A Blessing in Disguise

Dave's company closed its doors yesterday. I was shocked and devastated. My first thought was "what does this mean for our adoptions? " For sure we would have to postpone the domestic adoption. I did not bring up the topic until this morning, no need to stress Dave out at that point, I thought.

Although I could not understand why, Dave was almost jubilant about this turn of events. He began working his connections, preparing his resume and by the end of the day a few leads. He feels that this could be his opportunity to do what he really loves - aerospace engineering.

For quite a while Dave and I have not had to worry about our finances. We have a nice emergency fund. We have no debt except for the mortgage. We live on just one salary. My salary and the profit from my small book selling business is all extra. We have been using that money to save for adoption and recently we bought a new car with cash. (a money saving hybrid, and yes you do save money if you pay cash, not so much if you make take out a loan).

Anyway, back on track. Now I find myself becoming more and more excited about this opportunity. I really feel that these circumstances will help us to relate better to our budget coaching participants. It has also allowed our creative juices to flow. This morning Dave and I began discussing all the ways we can make our dollar stretch while he is out of work. We even discussed not really wanting to move too fast into another job so that we can really live and breath this experience and wait on just the right job. We understand, that not everyone is afforded such an opportunity and our heart just break for each family we know in such situtations.

At our last church staff meeting on Tuesday, Pastor Tom encouraged us to brainstorm about ways we could help the members of our church get through these tough economic times. The church certainly can't hand a check to every family behind on the mortgage. But there are many things we can do as a body of believers. And this is what we are so excited about! I am not sure how this will all pan out but I really want to take up this challenge and offer some ideas on how we can support each other as a church family. Flow, creative juices, flow.