Rejoice!

I know that I have been really lame on my blog lately. I have so many things that I would like to post here. Like the day at the park and Halloween, even the series of pictures that I have collected of my little man's obsession with hats. I will get to all that soon I promise! But today I needed to post about gratitude, about prayers being answered, about how there is a plan for our little family and how blessed we are!

As I have said before it has been a long hard summer for us. With my hubby loosing his job the very day that I was able to work from home for my job. With the fact that we where not prepared with food storage, with savings, with anything really. With the fact that the economy has plummeted like it has. There really are so many things that have played into all of it for us. I have spent SOOOO many hours crying, feeling sorry for us, being scared, and praying for guidance and help.

We have been sent many messengers from our Heavenly Father to help us out. To lend a helping hand or an ear to listen. Cookies where sent, hugs where given, time was spent praying in our behalf, chickens where donated, food was provided, the mortgage was paid, there were some that paid our utility bills even. Lets not forget to mention that many provided us with the opportunity to work in yards, work on decks and sheds, clean windows, take pictures, teach guitar lessons and many other things, and in return give us money to help make ends meet. For all these things I am truly grateful! I really honestly don't feel deserving of all this, but I really hope that those that have helped us receive blessing pouring upon them. In turn I hope that I can repay or help someone some day the same way we have been helped.

The Lord's hand is in every aspect our our lives and we can totally see that! Even the smallest of things. I posted awhile back some feelings that I had in regards to all this and I got the coolest comment from my sister (all the comments where awesome) this is what it read "We are all praying for you and you know it will all work out. Look what happened last time and the blessings that came your way. John 14:18 reads "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." He will guide you as you make your next steps in life." Thank you sis for sending that to me, it has helped me see that we are not alone. Far from it actually!

When all this happened we committed as a family to do a few things and I feel I need to share them.

1- We couldn't ever forget to pay our tithing. We have a testimony of how important this is and knew that we couldn't spiritually or physically afford to not pay it. There are so many blessing associated with paying your tithing. We knew that all that he had and all that we were given was coming from him that we owed it to him to give him thanks for that.

2- Even though we have very little money we felt it necessary to double our fast offerings. This is something that we have done in the past when things get rough. We felt that this was a must in this situation as well.

3- We felt that it was going to be so easy to get caught up in the frustration of not having an income and that it could really effect how we treat each other. To make sure that our family wasn't going to be torn apart, and to help us stay close we decided to spend more time together as a family. This is where our Sunday Adventures where born. We had thought of doing it before my hubby got laid off, but the meaning and importance of it changed after. We committed to taking that time every Sunday to do something fun and get away from all that troubled us. With doing this our family has truly become stronger and I have more love for each member of our little family than I ever have.

I am sharing all this today because of a few reasons. First because I truly believe that each of us have something to learn from all those around us, and if there is anyone else in need of learning what I have learned I want to be there to help. Times are rough for everyone, and I don't see them getting any better. Please take from it what you will. I am sure that by me mentioning all this someone will grow. I hope anyway. The second thing is that a few weeks ago the Lord sent someone our way to help again. It was a neighbor that had a position that he had at his work and wanted to hire my hubby for it. It was something totally different than what he was doing before, but he didn't hesitate. He started a few days later. Since he is an on call contract employee getting paid hourly I have been guarded a little since he started. I wanted to make sure that we would be getting the hours that he needed so we could be self sufficient again and I also wanted to make sure that he enjoyed it before we were "out of the woods". Well, I finally feel we are at that point. He got his first paycheck yesterday and has been really busy every day with work. The best part is that he gets to spend more time at home than his previous job and could potentially make more money. This is great from him and it is nice to see him happy!

I am rejoicing today. I am grateful and I humbled. I feel closer to my family, my friends and my Heavenly Father! We are a lucky family!

Thank you everyone! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!