see, Darin has a teaching degree in elementary ed but always felt calling into the ministry. He worked at FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athlete's) and then as a youth ministry since he's been out of college.) We almost laughed at this idea because seriously.. a teaching job open in December? And at Fairfield of all places? (It's super hard to get a teaching job in this school district.) But we prayed for God to open and close doors to show us where He wanted us. We just want to serve where God wants us.

Darin went in to talk to the principal right before Christmas break.. and the principal had an open position. WHAT!? As an EH teacher. Emotionally Handicap.. kids that have had an extreme hard go at life and their emotions are destroyed as a result. The more and more Darin thought and prayed about it.. the more he realized that this may be his hardest ministry yet. Yesterday he had his interview and HE GOT THE JOB ON THE SPOT!!! He has to be approved by the school board and he will start the day after the school board meeting.. Jan 29th once approved.

God is so stinking amazing. There are SO MANY WAYS that he's shown His goodness.. His mercy.. His control and most importantly, His will through all this. I just want to list off a few of the amazing things He's shown me/provided for us in the past 5 months as we have struggled to pay our bills, seek his guidance and find what our next step would be.

*I received my bonus check from where I used to work. Um big news flash... I don't work there anymore. There is NO WAY I put in enough hours to receive the yearly bonus. For me to receive the bonus, it means that my Vice President and the CEO of the company had to approve the check. They approved it. And I cried.

GOD PROVIDED FOR US FINANCIALLY.

*On the same day I received my bonus, the minister's wife where Darin was the youth minister stopped by and gave us 5 meals!!! 5 MEALS!!! Our grocery bill was significantly lower that week. I cried.

GOD PROVIDED FOOD.

*The person that owned our flip house got the house from an inheritance. It was a legal mess on their side but she allowed us to work on the house before we owned it. This saved us almost 5 months of paying a mortgage on it. And with how messy the legal work was with the home, the closing was a breeze. The realtor also let us put it on the market for 2 weeks without us owning it. Crazy, I tell you. Crazy fabulous.

GOD PROVIDED US FINANCIALLY .

*Just in the last week 3 sets of family's randomly gave us a financial gift. Just because they knew money was tough. I cried.

GOD PROVIDED.

*Adie has had ONE COLD in the 8 months she's been alive. For ONE DAY. That is completely amazing... completely. She also has been getting her imunizations at the health department.. $8 instead of a couple hundred per shot.

GOD IS PROVIDING HEALTH.

*I still nurse Adie but I've had to miss some feedings now that gymnastics is here. One of my best friend's mom's works at a pediatrician.. she gave me 12 canister's of formula... we added it up and it is over $300 of formula. For free.

GOD IS PROVIDING FOOD.

*My MOTTT'S (Mother's of tots to teens) group has a clothing resale so I'm able to clothe Adie in some awesome used clothing for fractions of what I would spend if I had to buy it new.

GOD IS PROVIDING CLOTHING.

*The principal told Darin that he knew God was calling Darin into the teaching position. Not only did that give us confirmation that God told another person that those kids need Darin as a teacher but Darin's boss is a Christian.

GOD IS PROVIDING THE KIDS WITH THE TEACHER HE WANTS THEM TO HAVE

*Darin had to take 6 credit hours to get his teaching license. He never got his license once he graduated because he didn't want to make a "backup plan" on Jesus.. God clearly wanted him in the ministry. He took the last spot in 2 online courses that are only taking 5 weeks to complete. He also got into the last spot in the CPR class he needed for his license as well.

GOD IS PROVING EVEN THE SMALL DETAILS TO WORK OUT HIS ULTIMATE PLAN

*Darin has/will have speaking engagements every weekend for the first 3 weekends in January.

GOD IS CONFIRMING DARIN'S SPEAKING MINISTRY.

And you know? I could go on and on about how God is taking care of us. I have a job one morning a week that covers our grocery bill for the week. These months have been crazy tough but God has always provided for us. And I know he will continue to... He's taught me to not focuse on the circumstances, but what God is going to do through our circumstances.. He deserves all the glory!!! I'm so glad I can finally share all this news with you because it's seriously been driving me crazy to not blog about it. If you are finding yourself in need or want of something.. money, a baby, health, friends, family.. He'll provide. Promise. I'll leave you with this verse that I've clung to so closely to over the last few months....

1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him."