10.05.2011

[The Lord's promises are true!]

My friends,

I cannot explain how ecstatic I am about God's provision for us lately....

Most of it involves how we had "planned" out our path for our future not too long ago, but how God instead changed our steps. :) (Prov. 16.9)

We'll start with what our "plans" were. 


10 or 11 months ago, when practically every couple in our church was pregnant, I was inside, *dying* to have one of our own. (ok, so maybe dying was exaggerating, but I reaaaallly wanted to have a baby too. Which is ironic because growing up I promised I'd never have kids....huh....mom was right ;) 


So people would always tease us, and ask when WE would jump on board and get pregnant too!! The thing was, Ben was/is still in school, and at that point, we didn't know if he would be provided with a better paying job, or if we'd have to go out of state to find one. Logically speaking, it's good to have finances prepared so you can pay for your baby's needs, right?? We wanted to be good stewards of the money God did give us.


Well, it's not like we ever "worried" about our money or God's provision of a job for Ben in the future, but we certainly wanted time to pass and things to fall in place so we could make a "plan" and start our family too. At this point, (and don't judge) I was still on a form of birth control due to said above "plans" but it was starting to make me fee sick sometimes, we had to pay out of pocket for it, and it was just a big huge pain. We decided it wasn't the best method for us, and wanted to try natural birth control instead. 


Well.....we all know how well this new form worked for us :P After being off the birth control I was on, I discovered I was pregnant (!!!!!) not more than 2 months after stopping it. 
Of COURSE we were super excited and amazed at the thought of being parents finally, but this left the plans we had for our future completely erased in the sand. First provision in this whole thing was a very nice house to rent, complete with an office and a room just for baby :) This still left the question of a better job for Ben, however. We would be extremely tight on a budget including a new baby, and the pay Ben was currently receiving. 




So, God knew our desire to have a baby, but he also knew how He would provide for us too. 
Ben had been working diligently to find a job or internship through his program at school. Not long later, he got into a program called NIAR through WSU which does engineering contract work for other big local wichita companies. Through it, he was able to make contact with Hawker Beechcraft, who offered him his internship which was needed to complete his senior year!!! This internship has gone very well for him, he likes his boss a lot, and the guy has offered to help Ben in any way he can. 
Hawker had basically told him he had a full time position open after the internship was completed, but Ben was toying with whether or not he actually liked the type of work he was involved in. 


Lo and behold, out of God's sovereignty, Ben gets a call from my dad's manager at Koch Glitch here in wichita asking if he would like to come in for an interview for an engineering position there!!! My dad had recommended Ben to this guy 2 or maybe more months ago, but had never heard anything, and so decided they weren't interested in him anymore. God had different plans though!! 


Ben had two interviews, one conference call, and one on-site, 4 hour interview. He came home from both kinda down though, thinking he had totally messed it up, and that they weren't impressed with him. I knew it was nothing to worry over, and tried to encourage him that if this was the right job, God would open the doors for him no matter how "bad" he thought he did. (Even though I know he did perfectly fine ;) 


So, about a week later, we get the email---Koch chose Ben!! (2 other random facts, this is the FIRST year Koch has been willing to hire WSU grads, and let me also note, Ben isn't even GRADUATED yet!!!!!!!) How awesome is God???? 
Ben was able to get out of the Koch HR lady that all 4 men interviewing Ben unanimously decided upon him as their choice to hire. She said this almost NEVER happens. *Wow!!!* 


So, Ben has as of yesterday, officially accepted the position at Koch, and funny enough, will be a few cubicles away from my dad. The pay and benefits are great! With the amount he'll be making from this "real" job, we feel like millionaires, though it is not one iota even close to that :P 
Another cool thing about how God worked this out?? 


According to our budget spreadsheet, January was going to be reaaaalllly tight in terms of money that month. But now, Koch has offered to let Ben (upon his request) start in mid december, which will relieve some of the strictness we were going to have to worry about during Jan. Jehovah Jirah!! 


Every little thing has me reeling at how awesome He is, when we trust in Him to provide. I am continually reminded of the passage starting in Luke 12:22. We have no need to worry about any trivial need in our lives! 
The passage talks specifically about clothing, and not to "worry about what you will put on..." and I can attest to this promise too. 
I was starting to get down to slim pickings in my closet in terms of maternity clothes...like, maybe 2 or 3 shirts, and 2 pairs of pants that fit well and that I would wear in public. God knew I wasn't really looking to go out and buy a ton of stuff, because it's expensive, and because I'll get less than a year's use out of them at this point.....and so He provided. A mommy friend at church lent me a whole BAG of clothes that fit me to a "T"!!! I couldn't have been happier. 


All this and God continues to provide us even more abundantly. We had some friends randomly send us a note in the mail today with a check for what seems like a huge amount to us--for no reason. My jaw sorta hit the floor after opening it. 


So, back to the whole Luke 12 passage. It rings true to me every day lately. When you set your eyes on what God has planned for you, and not what YOU want in life, He will provide for everything else in your life. 
This is to say, Ben and I have had several outside trials that don't really involve us, yet still involve us and a need to intervene in some of them, and this has given us a lot of room for growth in communication, in love, and support of each other. This last several months has been a great growing and stretching experience for us, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I know God brings so many things into our lives for a reason, and funny as it seems, so many of them seem to hit at the same time. Yet He knows how much we can handle, and how we will learn and grow spiritually from it--which we so desperately NEED in light of the fact that in about a month's time, we will be PARENTS!!!! :D 


Another thing about God's timing with this baby---


Most of you don't know: my grandmother, her sister, and my own mom had either breast or ovarian cancer. The two cancers stem from one gene; I was tested for it a few years back and do have it. Basically, if you've had a hysterectomy, the cancer will (obviously) bypass your ovaries and attack the breasts, if you haven't had the said operation, you will contract the more deadly and hard to detect ovarian cancer. 


Because of this, several years ago, my doctor told me to have my kids early if I could, and then think about the operation. I am probably at risk of getting it by my mid 30's or early 40's. Screenings have to start around age 25.
It's definitely not something I really worry about anymore, but I do believe God has worked his hand in having us start our family now so that it won't cause problems in the future. We're not sure how many little ones we want in our family for sure, but for now, at least one is on the way, and hopefully we'll be allowed at least one more before my health becomes an issue. (Which may or may not...we'll see.) 


Anway....Oodles of props to you who actually made it this far....this is such a long post! 
I've just been so excited about how God has been providing for us lately, I have to tell about it! 


(Now watch, just to humble me more, my house will burn down next week ;) haha!) 


Much love from the Jung family,
*Lj

2 comments:

  1. Like, like, like!! :) God is SO GOOD!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hadn't visited your blog in quite a while. Your life has certainly changed from when you first started posting. May God continue to bless you both tremendously.

    ReplyDelete