An Awesome God

Well, once again it has been quite some time since my last post... I'm going to have to work on this! I know...

My heart is so full lately with all the amazing things that God has been doing, and I have found myself awestruck by his goodness, so I thought it might be time to share what's been going on in our lives...

The first thing that I have been awed by is His perfect timing. Tyler and I have been praying about God's plans for our future and I felt like God had given us a time table of sorts for some things that we want to accomplish in our lives, but over the past two years I've felt like maybe God wanted me to put a pause on those things. In some ways I have been frustrated, feeling like it wasn't fair that God was keeping something from me, but at the same time I realized that God always knows better than I do and that if He is keeping me from something then it is for a specific purpose. Well, despite trying to remind myself of these things, it has been a struggle, but last month something amazing happened. Tyler had been looking at possibly changing jobs for a few months now, not because he was unhappy but rather because he wanted to move up from what he was currently doing and take on some new challenges. Well, after months of looking at jobs, he got a call that led to a phone interview that then led to an in-person interview that led to yet another interview that led to a pretty nice job offer and pay increase. We had been praying all along, and amazingly it seemed to fit into that time-table thing I had in my mind, so we felt that this was from God. However, when Tyler went to his boss to share the news something even more incredible happened! His company was not willing to let Tyler go, so after several higher ups including the president of the company were made aware of his plan to leave, a new plan was devised to offer Tyler a promotion and a salary increase to match the other job offer. Again, we were awe struck. It wasn't that the other job wasn't from God, but rather God used that to open the door at Tyler's current company for him to be promoted, and it may not have happened had the other offer not come along or had it come earlier. So after vacationing in Florida for 11 days, Tyler returned to work with a new promotion! Isn't God wonderful?!?

On another note, Tyler and I got to take an eleven day vacation to Florida this summer, which was so relaxing! We are so blessed to be able to stay at his grandfather's condo on the beach, so all we have to do is pay to make our way down there. In case you're wondering, no there was no oil on the beach. In fact, it was beautiful! There were shells everywhere and in some areas you could scoop them up by the handfuls!! We saw several sea turtle nests scattered along the shore and marked by caution tape to keep people out. We also were entertained by the birds, such as the pelicans pouncing on sting ray shadows in the water, falcons dining on fish in pal trees, and a crow that couldn't seem to learn his lesson and was chased away daily by a family of mockingbirds. But the best wildlife were the dolphins that we saw each day swimming near the shore. Some days they were so close that I was sure I could have my own "swimming with the dolphins" experience for free! It was so much fun and it made me think how sad it is that while that part of the Gulf coast is pristine and beautiful, so much of the rest of the Gulf coast is being destroyed. It breaks my heart to think that so many of those same animals that we were mesmerized by are being destroyed only a few hundred miles away. But I am so thankful that there are still miles of coastline that are safe!!

In other news, when we returned from Florida, mom had surgery. She has been dealing with a lot of pain and issues for the past few years, but this year she took a turn for the worse and her doctor recommended that she have a hyterectomy to alleviate the pain. She wasn't keen on the idea, but the pain had become unbearable, so she bit the bullet and scheduled the procedure. To give you an idea of how much pain she was in, the doctor said he removed one golfball sized cyst from one ovary, a second newly formed cyst from her other ovary, and a fist-sized blood clot from her utuerus. He also found that she had endometriosis throughout both ovaries and in her pelvis and that she had inflammation from a recent infection. I'm not really sure how she even stood up straight with all that she was suffering from, but now that all of that is gone I have a feeling she's going to feel like a brand new person once the incision heals. Today, we also learned that there was no sign of cancer in any of the material the doctor removed, so we were grateful and relieved. Mom's recovery has been incredible, while she is limited in what she can do, she seems to have little to no pain (I guess this is probably nothing compared to what she had before) and her incision is healing nicely. We have been so blessed by the prayers of so many and we know that it was only through God's strength that she has done as well as she has.

Finally, I should update you on my work status since it has been so long. Well, it's official (although I've known this since the first of March), but I will be back at Glenvar full time in the fall. I am so blessed to not be traveling between schools next year and very grateful. I will have a lot of responsibilities next year with Junior Class sponsor, teaching 11 AP and 11 general, but I know that with God all things are possible, and I have a feeling I will be clinging to that verse a lot in the days to come! Also, by getting a contract to teach for the coming school year, I have also attained tenure. Granted, I have to actually show up the first day of school for it to take effect, but I'm pretty certain that won't be a problem! :) I've been thinking a lot lately about why God had me travelling last year, and I've finally decided that if for no other reason it has taught me to be appreciative of where I teach now. While it might not be perfect, Glenvar is still a unique school that offers teachers and students opportunities that other larger schools can't and I truly have been blessed to work there over the past 3 and a half years.

Well this was quite a long post and I apologize, but hopefully I won't wait 500 hundred years (as Tyler said) until my next post... But if I do... again I am sorry!!