Love and Blessings

Ben and I have truly been blessed. I am so incredibly excited to share the news that ben is officially a full time salaried permanent employee with christian care centers! Whoo hoo!!! For those that don't know, ben was let go from his job on my birthday (October 1st) and was looking for work for 3 months straight. Right after the new year he started a temporary position with christian care and was told that it could possibly lead to a full time salaried position shortly but this was a trial run, so to speak. The middle of last week ben got called to go to the mesquite campus (the biggest campus christian care has and where the corporate office is located) and he interviewed/ shadowed for 2 full days. They called him last thursday night and told him to come back in on friday (the day of the HUGE blizzard) and that they wanted to offer him the position.

Ben signed his paperwork on friday and began this new position yesterday (monday). His official title is the assistant administrator at the mesquite campus, but while he holds this position they will pay for ben to complete all of his administration requirements for the state, to get his license, and complete his internship hours. Without knowing just a whole lot about the health care administration field, it's a big step UP the path we want to go. and we believe it will lead to GREAT things for us! We are so pleased! Plus they are going to pay ben's medical, they gave ben the salary he told them he needed, he has his own office, and he gets to continue with this company that we have both grown to love so much! We are completely ecstatic by the opportunity!

I am not going to lie, these last few months have been incredibly hard for both of us. Emotionally just as much as financially. The "unknown" is a very scary place to live. Overall, as I look back I will give myself a B- (ok maybe a C?? depends on the day..) for how I have handled this situation. I have definitely let my worry get to me and drive me crazy at times and at other times I have been much more calm and trusting. Of course I wish I could have always looked at this situation with absolute faith and confidence that we would come through on top...but I didn't. I even know that on some days I stopped talking to my parents who would constantly tell me "it's going to be ok, you'll look back and realize this was God's perfect timing" to which I would answer "Oh really how do you know?" and the infuriating response was "we just know, we've lived long enough to know"....Yeah Ok I'm done talking to you now.

The truth is, however, that I do now look back on this time as having made us stronger. Ben and I as a couple are stronger, our faith is stronger. God has blessed us more than we could possibly ever deserve. I really started to "get" it around the time the earthquake hit haiti. Not just that one event but all these other events kept happening around me. Someone we know's marriage was falling apart, people we know and love are fighting disease and illness, these people have a sick child, these people are losing their house, and the list goes on....and here I sit worried about being unemployed for 3 months. Not that being unemployed isn't big and hard...it is. Like I said, the unknown is a very scary place to live. But we are so incredibly fortunate that we are all healthy, that we have money in the bank, we have a house that we own (or will one day in like 200? more payments!), we have an amazing family, we have a happy marriage where we actually enjoy being with one another (99% of the time :)), we have so much joy in our lives. We spend our nights smiling and laughing and playing and dancing around the living room with one another. Yes we live a very blessed life!

So thank you to everyone who kept us in their prayers these last few months. Thank you to all our family who loves and supports us so much! We look forward to wonderful things ahead of us but we are prepared that this will not be the last valley to meet us through our lives (not even close!) but God is good and we are incredibly blessed!

Congratulations to my wonderful husband! I'm so proud of you and look forward to this new chapter in our lives!