The week after conference we asked the bishopric if the ward would hold a fast for us. We needed all the faith and prayers we could get. We were out of savings (pretty impressed it lasted a year!) - but it was gone. We had our baby bills that were going to come (high deductible) - Jason's next tuition payment was coming, and the taxes on our house (we pay that separately). So on fast Sunday the ward held a fast for us. Plus the bishopric asked the ward members to each try to give Jason one contact that he could follow up on. The next day he got about 30 emails. One resulted in a contract job by the end of the week! It was a miracle. It is contract - so no benefits, salary, or stability - but we will take it. It pays the bills and appears like it will last well into next year. We have a lot to catch up on - but we aren't so worried about that. We are just so grateful - and as an added bonus - he really likes it.
Even though we have a lot to catch up on and we decided that we could not change our standard of living in order to pay all the upcoming bills - we felt like we needed to celebrate and reward our children. To say they have been amazing is an understatement. We decided early on that we wanted them to be aware of our circumstances and share in the family sacrifices. We made it clear they did not need to worry and that we were always fine. But we needed to be thrifty and prudent and we needed faith. They stepped up to the plate! In the year and a half that we have gone through this trial they never complained or asked for anything - even when more sacrifices were asked (like Christmas, birthdays, allowance, sports, etc) . If they wanted something they would say, "when dad gets a job can we go get Slurpees again". They prayed for us, fasted for us, and stayed happy. We probably won't know until their 20's how traumatized they were by it - you know when they start telling us all the things we did wrong. But we were always checking in with them, reading between the lines, and reassuring them that everything was fine. We had A LOT of savings, a years worth of food storage, we have ALWAYS paid our tithing - this was just one of those life trials and we KNEW everything was going to be ok. We had gone through before and the Lord always keeps his promises. We just needed to be smart and faithful.
So to celebrate we took them to Dairy Queen and told them they could get what ever they wanted. It took quite a while to decide. They were thrilled. It was a good evening.
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