And the Lord Provides...

So, I am not sure if all of you know or not but Big Daddy has now been on strike for 4 full weeks. It has been longer than we expected and as of yesterday the negotiation talks are suspended with no future date set to resume. It sounds exciting...to strike. But financially it could very well be devastating. For the first two weeks you receive no pay from the union and all of your health, dental and vision benefits are terminated immediately from the company. So we have been out for 4 weeks and received 2 $200 checks from the union. Not enough to support this family of 6 - but....

The Lord has continued to provide and we have not yet felt the actual financial pangs that many may have. He has provided us with money from the most unlikely places too. We know it is the Lord because it just doesn't work out like this in the way of our own planning. In fact, we haven't really planned other than a bit of money we had set aside knowing this may be a contract that they would refuse and strike. But, we weren't truly planning for or expecting it to drag out this long.

So, while we have had great family time and Big Daddy has had much leisure and rest...his heart has been very busy. He has been reading a lot and stretching and growing and considering and praying about things...future things...exciting things. That under the everyday hum drum of life of the 7-3:30 job might have been well...drowned out. Have you ever heard someone say...do what you love for your job? If you don't love it...don't do it. Well, that has become a popular topic around the Harris home. While Big Daddy knows that one of his jobs as husband and father is to provide for our little family of 6, he also wants the Lord's will in his life and the current situation...it might not be exactly what the Lord has for him. Big Daddy has such a passion for people, hurting people, that we feel confident he will be in some form of ministry once again. We have tried the bi vocational ministry, it was very hard physically on Big Daddy. Of course it didn't help that his job was 90 miles one way from our home at the time. While we would love to dump his current job and jump ship we have some things to work on first before we can truly be efficient for the kingdom. You can't be slave to the lender and feel free to let go and just do kingdom minded things. There are consequences to our choices and we have to sort those out first.

We have so enjoyed our time together...have you ever heard that once you retire and it is just you and your husband/wife...you really get to know how much in love you are? Well, I can tell you we have truly enjoyed his time off. We have spent a lot of time talking, parenting, exploring the options, sharing what the Lord lays on our hearts and just working together. We have accomplished quite a bit. I think I kind of like him :0) We are thankful for the time the Lord has allowed us to be together...as a family. It is such a fresh breath to have him home 24/7. The kids are loving it and so am I.

I have been praying for Hope and her new situation in school. I know she was in Pre-K before but under the watchful eye of Christian teachers and teaching. She will be in a public Kindergarten and I am a tad bit concerned of the questions that may arise about her being Chinese American and her parents just being American. That she may face those questions we face on a fairly regular basis but it will be from her peers. Just praying that we equip her and prepare her but not dwell on it. Well, we met our new neighbors last night...a man and his son - his wife was not home. Get this....wait for it.....this little boy, Oliver, is Chinese and will be in Hope's school, one grade ahead of her! How cool is that?

The man is from the brown province-Henan (about in the middle to the right a bit from the center), right below him in yellow is Love's province Hubei, and below her's in pink is Hope's province Jiangxi. He speaks mandarin and works for the 7th Day Adventist Church and his job is visiting churches in China. He will return to Hong Kong in September. Such sweet fellows. He suggested we get together and talk about China. Ummm...yes please! I feel like it is the Lord's provision for Hope a little friend who looks like her and he is friendly and it is a BOY!! If it were a girl, she would not be as excited. Oliver was speaking basic mandarin to us and when we repeated it correctly he gave us a thumbs up..it was so stinkin' cute. I think we are going to have many a play date with him :)

Oh, one more thing...when we registered Hope for Kindergarten...turns out another little boy that was adopted from China goes to the same school Hope will be attending. He will be in 1st or 2nd grade. Now really - how cool is that? If you knew our hometown and its demographics you could probably appreciate the magnitude of having Hope go to this school. In fact the statistics are only .83% of our hometown residents are Asian/Pacific Islander - see....it really is a big deal!