YESTERDAY WAS A GREAT DAY!

This post is to follow my last post which detailed my very crappy day on Tuesday. 
Yesterday was not like Tuesday. It was much more awesome.

First of all, I received this email in the morning: 


hey brooke!

i know we're not close friends, but you know we have a long history (in a good way) and it's been so nice to reconnect with you lately.

my husband and i felt that as part of our giving this month that God was directing us to "replace" the hundred dollars you lost from the counterfeit bill.  He's so faithful to all of us, and we're happy that we have the opportunity to do this.

Holy crap. That was my prayer about the counterfeit bill, that it would be restored to us somehow... in fact, I sort of was praying all day that that whole situation would be redeemed somehow. And there you have it. Restored. That's God's heart, total restoration... but it just gets better...

The thing is, though it may seem to you all that my husband is unemployed, he has actually been working two " "jobs"- one is a true "job" - on hold right now but is commission only sales on voluntary insurance benefits (like Aflac, but better - Colonial Life and Accident), while we get the town house ready to move into which has been a 70+ hour a week job now since the first week of November. The second is that he is seeking venture capitalists and angel investors for a start up company in the health care industry and if he finds someone who actually invests, he gets a commission on the investment. He has been working that on and off for several months and the insurance job on and off since February. 


There've been many hopes dashed, to put it lightly. 


We've really struggled with what to do about income since we started working on the town house... for one, neither of us are drawing any income at all and have been supported by the generosity of our family and by selling our "stuff" and finding ways to earn money on the side. Basically the situation in the town house was that my mother in law's stuff was still in it and she needed help moving it to her new house. It's not like we have been working on the town house spiffing it up, we've actually spent most of the last six weeks moving stuff out and just doing basic drywall and painting... that's it. Nothing more than that but it has been a HUGE undertaking. That's all I can really say about that. 

Jason has "pushed on many doors" - applied for jobs at Home Depot, Lowes, etc, and been on interviews. I've also sought work at a daycare and at my daughter's preschool. Jason has been through the initial stages of the vetting process to become another insurance agent with another company. All doors shut. In like, multiple ways. We have tried to find other work but it seems as if the doors were completely shut in our faces. The cake thing I was doing In October ... well, she hasn't called me back. Maybe she didn't like my work? We asked for guidance from the Lord, for doors to shut if we weren't to go through them, and them to open or for signs if we were supposed to wait for something else. So it felt like we were perpetually stumped, and waiting, and sort of sensing in our spirits that we were to wait on this investor thing and the Colonial thing (the two are also somewhat related) since it was the only avenue that seemed to have any traction or forward motion at all. 

Here we are. Weary.

Long story short... finances have been beyond tight or non existent. Every bill that's been paid lately has been due to the generosity of our mothers or from things we've sold. All the stuff we've needed to get the town house in order has been supplied by others or obtained for free. We are living on support from our families and proceeds from items we've sold. So when the counterfeit bill thing happened, I was just crushed. What little effort in my own strength to generate cash flow was stomped on... it was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. 


So, I get that email from an old, precious friend. Totally lifted my spirits and made my day. Add to that someone wanted to buy something we had on craigslist and came by yesterday, seeming to be very interested. And then, I get a text from Jason's mentor and the entrepreneur behind the start up I was talking about... "Brooke - call me ASAP!"....


My heart went into my throat.


I called him right away...


"Brooke... I have a check in my hand with Jason's name on it....." 


I won't tell you how much, but I will tell you that it's enough to pay our bills for a few months. 

My heart just swelled up with thankfulness. This is the breakthrough that we've been waiting for, hoping for, praying for, longing for... this is the sign that we're on the right track... this is the sign to ourselves and to others that our efforts have not been in vain... this is the answer to the plea that God knows what we're doing, that he knows our needs, that he knows that what we have doing, though it doesn't elicit a paycheck, has eternal value... this means so much. This is a stepping stone with the start up company in terms of a career for Jason, this is the sign that he should continue with Colonial... this buys us time for him to get reengaged after we move before we need to start seeking part time work... this is it.

As the reality sunk in that we could breathe, the phrase "restore the years the locusts have eaten" kept floating around in my head, in my spirit. I had no idea where it came from, so I Googled it, and found Joel 2:21-27... reading it, I was overcome. 

I called my husband and his friend Sam and read it to them through tears over the phone. 

To me, God was speaking this promise over us, of restoration, of grace, of redemption, not just for us financially, but for me, in this season my prayer has been that the Lord would fulfill his purposes for us, his destiny for us... I just love him, I want to love on him and my life to be a love song back to him, and I think he knows that. 


I am so encouraged. 

Joel 2:21-27

Surely he has done great things! 

 ²¹ Do not be afraid, land of Judah; 

   be glad and rejoice. 

Surely the LORD has done great things! 

 ²² Do not be afraid, you wild animals, 

   for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. 

The trees are bearing their fruit; 

   the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. 

²³ Be glad, people of Zion, 

   rejoice in the LORD your God, 

for he has given you the autumn rains 

   because he is faithful. 

He sends you abundant showers, 

   both autumn and spring rains, as before. 

²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain; 

   the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

 ²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— 

   the great locust and the young locust, 

   the other locusts and the locust swarm^[b]— 

my great army that I sent among you. 

²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, 

   and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, 

   who has worked wonders for you; 

never again will my people be shamed. 

²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel, 

   that I am the LORD your God, 

   and that there is no other; 

never again will my people be shamed.