Change

  Yes, there has been a lot of change in my life over the past year. The main changes I've mentioned already but this last week also contained 2 significant changes. For one, this past week was my last week at my job in the warehouse of 3000toys.com. I am now working in an alteration shop here in town. There was an opening about a year ago at this shop which I called about but never followed up on it. Thus I ended up working with Dad (and, in the process, learned to drive) for almost a year. Several weeks ago I randomly decided to look on craigslist (where I had seen the ad for the alterations job before) and see if there might be anything at all I might be  interested. Just that weekend she had posted asking for help! That Monday I called her, left work early to go in for an interview, worked the following 2 Fridays to see how it would work and then the job was officially offered to me! So I gave 2 week's notice which two weeks were completed this past Thursday. I'm really going to miss my coworkers at 3000toys but I'm looking forward to learning what I can from Alla at the alteration shop.
   With the new job another need has come up. It is within easy walking distance (about 15 minutes) of my house but my parents would prefer I not walk that far by myself. And so began the search for a car. This whole situation has been a sign of God's provision and care for his children. In the beginning I just happened to see Alla's post right after it was posted, when I was toying with the idea of getting a new job but hadn't officially decided to look yet. With that it was like God just dropped the job in my lap, to quote Abbie.  And then with the car, at first Abbie and I thought about going together to get a car and sharing it. But we have totally different personalities and decided it would probably be best to get separate vehicles. For different (mostly unexplainable) reasons I was feeling rushed and just wanted to hold back a bit. After deciding that I would go on the car search myself, and praying about it, I "happened" to run across an ad on craigslist (yes, I'm beginning to rather like CL) for a '97 Ford Taurus Wagon.  It was being sold as a parts car since it has several problems, the main being something having to do with the transmission, because of which it was going for a very low price. As I looked at the picture on the ad (hooray for people who actually DO post a picture!)  I found myself falling in love with that car. It was a hard decision, I could make a convincing  argument for or against it. For one, I didn't know how much it would cost to get it fixed. Dad gave me an approximate idea of how much it might cost just from his research but since we weren't positive what exactly was wrong with the vehicle it was hard to say.  After prayer, thought, and discussing with with several people I emailed the people. And here I laid a "fleece" before God: there was no phone number on the ad so the only way to contact the seller was through email. The car had been posted Thursday, it was Saturday.  I prayed and asked God, if he wanted me to have this car, that he would let the seller email me back soon and still have the car. Within the hour after praying that I received an email... and yes, they still had the car. That settled it in my mind though I couldn't go get it yet (they live about 45 minutes to an hour away). Later that evening Dad, Ben, Joshua, Liz and I hooked up one of Josh's employer's trailers to our van and we took off. After getting somewhat lost trying to find the road they lived off of we finally arrived and talked to the owners as we looked at the car. I loved it even more almost as soon as I saw it. Joshua and Dad were impressed. I left there with my first car on the trailer. The rest of my family has only seen pictures as we took it straight to our mechanic but I've got it. I just can't wait to be able to drive it!