The Lord's hand in all things

I am starting this blog because my family and I are embarking on an adventure.  My husband, Josh, has accepted a commission as a Social Worker for the Air Force.  Sometime after April 4th, he will be known as Captain Joshua James Turner.  I am excited for the uniform!

2013 was a rough year for our family.  In December of 2012 Josh lost his job due to budget cuts.  We were no strangers to this, the Social Work profession can be unstable and job availability is sometimes based on government grants. Josh has been cut from positions three times in the past.  So, he looked for jobs but it was harder this time.  The job he found was with an unstable company and he took a substantial pay cut and lost all benefits; insurance, holiday pay, 401 K, retirement. He realized that this job could not be permanent. He started to apply for a position with the Navy.  This was actually the third time he had applied for the Navy so we felt good about proceeding again.  The application process was long and complicated.  It took until August 2013 to be completed and that was when the government sequester happened and all funding for new positions was stopped.  Josh was devastated as we had no other back up plan.  Two weeks later, his floundering company went bankrupt and Josh was out of a job again.

We were frustrated with the path his career had taken.  We are faithful LDS members and we hoped that we were living right and would see blessings.  We constantly reminded each other to remain patient and wait on the Lord.  One of our biggest blessings at this time was that we were surrounded by family and ward members who were supportive and encouraging.  We also had good health, a blessing in that we were not able to afford health insurance.

Eventually, Josh found another job after three months without one.  It was not great pay and was 1 hour and 30 min from our home through mass transit.  So, this job was not ideal either.  Josh continued to look for a better situation for us.  It had become difficult on our relationship as Josh and I rarely saw each other due to my yoga teaching schedule and his commute.  In October, the Air Force contacted Josh. Looking back, this is the first time I can recognize the Lord's hand in all things.  Josh tried to contact the Air Force at the beginning of 2013 but their system had backlogged.  He started the application process with the Air Force.

The Air Force was able to use Josh's information from the Navy so this sped the process along.  His application went into review in December 2013.  Early in January, Josh got more bad news.  He was told that his application was not processed before the deadline and he would not be considered for hiring.  He was very depressed by this news.  Enter the Lord's hand in all things #2.  The recruiter said that he would "pull some strings" to get the application reviewed because he felt it had been submitted in time.  We were back to the waiting game.  A few days later, the recruiter told Josh that his application was being reviewed.  Josh had not been so excited in a long time.

In the meantime, Josh had been serving as the Young Men's President in our ward.  This is a demanding calling and took him away from our little family a lot.  He started out in the calling with fire and vigor for the work but had lost that fire during his period of joblessness.  On January 12th, Josh was released from the calling.  Our Bishop told him that he felt Josh needed to spend more time with his family.  We wondered about the timing of this; he was not released this last summer when he was jobless, he was released now when he did at least have a job.  Now I recognize the Lord's hand in all things for the third time.

On January 17th, Josh received the call that he had been offered the commission with the US Air Force, to serve on Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.  He was thrilled and we went to the temple that night to converse with the Lord.  We both felt calm and secure in the decision to take the job.  We have since found out that when Josh's application was submitted, the other applications had already been processed and jobs assigned.  The recruiter truly did pull some strings and Josh was offered a position that had been slated for someone else.  The Lord's hand in all things #3.

When I look back at 2013, I do not focus on the hard times that we had.  I remember the blessings of money that was left on our door step anonymously, dinners brought over during my yoga training, the health of our family, family support both monetarily and emotionally, and the faith of a husband who refused to give up.  The Lord is really watching out for us even if we do not recognize it at the time.  I am grateful that we will not be embarking upon this journey alone.  We will had the Lord at our side.