Another Day, Another Challenge

I am realizing more and more how much I am like the Israelites. Those annoying, whiny people who roamed around the desert for 40 years, complaining 24/7. No sooner did God provide for them, they forgot and began to complain again. It seems as if as soon as I am finally able to say, "Okay God, here it is. I'm giving everything over to You and I will not worry myself with it anymore. It is in Your Hands and I will rest in that", something new comes up and I want to take everything back again. My job does not provide dental insurance, so I haven't been to the dentist since living in Marion two years ago. Recently, though, the right side of my mouth has been aching and I found a dentist in Wheaton that was offering a relatively cheap cleaning and exam special for new patients. So, yesterday, I went to get it checked out. The dentist informed me that my wisdom teeth are plowing through with nowhere to go, ergo my uncomfortable ache. He suggested I get them taken out asap. I told him that we are hoping to move to Michigan soon and get insurance there. He said that the sooner we get situated and I find a good oral surgeon, the better. I was okay with the news until later that evening when I got home and started really thinking about it. First of all, I have never had any kind of surgery before in my life and I am scared to death about this procedure. I know, I know, everyone and their mom has had their wisdom teeth out and it's not a big deal, but it is to me. Secondly, I started worrying (a favorite pastime of mine recently) that now, not only does Jonathan need to find a job soon, but a job with dental insurance that will hopefully kick in right away instead of him having to work for 3-6 months before they begin his insurance. And, of course, you can't be pregnant and get the necessary x-rays done for this procedure, so that put the icing on the cake for me. I seriously don't know how much more "faith testing" I can take. I mean, surely God knows that a human being can only take so much stress and testing before they crack, right? Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who is so strong, it amazes me. So, after I took all my worries and anxieties back from the Hand I had just given them to, I had to once again humble myself before the throne and acknowledge that there is nothing I can do about it but trust Him to provide. Gee, that sounds familiar...like maybe I've done that before...

God Orders Our Stops As Well As Our Steps

Jonathan and I were talking last night about our whole situation and how frustrating things have been. Jonathan still does not have a job after four months of intense job searching. He applied for his limited license in Michigan about a month and a half ago and found out yesterday that he was rejected for it because he applied for the wrong one. Apparently, Michigan's licenses are screwed up and very different from Illinois'. So Jonathan now has to make some calls and go through the whole process all over again, which could take another couple months. I will be finished at my job the end of July, as they have hired a new person who begins July 24. Jonathan is not sure how much longer he will be needed on the job site he is at now doing construction. So, we are realizing that in a month, we could both be unemployed and without insurance. Yikes! But, as we talked, we realized that we don't have it bad, so to speak. We have our health, our family, friends, a roof over our heads, and a puppy who adores us. As Jonathan put it, we're just "uncomfortable" right now more than anything. It still is easy for us to get discouraged, though, and as Jonathan rolled over to finally go to sleep, I began to read my devotional for the day out of "Our Daily Bread". It was as if the passage had come straight from God's Hand. The author was talking about the two great fears of sailing at sea--a terrible wind or no wind at all. He wrote, "Sometimes life demands that we weather a storm. At other times it puts us to the test of tedium. We may feel stuck. What we want most is just out of reach. But whether we find ourselves in a crisis of circumstance or in a place where the spiritual wind has been taken out of our sails, we need to trust God for guidance. The Lord, who is sovereign over changing circumstances, will eventually guide us to our desired haven (Psalm 107:30)." I immediately roused Jonathan and read this to him. We both realized that while we are not experiencing a terrible storm, we are feeling stuck. Nothing is happening and there is absolutely not a darn thing we can do about it. But God is sovereign. The text ended with this short poem: "I will not fear the howling storms of doubt, Nor shudder when I feel I'm all alone; But I will trust my Savior as I shout: 'The Lord's my helper--He is on the throne!'". Amen.

Picture Update

So we finally got our pictures developed and on a cd so we can put them on our blog! We've had some good times lately. Over Memorial weekend we went to Big Long Lake in Indiana with the Moore family and did some serious tubing. Not only was I a little sore from the tubing, I was also nearly deaf from my sister screaming the entire time. :) I also threw in a picture of the flowers Jonathan got me for our anniversary. The picture does not do them justice. They were beautiful coral roses--I couldn't believe he remembered that coral was one of the colors in our wedding! We also went biking downtown with Andrew and Tanya, which was way fun. Except for the fact that the wind that day was about 30 mph and riding into it was next to impossible. I knew it was bad when a runner passed me! We also got to celebrate Peyton's first birthday June 15th! She loved her peanut butter sandwich cake we made for her. (Laugh all you want, we know we're dorks. Who else celebrates their dog's birthday?!). We hope you enjoy our pictures...

Graduation Pics

Here are some pictures from Jonathan's graduation. Doesn't he look so wise?

Yes, We're Still Here

Well, it's been a month and half since Jonathan graduated and not much has changed. Jonathan is working construction 40+ hours a week. This job is worse than when he was in school and had papers every night. He leaves at 5:30am and by the time I get home from work, we have just enough time to eat dinner, walk Peyton, and get in a game of dome hockey before Jonathan goes back to bed at 9. Usually Jonathan ends up taking a little cat nap after dinner, too, so our time together has been limited lately. :( My job is...well, it's what it always is. People at work keep seeing me and going, "What are you still doing here? I thought you were supposed to be long gone by now. Hahaha" and I think to myself, "Please, don't remind me." Anyway, we have had some activity on our house, so that's good. We actually had three different people come look at it over the weekend and we may have another one coming tonight or tomorrow. We're trying to keep a positive attitude without getting our hopes up. So, hopefully we will have some good news to post in the near future. In the meantime, we'll try to enjoy our jobs (woohoo, that's a good one!).