GOOD Friday

Actually, to be honest, it was a PHENOMENAL Friday!! I have so many amazing things to report :)

First, let me start off by apologizing for not posting more frequently. When I started this I had every intention of blogging everyday, or at the very least every other day. I guess, aside from the few things I've written about in the past couple of weeks, I didn't feel like I had much to share. Things (up until yesterday) had been pretty mundane and life was just moving along as normal.

Ok so here are the events that made yesterday such a wonderful day. For starters, as I mentioned in a previous post, Nate has been dealing with some big things in regard to school. We couldn't be happier to give you the following announcement. Because we serve an unfailingly gracious God, Nathan has been given the unbelievable opportunity to basically "redo" the classes he took with no penalty to his GPA or academic standing. I am so incredibly proud of him. This isn't something that happens often, and Nathan did countless hours of paperwork, meetings, and appointments to make this possible. All of this good news means that we will be living in Bryan a little longer than we had originally anticipated. He is now set to graduate May 2011. Originally this wouldn't have been something I was ecstatic about, because we really do miss being close to our families. Not only that, but we have a new nephew on the way that we really would like to spend as much time with as humanly possible. Nathan and I were both in school when Kenzie was born and we missed a lot being so far away. However, his new of graduating a semester later couldn't have come on a better day!!

This leads me to the next reason that Friday was so wonderful! Here is the summarized version of my day. A parent of one of my students presented me with an unbelievable job opportunity. When she was dropping of her son, she asked me in passing what my "dream job" would be. I thought her question was extremely thoughtful so early in the morning, and I responded by telling her that if I could hand pick a job, it would be to teach 7th grade Texas History. For those of you who know me, this should come as no surprise. I am infatuated with our state, it's history, and everything about what it means to be "Texan". When I answered her, she turned and said, "what would you do if I could hand you your dream job right now". I honestly though she was joking, but I played along and told her that she would officially be my favorite person if she was in any way being serious. Turns out, she WAS. She works for a school district just outside of town, and is looking for someone to replace her as the current TX history teacher. My jaw practically hit the floor. She told me that it was in her best interest to find her replacement so she could take another position at the school. I was thrilled. I scribbled down all of my contact information and told her to let me know if there was anything she needed from me. As she left, I tried not to get my hopes up, but I was doing back flips on the inside. I couldn't believe that the conversation has really happened! I tried to push it to the back of my mind, because there was no way for me to know if anything would actually come of it. I couldn't have been more wrong. By the time I got home from work, I already had an email from my amazing cooperating teacher from my student teaching semester. She was letting me know that she had been asked by my student's mother (the two of them happend to work together a few years ago) if I was someone she would recommend. She so kindly sent me what she had responded with and it almost brought me to tears. She raved about me and said she couldn't think of anyone better for the job. This was all exciting enough on it's own, but the good news just kept coming. Later that evening, Lauren (that is this amazing woman's name) had emailed me letting me know that she had already (in a matter of ONE day, mind you) gotten the ball rolling and was almost 100% sure the job was mine.

I still can't get over just how incredible all of this is. If Nathan's school hadn't gone the way it did, we wouldn't be living here long enough for me to accept such an offer. I too often forget the omniscience of our Lord and how he works all things together for His glory. We are both so happy, and really can't wait to see how all of this unfolds. The really great news is that, no matter what the outcome, we have each other and at the end of the day (even an incredible one like yesterday) that's all that really matters!

Thanks so much for all of you who thought about or prayed for us. It means more to us than you'll ever know! We send all of our love and hope everyone is doing great!