Jehovah Jirah, "My Provider"

The response we've gotten from friends and family during this trial has been overwhelming. The day Dave was suspended, Xavier and Amber invited us over and made a special dinner with tri-tip and crab legs. She even baked a chocolate cake with the words "C'est La Vie!" LOL! The next day, after his company confirmed that they were letting him go, we went to a church baby shower, and everyone took a few minutes to gather around and pray for us. They decided to hold our baby shower off until after the baby is born, and then just give diapers, gift cards and essentials since we already have plenty of girl clothes and baby gear we saved from Eva. They also offered to deliver some meals while I'm recovering. We've had friends leave sweet messages on our machine, with everything from encouraging words of support to tirades and curses on Dave's hard-hearted company. We've been offered money and rent-free housing in my parents' largest apartment. It really is amazing to see how much love and support we have, though hopefully we won't need to take advantage of any of the offers.

I'm really grateful now that we weren't able to take our planned vacation last month. I didn't understand at the time, but now I do. God knew we would need that cashed-out vacation time to live on. A whole months worth! It truly has been a blessing. We still have an expense reimbursement check coming, too. That should carry us for awhile, if we watch our budget and stick to the essentials. I'm not really worried, because in all my years of trusting God to provide, and all the tight spots we've been through, God has always been faithful. We may not be able to get all the frivolous things we want, but we've never gone cold or hungry while trusting in Him. I'm even more grateful now that we chose a home birth, because it's all been paid for in advance. So we don't have to worry about a huge hospital bill with no insurance. We're going to apply for COBRA coverage, so hopefully that will cover the new baby's first check-ups. Dave also qualifies for unemployment now, and I can apply for WIC if I need to. We'll see. I've never believed in taking any kind of assistance unless absolutely necessary. I've known people who take advantage of free services just because they met the qualifications, but then go out and buy a playstation. To me that's just wrong, because hard-working people have taxes taken out of their paychecks to cover those costs. However, we did pay into the system, we're not asking for handouts, and if necessary, we'll use just what we need until we're back on our feet. That's the way it's supposed to work.