Answered Prayer

Sometimes God chooses to answer our prayers by saying "no". Sometimes He says "wait". And sometimes He answers "yes". For a while now, He's been telling Chris and I "wait", but I was too caught up in my own despair to realize it. I'm not proud to say I was really struggling with God and questioning Him over and over. I really was wondering what was taking Him so long providing Chris with a job. Certainly, God wants our children to have a stable home! So why are we still here with Granny?

Don't get me wrong now. I am a thousand times grateful to Granny for opening up her home to us for these (almost) 4 months. I'm sure it's not easy to go from the quietness of living by yourself to having two more adults and two young children causing extra commotion! So yes, we are incredibly thankful and grateful to her for what she has sacrificed for our family. Although I think she'll miss the kids when we leave. :o)

Last week, I started to change my prayers from something similar to this: "God, please provide Chris with a job so we can get a place of our own. Let your will be done," to something more like this: "God, please give us a miracle. We're going to start testing out doors, so give us the wisdom to know if the door is opened or closed." Basically, I got a little tired of saying the same prayer every single day, countless times. I know God wants us to tell Him what we feel, but it just felt like He wasn't responding.

So this past Monday night Chris was sitting at the computer looking for jobs. He found a posting on Craigslist for a company a little south of here, near Orlando. It fit his skills, but it was something a little different than he's done in the past. He called them Tuesday. The guy asked if Chris could be there Wednesday for an interview. "Heck, yeah!" "Um, sure!" was Chris' response. So dropping off Caleb with Grandma and Papa Wednesday, Chris, Laura Anne and myself all took a trip south for the day. While Chris was in his interview, Laura Anne and I prayed and played. I took her to a nearby McDonald's so she could play on the playplace and not be bored to tears. When she got tired we drove back to the office where Chris was, and where we were (thankfully!) invited inside in the air condition and Laura Anne fell asleep on my lap.

At one point, Chris was getting a mini tour of the place, I guess, and he walked by me. When he passed me I saw he was doing a thumbs up behind his back! I took that to mean things were going well.

It all came down to this: Chris liked them. They liked Chris. If they could all come to an agreement on salary and a start date, Chris had the job. So the evening was spent in Downtown Disney for Laura Anne where she found a new friend. This Cinderella doll came with a little puppy that she decided to name Blanket. Cute, right?

Here they are with the sea monster made out of Legos!

One of the toy stores has a table with a bunch of potato heads and parts. This is the one Laura Anne made:

My little shopper:

On the drive home, Chris and I discussed our finances to come up with a minimum salary that he would accept. We also talked about when he could start work. We started praying for those specific things, and told God, "Okay, God. Here's what we need. If this is your will, let these two things be acceptable to the company. If they offer what we are asking You for, we will take it as a green light." Thursday, around lunch time, I called Chris to see if he had called them yet. In a roundabout sort of way he told me he got the job!!

Praise the Lord!!! God made everything work out in His timing, when He knew Chris and I were ready! How I regret my attitude lately, but I am so thankful God didn't give up on me! He actually went above and beyond our requests. How great is our God! Now we move on to finding a place to live. Chris starts his new job August 1st, so we have about a month to move. I know, and this time I really mean it, that God has something already prepared for us and I am excited to find out what it is!