Life, Abundantly

The past month has been difficult to say the least. On June 1st Lucas called me around 10:30 am. I was putting a load of purchases from Target into the trunk of my car. "You need to come home right now" was all he said. Then my phone beeped and I saw a text message from my dad. My stomach dropped and I immediately wondered if something bad, really bad, had happened at home. The last time one of us got the "Come home now" call it was me calling Lucas to tell him Jim had passed away. I drove home fast. Too fast. I scared myself at one point. The entire I was praying "let everyone be alive. let this be a lay off or something. let everyone be alive." Then as I was turning into our neighborhood the car started to overheat. Luckily.. well none of this is luck really... I got home. With Jello legs I got the boys inside. Lucas was standing at the end of the hall with a shell shocked expression. "I just got laid off." We cried. Me out of relief that it wasnt something worse.. wasn't something irreversible.
We were given a two week severance and our insurance was immediately dropped. We are thankful that just the Friday before I had taken the boys in for check ups. Balin got his shots and Ayden the all clear for another year. We have been amazed at how God has provided for us despite the sorrow and fear. He truly does take care of all the details. If you can't see it in your life, see it in mine. That overheating car led to a 100 repair, which then led to the destruction of the alternator. About two weeks later I was driving to a baby sitting job for a friend of a friend. We chatted when we set the time up and she shared that she is going through a divorce and looked into my apartments but for some reason could not get into them. On my way to her house the car died. In the middle lane of a busy intersection. It had enough momentum to steer it into an empty parking lot of a gymnastics building. (1st miracle). A sweet friend whose husband is serving in Iraq lent us her truck so Lucas could come get me. (1st blessing) and then my parents drove up the next day to help replace the alternator (another blessing). We ended up paying about 200 for the repairs. That week a new friend of ours gave us 150 wal mart card which lasted for almost two weeks worth of groceries and gas! (blessing.. losing count) THEN I get a call from my friend who recomended me a a sitter. She wanted the name of the pizza place that is across the street from me. "By the way" she says "my friend is moving into your apartment complex.. she's on her way right now to sign the lease." I asked her to ask her friend to put us down as a referal. After a quick text message (God is a techie too) her friend listed up on her application and we get the referal bonus. Which by the way happens to be 200$. (Miracle number what?!?) God is providing for us in unbleievable ways, covering our purchases and choices and making everything work out to His will.
We met the Grace church family back in March. This is the first time we have experience as a family a God breathing, living, acting, fellowshiping, loving, learning church. They . Get. IT. we can not imagine that God would give us a taste of this type of community and then make us move, but His ways are not Our ways. Our prayer is that we can continue to grow with our Grace friends until He asks us to go somewhere. Specific.
Thursday Lucas had an interview. I wont share too much about it except that it a job exactly in tune with Lucas's experience. I think because my husband is not a great communicator that some people in our lives have the impression that he isn't happy in this industry, but the truth is... he loved his job. He was good at it. He was proud of himself and I saw a new husband over the last year as he grew to see in himself what God was doing. He is smart. He is hardworking. He is loyal. I am so proud of him for working so very hard for us. This job would be a major step down in pay. BUT it might buy us some time as we wait for the industry to recover. WHEN that happens, Shreveport Bossier will come back to life. The Haynesville Shale will once again be the exciting place to work and hopefully, God willing, we will be here to work it!

So for now.. we dont know much more than this: God is Good. He will provide. Our life in Christ is whole and wonderful. We have great friends, a great church and great families.
How can you help? Well obviously money is tough right now. We need encouragement as we try to balance out what was a bit of too much spending in our lives with a now very limited spending.
We need guidance and prayer as to these questions...
should we stay here with a lower paying job and fake it for a while?
do we move to Houston to live with Emily's parents while we figure this out?
What do we do with Ayden's schooling?
How and when do I return to work and in what way?
What will do about transportation since we share a car.