Insane Blessings, Part 1

My husband graduated in May.

And there was much rejoicing.

Last January we made the decision to continue for another year to get his masters contingent on his receiving a Graduate Teaching Assistantship for the fall.  This would provide him with a free education plus a small stipend, provided he proctor classes, grade homework, hold office hours, and teach occasionally.  His professor was quite confident that this would be approved but we would not know for sure until after July 1st.

On July 2nd, my husband sent an email to his professor to confirm that funding had come through for his position.  The professor very kindly responded that no, the funding had not come through, but he hoped my husband would continue his studies anyway.

I'm not sure what caused us to not consider this possibility.  I'd love to say it was my stout and unwavering faith that God was going to take care of us that caused me not to worry, but if I'm being honest, I think I had put my faith in the system.  There would be funding because it's the University of Kansas, he'd been told there would almost certainly be funding, and he is a very dedicated, talented, and gifted engineer.  Who wouldn't bend over backwards to give him a free education? 

When we got the email, our son was blessedly engrossed in a puzzle on the floor, giving us a few moments together to share our shock, sorrow, and utter disappointment.  What now?  If you've read any of my money-saving posts, you know that we are paycheck to paycheck folks with 1.25 incomes who use any extra money to grow our emergency fund.  We don't have an extra $15,000 to shell out for grad school.  So we began praying with this new information in mind.  Was there a way for us to get him through grad school that we hadn't thought about?  Were scholarships available this late in the game?  Were there any other professors who needed at GTA this close to the start of the semester?  I honestly thought graduate school was a closed door.  But if it was, my husband needed a job - and he needed to have secured it three months ago.

I think it's fair to say that my husband was devastated.  It is not a word I (or anyone else who knows him) would normally think to describe him.  He is almost never shaken by circumstance, but this was difficult.  As the days went on and we tried desperately to think of alternatives, I saw his disappointment become more and more evident.  He really wanted to do this.  But there didn't seem to be any way.

So we prayed.  God, give us wisdom.  Give us direction.  Help us to know what to do.

We did not ask for a miracle, but that is exactly what we got.

Small rabbit chase before the rest of the story: this is the second of two very poignant two times in my life where I have listed all the possibilities out to God, trying to seek His guidance in which path to take, and he has knocked me on my knees before Him with a miracle.  The first was nearly three years ago, when I was pregnant with my son.  Here is an excerpt from a blog post explaining what happened:

At our last doctor's appointment, the doctor told us our baby had a rare condition in which the umbilical cord, usually comprised of three vessels, was missing a vessel and therefore only contained two. This condition can mean lots of things (premature birth, cardiac problems, chromosomal abnormalities, death, etc.), so we were pretty freaked out. This condition affects around 1-2% of pregnancies, and of these, 75% are born with no problems. The doctor recommended we go see a specialist in Kansas City who would do a level 2 ultrasound and check the major organs to be sure everything was functioning normally. She said we'd probably be seeing him once a month and her, our regular doctor, once a month, so an appointment every two weeks and sonograms at least once a month. Needless to say, we were pretty freaked when we headed to Kansas City today. We prayed that God would help us handle whatever came next, but mostly that he would keep our boy safe.

All my thoughts had been about how to deal with the circumstance.  I had not once considered that God - the same one who created the heavens and the earth - might elimiate the circumstance entirely, but that's what happened.  At that appointment, the doctor declared our son perfect in every way.  I had never considered this possibility.  In my mind, a miracle was impossible.  Oh, how I should have known better.

Okay, back to the story: this Wednesday, nearly a week after the email that threw everything into chaos, we received an email that confirmed there was indeed a GTA position, and was he still interested.  And just as it is rare to see my husband down in the dumps, it is also rare to see him jumping up and down in excitement.  But that's exactly what happened.  He responded with a resounding "YES!" and the three of us immediately got on our knees and thanked our God for taking care of us in this way that only He could have orchestrated.

But it gets better.  To be continued....