About 6 months later Jared got a job offered to him that he never applied for. Before the economy went down hill Jared worked alongside his Papa Lee doing construction and remodeling work. The plan was Jared would take over the family business when Papa retired. Unfortunately Papa was forced into an early retirement when he had to shut the business down because the economy was not supplying them with enough work to keep busy. Anyway, they often worked with cabinet makers, window guys, plumbers, and the like. Well the plumbers they used to work with thought of Jared when they needed to hire a new apprentice plumber. Jared got a call, had an interview that day, was told to start next week, and filled out the application after he had the job! Talk about an answer to prayers! We still needed my nanny income with him as an apprentice plumber, but now we were no longer in financial stress.
Fast forward two years and it brings you up to just a few months ago, when I felt it was time to leave my nanny job. It was hard for me to let go, but I finally believed in the Lord to provide for our needs. I can look back on the past 5 years of marriage and see how He has always provided for us. It amazes me that no matter how tight things got, we have ALWAYS had enough to pay our bills. When the time came, it was always there. The money may not have always come from where I would have liked (i.e. our once upon a time baby savings), but wherever it came from I can see now that it was the Lords provision. So when it came to letting go of my nanny job, I had peace that the Lord would still provide for us. I didn't know if it would mean me staying home or if He would bring me a new job, but I knew God would have it covered.
Know what I did today? Today I've been working on a financial worksheet that DCFS gave us to fill out. This is the paper I fear the most at this point for why they may not want us to be foster/adoptive parents. There are people out there who foster just so the state will give them money for taking in a foster child. I don't want them to think that we're one of those kind of people. We are not rich money-wise for sure. We're probably not even average. We're on the low side, but we always have enough. I plan to include a copy of Jared's credit score to maybe prove this point.
Anyways... Today after filling out the financial worksheet I decided to recalculate about how much Jared would need to make each week for me to stay home. I have been staying home, but I hadn't bothered to look at the numbers until now. Some of our bills are different now, but it turns out over the last few years how much Jared would need to make really hasn't changed. After I quit working in December, Jared changed his tax withholdings in January, also in January Jared's boss gave him a raise. So until now there hasn't been much to go on to see his average income. Know what I found?
I found Jared would need to make almost $300 a week, his average this year has been $331 a week. That's covers all our needs PLUS tithes! The Lord is my Jehovah Jireh, my provider. The Lord never changes. Just as back in old testament times where they had to sacrifice a spotless lamb to cover their sins, the Lord FIRST provided a spotless lamb.
I fully believe God will continue providing for all our needs whether we adopt, foster, get pregnant, or even a combination of some of those. I don't know if our financial status will disqualify us for becoming foster parents or not, but I know if it does then that is a door God has closed. I praise God for all He has given us.