Changes

A month ago Ben's company started major layoffs.  Department after department was sifted through and Ben constantly witnessed people walking out to their cars with boxes full of their things.  Then last week rumor came around that Ben's department would be doing layoffs this week.  To say we were holding our breath would be an understatement.  My birthday on Sunday was more of a day when we tried to smile and eat birthday cake but there was a dark cloud following both of us around. 

So Ben decided to fast on Monday.  By the end of his fast both of us felt total and complete peace that everything would turn out fine.  That peace lasted throughout the week, although I'd be lying if I said that I didn't smile a little when Ben came home at 5:30 each day instead of an earlier unusual time. 

But then yesterday as I was putting together one of my last projects for the nursery, I heard the Camry hum in our driveway.  I ran to the front door and peeked through the peep hole, and sure enough, Ben was pulling a box out of the car.  At 11 AM.  Ben was one of dozens to go just that morning.

Of course we had to go through a little shell shock.  But after a few hours we had an overwhelming response from friends and family members, and just having that support alone is such a huge blessing.  Although this isn't our first time around being unemployed (and we NEVER wanted to go through this again) we know that the Lord will take care of us and that everything will work out.  Eventually.  :)  One thing that we immediately did was discuss our many blessings:

• Ben has awesome work experience now. 
• We have savings.
• We know how to be poor and pinch pennies like crazy.
• We have food storage and a year supply of a lot of things (however not all).  And on top of that, we actually know how to cook with our food storage.  I'm now thankful that I filled our freezer chest to the brim with meat and homemade freezer meals when food was on sale.  That's food storage in it's own way.  We still have tons of frozen fruits from when we've gone strawberry picking and farmers' marketing.  Plus we still have 3/4 of the apples that I canned from our mountain trip last fall.  We have enough flour and yeast that I should be able to make homemade bread for months and months. 
• We don't have a lot of bills that normal people have because we've decided to go without things just to save extra money.... like TV and a 2nd cell phone. 
• We bought a really cheap van and paid for it in cash so that we don't have to make payments on either of our cars. 
• Our garden is actually giving us food.

The last time this happened to us, it was one of the greatest blessings we could imagine (after months of stressing, worrying, and all that pleasantness).  So we're thinking of this in the same light.  We're thankful that we've been able to have 2 years of financial stability and growth, and we look forward to what is to come.