And I Digress......

I thought I was going to be able to share what I wanted to about my testimony and get caught up to present day blogging in one blog but as my husband would say "there is no short story with you".   When I am telling a story I tend to get caught up in details, I like to give background information so you get the picture as I see it.  Again, I don't know if that is being a woman or being French or both! 

After recovering from the shock of being laid off at 3 months pregnant, we prayed about what my next move would be.  I immediately signed up for unemployment - figuring with an economy starting to crumble, the prospect of getting an office job at 3 months pregnant and already showing was going to be difficult as any employer would know my time would limited.  It is a little uneasy when a prospective employer asks you how much morning sickness do you get and how much time did I expect to take off once the child was born.  One employer declined saying that by the time I was trained, I would be leaving and it wouldn't be worth their money or time.  Which I could totally see that.  I still continued to look without much success.

The thought of impending maternity expenses started to overtake my brain.  I was let go from a $17.00/hr job down to $6.+ change which is what unemployment equals to if you divide it by 40 hrs.  I tried not to panic.  While joyous at the thought of our baby, Andrew and I kept telling ourselves, "God is not surprised by this, He knew this was going to happen before I was even pregnant.  He has a plan!"  We just didn't know what that was.  It is amazing how at the time you don't see God's hands all over it, till hindsight kicks in.   Some people may say coincidence, karma, etc...

But I don't. 

As I was starting to outgrow my clothes, my cousin who had twins the year before called me and asked if I was in need of maternity clothes. "Um Yes!!!"  She said she had 3 big bags and to come get them!  Some of them still had tags!  Thank you Jesus!

A few months later, my husband was let go from his job and I still was unemployed with an ever expanding belly.  One day as I panicking over insurance deductibles and upcoming expenses, the Lord really spoke to my heart and said "Look at all I have done so far - beginning with the maternity clothes.  One thing at a time, Michelle."  It was the first time in my life where I really had to totally depend on God to meet our needs.  I always admired people who were in the ministry and lived by "Faith".  I would see how God would provide for them and just think it must be an amazing thing to totally depend on God like that.  Ever since then it has been amazing at how He has provided. From that point forward God really worked! It amazed me how every. single. one. of our needs were met.   I look back over that time like a strand of pearls, each pearl representing a need God met.   Whenever things start to look bleak, my husband and I remind ourselves to look at that strand of pearls and say "He would not have brought us this far, if He did not have a plan."

My husband became employed two months before I was due to deliver and is still there.  Hope entered this life in April and is now going on eight months - which I have been blessed to be home for ALL eight months.  It has been a transition for me - having worked full time for the last 20+ years and now to be home with a precious gift.  Again, we have been blessed that it has worked out financially for me to stay home and pray that it can continue.