So nine days ago I made a very morose post about how I felt forsaken. I truly did feel that, and I had felt it for a few days before I posted about it. I don’t remember ever feeling that before. I don’t know why it came over me. I have tried to stay as positive as I could during all the many trials and changes that have hit us over the last few years. I think it was just that it was…so long. And I had begun to think that it would never end, this side of heaven.

The next day, I posted that suddenly I had hope again. Ben had good, hopeful news and then everything felt shiny and new again. It’s amazing how just one thing can change your whole outlook on everything.

It was a job. A developer job. An offer – contingent on passing the background check. And then Friday – the day after Belinda and my birthday – he got the official job offer. And it is unbelievable how that one thing has changed so much within me.

Now Ben has been working. I didn’t post much about it, but he currently has a job manufacturing airplane parts. He has to be at work at 5 a.m., Monday through Thursday, and he comes home sore from the work. We were thankful for the job but I know it was hard for him, and it also wasn’t a job he was passionate about. He turned in his notice on Monday. It really is a great company – just not programming.

The new job is with the state. Ben worked for the state for a very long time before the state insurance fund privatized, and he still has state retirement built up. And now he will be with the state again. And it will be working with COBOL. He works there in person for the first two weeks, and then it’s a hybrid position, working at the office and also from his home office. It sounds like a dream come true.

He’ll make less than he made before losing his job originally, but it’s more than the current job, and that should help a lot. We’ve already talked about how we can pay down any debt that we’ve incurred while we were moving through this difficult time. That feels so good to hope and plan for!

Ben also seems so much more optimistic and happy this past week. I know it’s been awfully hard on him to go through this. He was starting to think he would never work in the mainframe again. But God had other plans!

Bonus! I’ll be able to return to my doctors at SSM Health. I’ve gone to them for so long but when he got the current job the insurance they had wasn’t in network with all my doctors that I knew and trusted. So I just haven’t gone to the doctor this year.

He starts the new job on the 24th. I’m so happy.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” Psalm 40:1-2

I am glad God is a merciful God because my patience seems like it had finally run out! He heard my cry.