God is faithful

After three months of unemployment, I am so happy to say that Justin has a job! We have really experienced God's faithfulness to us over the last several years. This situation in our lives is no different. Since Justin was laid off on December 1st, we've gone through several trying times -- finding out we are expecting baby #2 was thrilling but also terrifying as Justin didn't have a job. Justin has received two job offers during this time that he ended up turning down because we just really felt like God was not leading us to accept either offer. As hard it was to turn down offers (you get close to this point of desperation, feeling like if you turn this down, what if nothing else comes up??), God clearly showed us that we had to say no. We now understand WHY God had us say no to those.

A few weeks ago, right after Justin turned down one of the offers he had received, he saw a posting for a job located just 10 minutes from our home. He applied and within a week, was called in for an interview. The interview went really well and a few hours after it, they called and asked him to come in for a second interview in a few days. After that interview, they called him later that night and offered him the job. It has so many elements that Justin was looking for -- close to home (he can come home for lunch every day if he wants!!), NOT a sales job, easy-going work environment, customer service oriented, etc... One of the biggest things for us is that we just didn't want to move. Don't get me wrong -we've become expert movers - living in 4 states in our first 5 years of marriage! We have loved the excitement of living in new places, getting to know a new area, meeting new people, and learning about a new place. But, when we moved back to Iowa a couple of years ago, we felt like we were back home and that the days of moving every year or so were behind us. We LOVE where we live and have really started to put down roots here. This is where we want to raise our family. We have amazing friends, an awesome, challenging church, a perfect little home, and all of Claire's cousins (except for our Africa family, whom we hope to convince to move HERE someday! :)) live within 45 minutes of us! Those things would be super hard to give up and we just kept asking God to keep us here and provide a job close to home. We are thrilled that He did! It seems like it will be a perfect fit for him and we are so thankful and excited! He starts on March 1st - exactly three months from the day he was laid off.

We just studied Hebrews 11 at our Bible study this past week, which gives examples of people who lived by faith. It is God that gave them and gives us this faith because HE is faithful to US. What a timely reminder for us that God is faithful to us ALL the time!