Back in this post, my sweet husband wrote about how God doesn't want us to be comfortable. Truly, we have been in this season for what feels like years, maybe because it has been years (ha!), but God brought it a little closer to home recently when he "took away" what looked like some financial security.

The cool thing is that in times like these, God has us press right into him more and more, so that we realize that He is taking care of us. It's not up to us, but Christ and we love being able to fully recognize that, even when it's hard to walk by faith.

A couple days ago, I was reading in Cai's kid's devo with him "Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing" by Salley Lloyd-Jones & Jago.

Faith is believing what God says.

Some people think faith is like taking a leap in the dark. That faith is blind. 

But the Bible says it's the opposite. Away from God we are in the dark. That's when we are blind, stumbling around. 

 This completely resonated with my heart. Too often, I  had been feeling like I was in the dark, but I still knew what God said. He would come through. He was in charge. I needed to trust him!

Again...

When we come home to God it is not a leap into darkness. 

It is a magnificent leap into light --the light of God's love for us!

God is home. He is the only home we need. His home is full of love,  because He IS love! 

---

When Hart wrote that post, he had mentioned some sweet ways God has been providing for us, but he wasn't able to mention all the details. 

Well, one of those was that I, Vanessa, actually got a new job! I will be a teacher at Arrows Academy this next year! Actually, maybe I should call it my 2nd job?! 

Let me explain. 

Towards the time when school was ending for most folks, I decided to call Arrows Academy, a school that combines the best of both worlds of a traditional classroom environment and homeschooling infused with Biblical values. I wanted to find out more about their 3K program for Cai. 

Literally, the next thing I knew I had received a teaching agreement to sign for teaching 5th grade core (Literature, History, and Writing), and Spanish for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades. 

It was an answer to our prayers financially as I would be getting a huge pay increase from my current minimum wage job, because I would be using my degree in Spanish and Education. It relieved stress as far as arranging care for Cai. Even though the grandmas have been incredible and so amazing, there are still times when we juggle figuring out care, etc.  In addition, there is a nursery available for any younger children that is willing to work with any foster children we have at incredible rates, since I am teaching. 

Literally everyone, from mommy to Cai to our "beloved babies" get to go to Arrows on Tuesday and Wednesday this next year! 

Now, what did I mean by 2nd job? Well, as of right now, I am still going to be a Creative Sewing employee, just working a bit more behind the scenes with their website/blog that I started for them. To say that I have felt a part of their sewing family is an understatement. While I don't think my calling is selling sewing machines, sewing is a passion of mine and I've loved aspects of my current job very much. While my current boss has been so kind and flexible with me, being a mom and even allowing me to cut back my hours to accommodate being home more, it still just wasn't completely working for our family. 

We committed this to prayer and have been just in awe at how God provided this for us! 

I will be working less and getting paid more. Cai gets some educational opportunities which I know he will thrive in and I get to use a "long lost" passion of mine, Spanish and teaching! It's crazy how it's coming around full circle. 

And, I'm also pretty excited about getting my feet wet within the homeschooling community. I love the foundation of this school and how they support homeschooling. Something I am very interested to find out if is "for us". 

We are also thankful for how God is providing in Hart's job! We are grateful for the title raise that Hart is now the President of Mather Property Management, the rental company side of The Mather Company! He is still the Vice-President of The Mather Company! In addition, God is working out some tremendous details with some of Hart's current clients, details we cannot share at this time, but thankful that things seem to be smoothing out with some of his buyers and some of the current deals that looked like they may not go through! Just keep praying, because real estate is crazy! It keeps us trusting Jesus... that's for sure!

Seriously, who knows the ways of the Lord! He is good though, very good, especially to our sweet family!

OH... and we PASSED our Foster Care Fire Inspection this past Monday! We heard from our Foster Care worker that she will be sending all our paperwork on by the end of this week to her Supervisors to be approved! 

Finalmente!

We are hoping to be approved now, as foster parents, in 2 - 3 weeks! Phew! This baby is gonna be pretty amazing and worth the wait... that's for sure!

Thanks for all the prayers, yall are the best!

Finally on Break!

Yesterday was the last day of school. The students were only at school for a half-day and then the School Board hosted a lunch for the faculty.

This week was a blur. I was more exhausted each day than the day before and more ready for break each second. I needed rest. It was busy due to many reasons. Mostly, because we, meaning Hart and I, do not normally do things during the week. This week I went to a girls Bible study on Tuesday, met a friend for coffee on Wednesday, then came home and stayed up really LATE baking and preparing Christmas gifts for the people I work with. I was not a good Time Manager, at home or at school! My cluttered house that still is sitting everywhere is testimony to THAT!

During the faculty lunch, I seriously wanted to cry because I was so tired and I probably would have, if I did not feel the Lord tell me to go to my room and be by myself to finish up work!

However, there were a lot of blessings the last few days of school in the form of FOOD. For instance, my class prepared a lasagna, salad, and plenty of goodies to take home for my birthday. If they only knew, how perfect that was! Then, I got to take home some of the Zorbas that we ate for lunch at the faculty lunch. So, right there, I do not have to cook for the entire weekend!!! God giving me rest from my kitchen!

Last night, we ate some of the food, watched an episode of Lost, then decided to take Abe to the dog park. I love the dog park. I enjoy watching all the dogs run around and play and laughing at them with the other owners. My plan was to summon some energy to run around the field while they played, but that didn't happen because it was SO COLD! So after about an hour, we came back home, got in pjs, made hot chocolate, snuggled up on the couch and watched Madagascar: Return 2 Africa, which is absolutely hilarious, by the way. We went to bed about 10 and I slept in until 8 a.m. (That is sleeping in for me, since, I normally, wake up at 5:30).

I packed Hart's lunch today, since, he normally packs mine, grabbed my Bible and 365 days with Calvin book and poured my heart out to God in prayer. I can't remember the last time I was able to have such an awesome quiet time with the Lord. Finally, still enough to listen. (What I learned could be another blog post!)

I'm gonna stay in for the better part of the day. I have some mailing to do at the post office and a trip to the bank in order. However, I think I will do a work out video, get ready, then clean up this house and all the cluttered Christmas stuff, the excess pile of mail all over the counter, the dishes that need to be cleaned and put away, maybe make something to give to our neighbors for Christmas. Mostly, I am just going to enjoy being home, off from work for 2 weeks, and focus on the fact that we have been married for almost 1 year (20th), my birthday (21st), Christmas, family, and why we even celebrate anything at all: Jesus!

Teaching

Well, as Hart mentioned in the last post, I started my new job teaching at Heritage Christian Academy. I have wanted to blog as I got started and experienced working full-time for the first time of my life, but I have not been able to even sit down and post because teaching is EXHAUSTING! My feet hurt daily, and not just my feet, but my shins, my calves, and whatever else, really.

First, of all, I cannot speak enough good things about the school itself. It is such a sweet place that the Lord pours his Spirit upon daily! They really support us as teachers and give us plenty of time in our rooms to work before the kids get there. A teacher that lives across the street from me works in the Public school system and she had to sit through three FULL days of meetings and only got a total of 4 hours to work in her room. I think I would of gone crazy with stress if that had been me, but instead I had close to 4 days in my room with minimal meetings. It was lovely!

So, I got all ready, and God is so good because he gave me so many provisions from things left up in my classroom on the walls to lesson plans and other things all ready for me to begin teaching 4th grade!!!!

My first Parent Night was so nerve-racking, but it went well! I have 9 families and at least one parent came that night to meet me. The following day we had individual conferences where I got to talk to them about their child. I was allowed to pray with them (this is so freeing!)

Then school started and I had 9 4th graders looking at me above their piles of school supplies and everything else that we had to organize together! I have 6 boys and 3 girls. It really is a teacher dream to only have 9 and now I call them my little ducks because it is like I lead them across to the Upper school and they all follow me! In like fashion, I will say, "Come on my little ducks!" and they will respond, "Quack! Quack!" ahhaha I know it is silly, but it kind of makes it feel like we are a unified group! So, we organized their things and this is the first year that they learn to write on real notebook paper and have a 3 ring binder with dividers! It is a big deal!

Being Specific and telling them what to do has been hard. I have struggled with this aspect of teaching younger children. I am thinking in my head: "Why is it so hard to put things where they go!?" Or "How many times do I have to tell them where to put their name, date, subject on their papers!?" But God just humbles me and puts on my heart that I need to be patient, break things down farther than I could ever break things down, and love them. Of course, there are students that are easier to love because they seem to have it all together and know what they are doing, while others its like....Binder Explosion occurs every day, they write on the wrong side of the paper, and never know where things go! But actually I love the ones that struggle a little more because they are still so precious, despite all that. I have to think that I am just like them. God sees me as an absolute mess and still loves me, He works with me diligently until I start to understand what I am to do! I just pray this will be more of my attitude and not get frustrated and annoyed!

I feel like I have been pointing out the negatives, but through these things, I am learning to be a better teacher. I have realized that I was expecting a little TOO much from 4th graders and that it is only the first weeks so I need to be gentle and loving and full of grace.

After this first week of teaching, I was so tired. I came home Friday afternoon and crashed. I slept for 2 hours while Hart was gone doing sound for a Rehearsal for a wedding and then I just sat in the recliner and Hart made dinner for me and then we watched a movie, only to wake up and watch the movie again while I graded some things.

Okay, well, I am going to stop here for now, and hopefully have more energy this week, to write some more specific things about teaching.