The Plans I Have For You.

A month ago, I answered a phone call from the Smithville Primary Elementary principal, saying that she was very sorry but the job was given to someone else, that it was a very difficult decision but it came down to years of experience, that my interview was spectacular and that any district would consider me an asset, and other such encouragement. My fiancee, myself, my family, my friends, my church - all of us were praying for an open door. We asked that if this wasn't God's plan for me, that He close the door firmly but lead me directly towards an open one. God closed the door on Smithville.

The discussion that he and I had been having for a while is what our options are if I didn't get a job near St. Joseph. I would rather move to wherever a job was in order to look my parents in the eye and say that I had a job, I was doing something with my degree. If that meant going away from St. Joseph, so be it. He, on the other hand, felt strongly that God wasn't finished with us here yet, that the network of strength and accountability here would be invaluable during the first few years of our marriage, and that we could make it work if we had to without me having a teaching job. I argued, I bucked, I cried. Then God taught me a lesson in what partnership looked like in a biblical marriage. I took a step in learning how to joyfully submit to him and to Him. We would stay in St. Joseph, regardless of what job I did or didn't find.

"We would like for you to come in for an interview on Wednesday."

All I could think is that this had to be the open door. For such a seemingly perfect job like Smithville to not be God's plan... how could this not be? The interview no longer determined whether or not I'd live in St. Joseph. That had already been determined. Instead, this determined how inwardly disappointed and angry I'd be at myself, how financially strained he and I would be the first year or so. Again, everyone was praying. Hard. Please let this be Your plan, open the door wide... but if it's not, close it and clearly guide me, and give me a strength I would no longer have.

Yesterday, God blessed me in astounding ways. The whole day was God answering prayers with yes, My darling, this is what I have in store for you.

My interview with the district went very, very well, and two hours later, I answered a phone call of a happier sort, of the "We'd love to have you work for us and the job is open to you if you'd like it" sort. I am hired at Edison Elementary as the music teacher and the contract is being written up as I type. I have a job! A job on salary, a job with benefits, a job with consistent work times, a job with my own classroom, a job all my own! And I will get to hug my parents when I'm home next week and say that yes, I do have a job!

And it gets better.

Since the contract doesn't start paying until August, I need a summer job. Also on Wednesday, I had an interview with the newly-opening Dick's Sporting Goods. How laughable is that, that a clumsy overweight girl who couldn't run a mile is working at a sporting goods store? I originally got the interview under the title of "Customer Engagement Specialist" (read: greeter) but the woman who did the first interview was impressed with my fitness story and all of the knowledge on feet and gait that I have learned from my fiancee  over the course of learning how to run. She moved me to "Footwear Sales Specialist" and asked if I could stay to do the second interview on the same day. Yes! I spent an hour small talking with a very big-headed track jock and then met with the store owner. Long story short... I got hired at Dick's and start in two weeks!

I got taken out to Olive Garden to celebrate how incredible the interviews had went. Breadsticks. It doesn't get better than that.

Then... as if I needed another hug from God... He sent me a thunderstorm. I love thunderstorms, I love falling asleep to them and waking up to thunder.

God provided for me in ways above and beyond what I had ever expected. To think of what I've been given this semester...
- an amazing man asking to spend the rest of his life with me
- a supportive family who has backed every decision and celebrated every victory
- new friends and colleagues that went above and beyond to recommend me for a job
- clarity that yes, teaching music is what I want to build a career upon
- assurance that my friends from college aren't going to grow apart with distance and years
- not only a teaching job, but a second job to get me through the summer
- a rich network of church couples that have inspired and taught me so much already

I am so blessed, and I forget that so often.