Well, just for grins and giggles, I'm going to pretend I'm still a blogger...just for today. Is that okay? Good...
The last time I stopped by here, I gave an update on my husband, who was three weeks out from a skin graft surgery to repair some third degree burns he sustained. So much has happened since that last update that I really don't know where to start, so I'm going to proceed with some lovely bullet points and round it out with some big news. :-)
Here we go...
- Chris was finally released to return to work on June 21st, our second child's 7th birthday. He ended up being off work for a total of 11 weeks, whichs was a lot longer than the 4-6 weeks that Chris was originally
freaking out abouttold. ;-) He had a spot on the front of his shin that had gotten infected (you can see it in previous photo posts), and that spot took a bit longer to completely close. And since the doctors wouldn't release him until every square millimeter of his calves had successful grafts, it was a waiting game that last month. But the amazing part about it is that God was at work the whole time...more on that later. - Chris will return to the doctor around his 1-year anniversary, at which time they'll do what they call an "impairment rating". This is something that gets submitted to the workman's comp insurance agency. We'll see what transpires after that.
- I'll post some photos of Chris's legs soon so you can see how they look now, if you're curious. I know some of you are. :)
- Chris and I were very surprised by the fact that we didn't get sick of each other at all. In fact, God did a real work in our marriage through the whole situation.
- Because of that, and some other circumstances in our lives, we feel like God is leading us into some sort of marriage ministry. We're praying what exactly that might be.
- I became an AUNT! Chris's sister, Lynn and her husband Jim had a baby boy in June. I've only held my nephew C.J. once but boy is he a cutie. All the kids held him too, and the girls were especially smitten with him.
- The Christian band that my brother is in- A Past Unknown - signed with a record label. How exciting is that!? They toured the U.S. this summer and will tour again this fall.
- I've made a bit more progress on my goals. I have only 49 more days to work on them, and I've already come up with tons of goals for the next go-round. Maybe I'll fare better the second time?? Let's hope!
- I read the book Radical
by David Platt and it rocked my world.
- I've been participating in reading The Bible in 90 Days, and I've been loving it. I'm using a different schedule than everyone else because I'm reading chronologically, but the accountability is a great tool. I'd like to share on my blog some of the things I'm learning and enjoying, but I'm not terribly confident that I'll actually be able to make that happen! Ha!
- I've been planning for our 2011-12 homeschool year, and it's coming along swimmingly. I was dreading this year so much, but the more I plan and the closer I get, the more I'm looking forward to getting back into the routine!
- That's pretty much it for the bullets...now onto the "big news", which isn't exactly all that big compared to what you may be anticipating at this point...
The Saturday after his first interview, Chris and I went to our state's homeschool conference, and on the way there we got to talking about "the future calling" that God placed on Chris's life last fall (you know, the one we haven't shared with many people yet...in fact, I think only 7 or 8 people know about it). I said to Chris, "I've gotta be honest...I kind of wish we could pretend God never gave us that message." He agreed, and then we went to the conference.
Well, at the conference Chris went to a seminar, and following the seminar he was asking one of the speakers some additional questions. This man, who is a Christian, began speaking about how there's a dire need for more people to do this certain "work", and then he pointed at Chris and said, "And you're the guy for the job." Do you know what? This "work" about which the speaker was talking is the exact same "work" that God told us about last fall. God used that speaker to deliver words of confirmation...on the very same day that Chris and I had said we wanted to forget about that calling. Can you believe that? I still can't believe it. Chris didn't tell this speaker anything that day, but we're so excited for the day when we can tell him that God used him to confirm a message.
Anyway, on Monday, Chris went back for his second interview and he thought it went really well. He came home that night and we prayed again that God would close this door if it was NOT His will. The following evening he got the call that he could have the job if he wanted it.
Chris didn't act as excited as I thought he would, and when he started telling me all the details, I understood why.
The base pay (not including sales commission) was $12,000 less than his current pay, which is a whole heckuva lot for our single income family.
And.
Because the job was about an hour away, and because the company would be providing a company vehicle for Chris, they wanted us to move to the area within a year or so.
Ugh.
Judging by Chris's response, I could tell he had already turned down the job in his mind, and I was right on board with him. We couldn't afford to live on that salary. And we couldn't move.
But.
I heard a still small voice in my heart saying, "Now wait a minute...don't you want to know what I think?" I told Chris I felt we needed to pray about it, and ask God what to do. So we did. We prayed about it, and we also stepped back and did some number crunching, some talking, some analyzing. We reviewed our budget and cut as much as was feasible and realistic, and while we still didn't like what we saw, we realized that we were trying to put God into a box. If this was His will, He would provide. Once we put aside the money factor, we started seeing so many reasons why this job made sense. While we didn't want to move, we could see that this job - and moving - is quite likely God's way of paving the way for Chris's future calling. And that fact that the conference confirmation had been nestled in between the two interviews was such a God thing, because that confirmation helped us step back and consider the bigger picture.
So, after more prayer and asking God to give us peace if this is His will, we felt an incredible sense of peace.
And Chris said yes to the job! He is an Agronomy Salesman for MFA Agri Services.
He started his new position on July 5th, and he is absolutely loving it. Chris is very much a people person, so he's just loving all the interaction he's getting with new people. Having said that, he did really enjoy his previous job as well and probably would never had thought about leaving had it not been for God's intervention via his work injury. Sometimes, it takes big things to get our attention. Chris's former boss has been so wonderful about him leaving (which is an answer to prayer!) and even called Chris on his birthday to wish him a happy day. :-)
We've also realized that moving might be a blessing. While we love our current home, we're getting excited to move to a home that has more land, room for some edible animals (heehee), hopefully a pond for my three fishermen and two fisherwomen (and even fishergrandpa), and more/bigger bedrooms so we can add to our family via adoption or foster care if God leads us down either of those roads.
We are sad about the idea of leaving this area and the its people that we've grown to LOVE, but we're only moving about an hour south, so that's no big deal really!
So there you have it! That's what's new with me!
What's new with you?
And I must say, it feels good to pretend to be a blogger again! Here's hoping I can make a full return to the blogosphere soon, because I sure do miss this bloggy world and all the wonderful people in it.
