Monday, October 12, 2009

God provided what I deemed Impossible

I know this is going to be long, but please read it and share my joy!

I have never been a "religious" person, in fact my biological parents were too wrapped up in their addiction to demostrate a personal relationship with God and my Aunt and Uncle that adopted me taught me to read tarrot cards and map out my own astrology chart, draw runes etc. When I was 19 I got to know God and became a believer. Still I struggle with organized religion and some aspects of it and at time I struggle with Faith. That being said please read on.

In June of this year I lost my job. (thats a whole other story) My husband and I then decided I would stay home, it would take some frugal adjustments, but some of what we considered necessities became luxuries. Already our income was exactly half of the amount of what we were accostom, not to mention we had just had a wedding. A series of unfortunate financial events hit us hard, like they did the rest of the country.

Also in June, I applied for unemployment. I was told it would take 6-8 weeks to process my claim. Each week I contiued to file for my weekly benefits, as I was told. Five weeks later I received a notice saying my former company did approve the claim but the state denied it because I did not sign a signature page. I spent 3 hours on the phone with the unemployment office, I had signed all my paperwork with a state employee at the unemployment office, I did not understand what I could have failed to sign. I was told I could not appeal it because it had been over 30 days since the original claim, even though I spoke with them the day I got the letter. I felt defeated and discouraged.

In August my husband's employer closed the doors. Thank God he was able to get a job doing the same thing, same pay rate the very next day. But the company was new, there was very little work. They were graciously paying us guarenteed 40 hours per week whether they had work for him or not. We were grateful for that but were used to 85-90 hours per week, per diem and footage (he build cell phone towers, in addition to hourly rate they pay by the footage you climb. Now that means we are functiong at less than 25% of our income.

We had also planned on having Kayla at First Baptist Christian School, come August we were $400 short the tuition and could not be approved for any loans. So we opted for public school and were refunded 75% of the tuition we had already paid. Which got us through that month's bills.

We went to go pick up his paycheck for the first week of September and it was $319.00! I cried and cried, he went in and talked to them and they said they could no longer afford to pay the guaranteed 40 hours per week. Don't get me wrong I was so grateful that they had done it at all, but they should have told us they were not going to do it anymore. Our light bill was 2/3 of that, let alone rent and food and gas so I could continue looking for a job!

Embarassing as these next details are I am going to share them...my legs looked like man hair because I could not afford razors, a couple of close friends of ours brought us toilet paper, milk and juice. We were packing our belongings to go stay at his parent's house for two weeks because we just were not going to be able to pay our light bill and still have other necessities. After praying about it and talking it over we decided we would use the money for gas, bring our freezer items to feed our family at his parents house and use the rest of the money for gas so we could get Kayla to school, I could look for a job and he could look for a new job. Miraculously, a dear friend of ours called to come visit and my husband being the man that he is told his friend not to stop by, he was embarassed and did not want to tell his friend that our lights were cut-off and we were packing up for 2 weeks, our friend was taken aback when Mike told him he could not come over, so Mike broke down and told him the truth, our dear friend said, "What?! Why didn't you tell me? How much is it?" He paid our light bill for us and told us when we get back on our feet then to worry about paying him back.

We were "robbing Peter to pay Paul," if you will. Thank God for our dear friends that helped us to scrape by.

We received two more "barely there" paychecks. But we just finished paying rent for last month, it has to be paid by the 15 or you get an eviction notice, 5 days to vacate.

Praise God Mike's company sent him on a job out of town that should last a few weeks, so we will have money coming in. Plus, Praise God, I got a job...as a server. I just finished my training on Sunday, I was relieved to know we had money coming in the near future and the worst of it was over, but what about rent and this month's light bill? On Saturday I was crying, how in the world could I make nearly a thousand dollars in 5 days???

God had provided for us for the past few months, I should have known not to lose Faith, but I just felt like I couldnt do it anymore...I had given up and lost hope. Seeing how we had borrowed from everyone and only allowed one extension every 12 months with the light company is permitted (which we used). I just gave up, I said, "we'll make it or we won't" I can't worry about it anymore!

Saturday I checked the mail, I had a Chase statement in there with a balance. It wasn't my account number, I called and guess what??? It was my Direct Payment Card for Unemployment!!! Apparently, there was an error, my card was mailed on June 16 and I NEVER received it and it was an error that the signature page was not signed. The 5 weeks that I filed for had been deposited since August...It was the EXACT amount we needed for lights and rent!!! I literally, was on my hands and knees in the living room crying tears of joy and relief, Thanking God!!! The best part is that even though the money has been there since August its another blessing that I didnt know about it because we would have used it to pay Kayla's school, not knowing the series of financial challenges that were approaching, but God knew and he made provisions for us!!!

Now the essentials are taken care of and we can count on both of us having a decent income coming in!

I know this was long, but I am soooo HAPPY, I want to shout it outloud from the rooftops. I want everyone to know that nothing is impossible, God will take care of you, He will speak to you in a language you understand!


1 comment:

  1. I have goosebumps and tears rolling down my face. Praise God.
    I an sooo happy for you!

    ReplyDelete