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October 3, 2015

Lately

Ryenne reading to her two faves: Alice & Mr. Bingley

So it's been a long while since we've last updated the blog, and a big reason is because there has been so much going on that it's hard to know where to begin. For starters, most of you probably already know that David lost his job back in August. He was fired from his valet parking job for a few very petty things, and a couple of incidents where he did scratch some cars up. While scratching cars is not an unheard-of thing in the valet industry, honesty is. David's manager asked him on both occasions to lie about the incidents and/or to deceitfully cover up the incidents. Both times David refused, much to his manager's shock. A couple of weeks later, David was fired.
For weeks after his termination we were on an endless job hunt. We applied to probably 40 different jobs, and only heard back from very few. It was very discouraging. We had no idea how we were going to pay for all of our bills, but we held onto the truth that God is capable of doing the impossible. Sure enough, God provided more than enough money to get through September. We didn't have to starve, become homeless, or beg for money on the streets! God just miraculously worked through certain people to provide us with everything we needed to meet our needs.
About a month after David was fired, they called him in for a meeting to return all of his uniforms and to talk with him about his previous manager, as David had revealed that he had been asked to lie about those incidents. At the end of the meeting, they told David that they would like to "un-fire" him, and that he would be placed under a different manager and work as "on-call" rather than full-time like he was at his previous account. While this was good news in a way, we weren't really in a hurry to go full-time back into valet after all that had happened, so David has taken his time with accepting valet opportunities that pop up. He does really like his new manager, and has been able to work a lot of good shifts under his management so far.
Another opportunity that opened up since August has been a position at UPS. David was accepted as a package handler for UPS at the airport. There is a lot of paperwork to go through before he can actually start the job, but he is about 90% of the way done. It's a slow process! But we are hoping that once he is in, that he will be able to really invest in the company and move up eventually there. This is a part-time position right now, so he will continue to do valet as well, but hopefully one day he will be able to go full-time at UPS and cut down a lot of his valet hours.
David is still looking for and open to a job that is more related to his degree in Linguistics, but as a husband and father who has to provide for his family, he really has decided that he needs to take what he can get right now and wait on God's timing to do what he really loves as a career.
This has been such a slow and tedious process, as well as an emotional roller coaster! There are times that we felt so solid and it came so easily to trust God implicitly, but there were other times where we felt very broken and overwhelmed at how we were going to make ends meet. We also questioned ourselves and wondered if God was disciplining us for something, and prayed and prayed that He would reveal anything in our lives that we needed to make right with Him and that He would place His hand of blessing on us. A couple of days after praying that specific prayer, we felt that God really did have His hand of blessing on us, and that we are where we are meant to be.
So, what's next? This coming week David is supposed to receive a call from UPS letting him know what his hours are going to be. In the meantime, he is still doing valet off and on as opportunities arise, and we are still open to any other potential job opportunities. We have no idea how we are going to make it through this month, but our hearts are very open to whatever God has ahead, knowing that He will take care of us. It is a beautiful thing to see the ways that God does work through people and circumstances in order to provide for our every need. One small example of this was how one day I had mentioned to someone that Ryenne really loves books and how we really needed to get some more books for her. The very next day, a box showed up on our doorstep from Ohio - Ryenne's Grampa (my dad) and Grammy Melanie had sent a box full of books over after a woman from Melanie's school donated a bunch of board books to the children. Melanie had them shipped off to us without telling us anything, and little did she know that we had just been saying how we would love to get more books for Ryenne! It may seem like a lucky coincidence to some, but to us it was just a small confirmation of God's love and care for us, and a reminder that not one of our needs goes unheard.
Other examples of God's goodness include mystery people who gave us an envelope with cash that covered the entirety of our October rent! Friends from the mainland sending us a check to help out after hearing that David had lost his job. Family secretly putting money in our PayPal account because they had been blessed with some extra finances and wanted to share. A friend from church offering to cover the cost of my place at the Gospel Coalition conference here in Hawaii that I desperately wanted to go to, but had no way of being able to afford it. Friends emailing us job opportunities that they heard of, or just sending a text or message asking how things were going and letting us know that they were praying for us.
All of those examples seem to echo over and over again God's promises that He WILL provide - He DOES hear us - He KNOWS our needs. The future may look impossible, but God is so much bigger and He sees the whole picture and knows just how we will make it through. And that is so comforting. That is what we rest in. That is what keeps us from going crazy!
So, please do keep us in your prayers as we go through this trial right now :) If you're feeling a little extra love, just send us a little message or text letting us know you are praying - it really means so much!
Thank you to each and every one of you who loves us and stands along with us at each and every bump and hiccup along this journey. We are so unspeakably thankful for you <3
Love,
RM, David, & RyeRye (15 months)

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