Blessings Great, Small, and Confusing

My brother from RTS has me repeating frequently the reminder that God is never late. But He often shows up at the last possible moment to our thinking. Well, this summer has been teaching us this in spades.
God has kept us in a pattern of abject dependence: hard, but very gratifying. We have so little that we know except His presence with us. And it has been amazing to see all the ways that God has been providing for us even when nothing has gone according to "the plan." These blessings have been widely varied and often unexpected, but God has met our needs and many wants at every step.
Some of them have been huge. The opportunity for Chantelle to continue as an RA was a major blessing. We got rent, utilities, phone, cable; etc. for the whole summer for about $600. Another giant blessing has been that an old coworker has been contracting me for PC support jobs, and he pays so well, that despite a limited number of hours, the pay has covered gas expenses for our travels to weddings, interviews, and such (no small feat considering we've spent $100 in the last 2 weeks alone) plus the bill for my summer Greek.
Others have been much less dramatic, but no less delightful or appreciated. The time during the summer has given us an opportunity to spend time with several newly married or almost married friends. With the likelihood of our remaining in Rock Hill, this seems a base to much deeper relationship. We've also taken the opportunity to more involved at our church in Rock Hill. We helped out with VBS, which helped us get to know more people and be actively serving in what God is doing there. And we got to see God bring in several kids from non-churched homes or those from newly arrived families looking for a church home. Sweet! And our newest simple pleasure has been through Amazon. Chantelle noticed that past students (especially foreign students heading back to their home countries) abandon books when they leave. So, we've gone through the list and found about 15 that are selling reasonably on Amazon. Several have already sold giving us an extra cushion over the summer.
Finally, we have the really confusing blessings. The main on that's hit us recently is over housing. After spending several weeks researching and viewing housing opportunities, we had found only one really good option, with a couple of other decent options. So we were all set to apply, and low and behold, we now have two sudden entrants. We just had a viewing with a nice little 2 bedroom. The amenities aren't as nice as the other place we like, but the rent is cheaper, the parking is better, and the lease terms are fantastic. The owner will let us get someone to sublease the space if Chantelle found a job, and if we had to break the lease, it would only cost us the security deposit ($350). For the coupe de grace, we just found out that the Apartment Manager in Roddey is resigning. This position works like a killer grad assistantship, with free housing, free tuition for her to continue grad school, and a meal plan of her choice. So, it seems hard for us to pass up applying. However, the apartment manager has not formally resigned, so the job isn't formally available yet, and we need to start moving 2 weeks from Saturday. We weren't really looking to ADD new options at this point.

So future life continues to be unknown to us, but there are plenty of signposts that God is working. It reminds me of the illustration of a turtle on a fence post. If you find one, the only thing you know for sure, is he didn't get there by himself. And neither have we.

The Summer of Mysteries continues

Wife's log: Day 201

Spoiler warning: Jon and I are no closer to a confident decision than our last summer blog...sorry:(

God is good, but also very mysterious. he has not yet made perfectly clear what he would like for us to do as of Aug 9th (the day we need to be out of Roddey). Here's the official update on some of the things we told you about last time:

- I didn't get the job in Charleston....well, I never heard back from them, so I'm not going to start previewing housing options.

-Nor have I heard anything else from any other school districts. Applications, screening interviews, e-mailed resumes seem to have fallen on deaf ears. There might be some assistant positions open nearby, but I'm not holding my breath yet.

-My next option has been to look on craigslist and other job sites to see if any local day cares need a lead/assistant teacher, or if any offices need a secretary with my skills. Nothing yet. I seem to be overqualified...ironically.

-Jon is similarly checking the want ads for various positions. He might have a job at a local hotel if they can work with his class schedule, and around the part time job he already has. God has blessed us with several computer jobs for him, which pay very well per hour and are getting us through our summer bills.

-On the housing front, we have two places we would like to move in to. One that I like a little more, one that Jon likes a little more. Marriage is all about compromise....we'll see. (vote for me!)

-And as we keep looking for solutions, more questions pop up. There may be an opening in my building for either an Assistant Apartment manager (what I do now) or an Apartment manager (a step up from where I am now). Either solution may allow me to go to grad school with the money we're saving on housing. More questions, fewer answers....oy vey!

Continue to pray for us, for we struggle at decision making and getting answers.