Friday, July 27, 2012

Pouring out my heart

Warning: This may be incredibly long, but I have to get it out... I have always known that God has a plan for me. In high school I knew where I wanted to go to college. I was told I had to get the tuition down to what my parents would pay at a state school and somehow I managed to do it. I met my husband there and while I don't use my degree (religion and psychology) I know why I was there. Before we got married my husband got a job at Cascade High School near Shelbyville. I was there that we met some awesome kids (that are no longer kids) and parents that we still see today. They were our kids and we have gone to graduations and weddings (unless they were in Iceland) because we truly loved those kids. After 3 years there my husband was pink slipped and we moved into the back of a market for a few months. The market was owned by some friends of ours and they allowed us to live in the apartment rent free. That's where we took Elizabeth home from the hospital. The next school year I kept my job as a special ed teacher's aide, but my husband could not find a job, so we moved in with my parents (all 3 of us) and lived there for 9 months. We moved from there to Auburn for a year and from there to Cullman. God lead us every step of the way. While we were in Cullman we had Sarah and met some very wonderful friends. From there we moved to Clanton and we were blessed there too. We met some amazing people and were a part of the lives of some very special kids. Clanton will always hold a special place in our hearts. We had Cole while we were there. When he was almost 2 months old we almost lost him. He was very sick and before he was admitted to Children's in Birmingham he was lifeless. He was so dehydrated that neonatal nurses had a hard time with his IV and he could not even cry. There were no tears instead he made the strangest sound. It's amazing he's still alive! He was severely dehydrated from pyloric stenosis and had surgery to fix the problem the next day. If if hadn't been for his pediatrician sending us for an ultrasound that day Cole might not be here. God brought us through that and it wasn't until after the situation was over that I realized how severe it had been. From Clanton we moved to Reform and while we were only there for a year it was a great place and we met awesome people. We had some very special experiences there like winning a state championship. We were also luck to be blessed by a good school nurse when Elizabeth was going through so much trouble with her eye. Again we were always right where we needed to be at just the right time. This summer has been more difficult. Jonathan was pink slipped the day after all the other pink slips were given out (we thought we were safe after that day). A few days later our renter in our townhouse in Clanton had to move out. Maybe we should have moved to Clanton right after school, but I was convinced that God would take care of us just like he always has. We thought we had it take care of, but it didn't work out until right after we had made plans to move to Clanton and my husband drive back and forth to Troy (an hour and a half one way) we rented our townhouse. Today we went to Troy and found a house. We signed a lease and set up for utilities to be turned on. We are moving on Thursday, but on the way home we get a call and find out that the townhouse is not taken care of. I will be completely honest with you...this afternoon I have really struggled. We've been through a lot this summer and this was the LAST thing we expected to have to go through. I know that God has a plan for us and has sent us to Troy and Goshen High School for a reason. I also know that it will work out. It always does. Although we're tired of the roller coaster we know who is controlling it and we know we'll be able to get off soon. Please keep us in your prayers as we move on to Troy and continue to find someone wonderful for our townhouse in Clanton!