Series: Drawing Near (part 3)

If you missed the first two parts of the series, you can find them here and here.

So my husband’s seminary was within a one-hour drive from my parents’ second home, which is vacant except for when we are all there vacationing. They graciously offered to let us live there while he did seminary, and we both felt this was a good option. The problem is that the house is in a very rural area, so there aren’t many job options. Despite a thorough search, we came up empty with a way to supplement his small GI bill housing allowance in order to support our family.

The night before we were supposed to move in to the house, I freaked out (literally). I just had an overwhelming sense that we were NOT making a wise decision to uproot our family to move to a place where we had no way to pay our bills. Our house here had been on the market only a few days, so we were still planning to pay all the bills associated with this home while living somewhere else.

We decided not to move. One big factor, other than finances, was the school we helped to start. I had played a big role in the school during its first year, and I strongly desired to see through helping the school get on its feet instructionally. My husband decided to commute 3 hours to seminary twice a week in order to still receive the housing allowance, and we began searching for jobs in this town.

I really did not want to work. Prior to all these changes, I was finally finding a rhythm with caring for myself, caring for the children, still having time to help with the school, and generally having a good balance in my life. I knew that my desire was to be primarily at home, however a large mortgage was staring us in the face. My thought was that I needed to support hubby’s dream by working so he could concentrate on school.

I quickly found a good job in a school part-time working as a curriculum coach. It was everything I loved about teaching with none of the stuff I didn’t enjoy. Perfect fit! I began in October working 20 hours a week on top of a job working at Flower’s preschool three mornings a week. One of my friends agreed to keep Bird on the days when J. was gone to school.

Everything seemed to be working out just fine. The schedule was very busy, but I got to see Flower on the playground and working the two jobs gave me a lot of variety. In November, though, everything changed at the kids’ yearly checkup appointment. I knew then that God had so much more in store for us in this difficult year than I ever imagined. . .