Thankful Thursday

This past year has had it's share of disappointments. However, today I have a lot to be Thankful for no matter the disappointments I have faced.

• First of after a long struggle, I found a job that I really love and it provides great benefits for me and my family. I have posted about the details of how I got the job here.
  


• I have a wonderful husband that has been great in completing tasks around the house the last few weeks. He has done a lot jumping in and doing things for me as I transition into working full time. He has also taken care of the girls and has given me time away from being mom & wife lately. I have felt so loved! He really is awesome and I can't express enough of how thankful I am for him!
  


• I am not only thankful for finding a job, I am thankful for the job I have. I have been there for 2 weeks and I love it and feel like I have the qualifications to do this job. I don't have to convince others (or myself) that I can do it. I have been very impressed with the administration. I have enjoyed working with my co - teacher and believe we will have a good working relationship. Also the kids are wonderful and seeing them learn my name and their hugs are such a blessing.
  


• I am so thankful for my best friend Pat! I am so thankful that I have a friend that just "Gets Me!" We live nine hours away from each other and only sees each other about once a year, but our friendship is such a gift from God. We talk on the phone about once a week for 1 - 2 hours at a time (thank goodness for free night minutes on my cell phone). Our lives and the situations we are dealing with are so different. She is 30 years older than me, has adult children, grand children, and is in the retirement years of her life. My children are still young and I am still in the midst of developing my working career. Regardless of the differences of our lives - our hearts just seem to connect and we are able to share our thoughts and feelings with each other and don't always have to explain it to each other. It seems like we take turns "whining" to each other and offering not only a listening ear, but an understanding heart. I am so thankful that God has brought Pat into my life and has blessed our friendship like only He can.

• I am Thankful for my family. I love being a mom and wife. I love seeing my girls play together. I love watching movies with my girls and playing card games with them (as we have started doing more of). Also my extended family. Since my parents have died I don't see my extend family very much, but I received a Thanksgiving card in the mail last week from an aunt and uncle of mine that I haven't seen for about 2 1/2 years. I'm also thankful for my cousins Heidi and Angie that I keep in contact with through email and Instant Messaging.

• I am thankful for my family that I "adopted" just because they are wonderful. Ron & Faye have supported, loved me, and have given me great advise. They have been that mother & father figure to me in my life. Even when I have faced one of the biggest failure moments of my life they have still been there hurting with me and saying "Betty we still love you and are praying for you." I love being including in their lives. I also am thankful for their daughter Caryl, who I grew up with. We have been friends since grade school and she is "Aunt Caryl" to my girls and I'm "Aunt Betty" to her girls. Our friendship has changed through the years and it has not developed into what we both thought it would be, but we both agree that we each hold a special place in our each other's heart and we are thankful to be apart of each other's lives and always will be.

• I am thankful for the friends that God has brought into my life. There are 2 other couples that we get together with and have such a good time. The guys have a bond together - they have similar sense of humors and watch bad sci-fi B movies together and we women connect and talk. I get so blessed by seeing John have "friends" of his own in his life.

• I am also thankful for my church and church family. They are awesome and we just love the church we attend.

• I am so thankful for Blogging and being able to express myself this way. I am so thankful for my blogging friend Cheri at Keeping Up With His Plans. Cheri you have blessed me so much these past few months. You have touched my heart in way that I will never be able to express what it has meant to me. Thanks you for your prayers and support.

• Most importantly in life I am Thankful for my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am thankful that He saw my imperfections and chose to love me anyways. He has blessed me over and over again. I am so thankful that in every situation in life He walks with me through them all.

As I have been typing this post it has been reminding me of all the great and wonderful things in my life. I am now going to go and spend Thanksgiving day with my family, cooking a big dinner, watching the parade, listening to a football game, watching a movie with my girls, and taking a nap. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving day! If you want to read more Thankful Thursday posts please visit Laurel Wreath's Reflections

Until Later,

~Betty~

Praise the Lord!

I have been wanting to post for awhile now. I will start to write something and then my thoughts freeze and I just don't seem to be able to put my thoughts together and write a complete post. I should have shared this a week ago in a Thankful Thursday post, but just couldn't get my thoughts to come together. However here is a much overdue update post:

After much prayer and struggle, I found a full time job! I was working at a college bookstore as a part time, temporary worker. It was going good, but just didn't pay what I need. The reason I accepted this position this past summer was because I thought maybe by working there it would be easier to hear about other positions in the community or maybe at the college. I have been working with kids for quite some time and ran a home day care for years, therefore I decided that I no longer wanted to work in that field and wanted to work in the social work field, since I do have a degree in the field. As I started looking for a social work job, I kept running into a wall and nothing was opening up for me. I felt very frustrated and discouraged and really struggled with the Lord about this. I started to think about other types of jobs and possibly looking into the center based child care field (since I did have child care experience). Well I finally got to the point to where I said "OK God I don't understand what you are doing in my life and don't understand why a job has not opened for me. I trust you and know that you can open the right door, and I will just 'Be Still and Know You are God.'" In my prayer time I got to the point where I just prayed that for whatever reason He had for me and my family to go through this difficult time, that He would use it to strengthen us and for His glory. I also prayed that when the right job came along he would make it happen in a way that only he could and that it would all just fall into place. Well that is what happened!

It was a Tuesday and I was working at the bookstore. A lady came in and needed a staff ID badge. I went to the counter to take her picture and we started talking. She told me that she just started working at the Early Childhood Education Center on the college campus. No big deal, other staff from there have came into the bookstore to get their IDs. However, this time it was different. I started asking her about her job and how she liked it so far. She was very positive about the center and I told her I have thought about apply there and she said they still had some teacher positions open and I should apply. After making her ID I walked with her to the Human Resource Department to talk to them about the job. I was told that I had to apply online and it would take up to a month to be hired. I thought I don't want to wait another month. Well, I went home that Tuesday night and applied online. On Wednesday after work I went down to the Childcare center with resume in hand and asked for the director and was going to give it to her in person (thinking maybe I could speed up the process). When the director came, she informed me she just got my resume about an hour ago and left me a message 15 minutes ago about wanting to set up an interview. Needless to say, I did not get that message! She asked to do an on the spot interview right then. I had the interview on Wednesday and they asked me to come in for a second interview/ observation on Thursday and she called me on Friday to offer me a full time position and I started the following Wednesday. My position is a toddler teacher and I really like it. I have been impressed with the facility and the administration, which is so different from where I worked before. I am responsible for the next 2 weeks of lesson plans and that has been fun. I am still in the transitioning process, but I think this will be good. I praise the Lord for how He provided this job and am very thankful. Through my journey of looking for a job, I have been so loved and supported by many people. God has shown me His love over and over again on this journey.

Until Later,
~Betty~

Thankful Thursday

It has been awhile since I participated in Thankful Thursday, but I am thankful that I can be apart of it this week. In the past couple of weeks God has been showing me things in my life that I have to be thankful for.

• I am so thankful for my husband and the relationship we have together. I love talking and sharing my heart & thoughts with John.


• I am thankful for the part time jobs I have right now, while I search for a full time job.


• I'm thankful for the people that are in my life and how God has blessed me with them.


• I am thankful for the person God has created me to be.


• I'm thankful for blogging and the need that it meets in me. It has been so nice to start posting more this week.


• I am thankful for my family.

I have learned that no matter what is going on in our lives, we can always find something to be thankful for. If you want to list what you are thankful for or to visit others who list please visit Crystal at God is in Control Not Me.

Until Later

~Betty~