God takes Care of HIS Children.....................

Time was passing by and Spring was fast approaching. I just LOVE Spring! It is one of my Favorite Seasons. The Flowers are Blooming, Dead looking Trees are coming back to Life and the Birds have a New Song to Sing! Hearing the Birds chirping brings this Scripture to mind ~ "Behold the Fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they?" Matthew 6:26
 Such a Wonderful Reminder~God takes care of the Little Birds and He will Take Care of us too. We were just gonna Believe it!
Now that the Weather was not quite so Cold, Philip & I talked about how we needed to get Healthier and start Exercising. Unfortunately sometimes it takes loosing something, like your Health Insurance, to get you to thinking about your Health!! Since he was home Everyday now too, this would be a Great Time to get started. So that's What we Did! We got up in the Mornings and went to the Walking Track at Hayden High School.  It was not only a Good Way to get Exercise but we Loved spending the Time together outdoors! We would walk and talk and share our thoughts about where we were in our Journey that God now had us on and wandered what would be next.
One Day when we were coming back from our Morning Walk, we stopped at our Mailbox to get the Mail. On this Particular Day inside the Mailbox there was a Piece of Mail from BSRR. When Philip worked for them, he received his Pay thru Direct Deposit and then a copy of the check would be sent thru the Mail, and on the outside, this looked exactly like one of those checks!  But, how could that be since it had been over 2 months since he worked for them?  He opened it up immediately and it WAS a Check!  Wanting to make sure this wasn't a Mistake and  unsure of what this was for, he called and found out that it was some money that they owed him that we knew nothing about.  Praise the Lord!
We were so Thankful and Grateful at how the Lord had that Check in the Mailbox just at the Right time.
And this was only the Beginning of how God began to take Care of our Needs............................. 

Seeking, Praying, Trusting

As the Days passed by, Philip continued applying for more and more Jobs! By this time, he had  only  gotten 1 Interview and LOTS of Rejections. It seemed, almost daily, that he would check his Email and there would be another one of those, "We're sorry but you were NOT selected to go further in the Application Process"....UGH, so Frustrating!
He started getting calls from some of his former Co-workers. They were just so shocked that he had NOT been hired back on with the NEW company.  They, along with us, just couldn't understand why!  It was good for him to know that they cared and was concerned about him. They also shared with him how things had changed alot since the New Company had taken over......A lot of the  Employee's Salaries had been significantly lowered and along with some other changes,  this caused the moral there to change. Some of the Employees just seemed to not be so Happy anymore. From what he gathered, things were just not the same there!
Hmmmm, this really got us to thinking............Maybe the reason they didn't call Philip and offer him a job was because the Lord is protecting us from all the NEW Changes there and for what was to happen in the Future.  He surely can see the end of the Picture and knows exactly what is going to happen!
So, we Continued to Seek  and we diligently went to  the Lord in Prayer opening our Hearts to whatever God's will may be for us. Although, as a Christian, you know that God knows Best, seeking and praying for his will to be done in your Lives can still be a Scary thing! But we knew that he was in TOTAL Control of All that had happened and we just couldn't help but believe that something Good had to come out of this. We had purposed in our Hearts to just keep TRUSTING HIM for what was to come next................

A Shocking Reality...............

 Now, the Reality of Philip being officially Unemployed was beginning to set in.  Wow, this was something we sure never expected to face, especially at our Age! Only 5 years away from retiring. If only he could retire early, we thought.  He definitely had enough years in with the Railroad, but unfortunately he wasn't old enough.  He needed to be 60 years old to get Retirement benefits and........he's only 55!

So we just had to dismiss that thought and move on to the next step.  That step being......Philip applying for Unemployment Benefits.  We found out that the amount of money he would receive monthly would be about one half of what he normally brought home from his Salary  when he was working.  As Shocking as this was to us, we were thankful he would at least get that. But we are just like any other family with Bills in our Budget in accordance to his monthly salary and now, to think that half of it is gone~that is Very Scary to say the least!  

How will we make it, we thought?  How will we be able to pay our Bills with only half of the money we normally had?  We didn't know how, but we knew that God did and we knew that there was Nothing too hard for HIM to do!

"Ah Lord God? behold thou has made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is Nothing too hard for thee." Jeremiah 32:17
What an encouraging scripture to be reminded of from God's Word just at the time we needed it!

When you think about the fact that God took 2 Fish & 5 Loaves of Bread, multiplied them and fed over 5,000 people, you KNOW that he can supply our needs!

I watched Philip daily search for Jobs.  With his qualifications and job skills, most of the jobs he applied for were on the Internet.  He would spend hours daily searching and filling out applications.  Of course, we would purchase Sunday papers and checked the Classifieds, but that always turned up Nothing! We also had Family & Friends at Church keeping their eyes and ears open too. 

As he continued to Search, we continued to pray asking God to please let someone from one of these companies be interested in his qualifications and call.
So many thoughts would go through our heads daily about what the future held for us. We just couldn't help but believe though that somewhere there must be a company that would be happy to get someone with his 35 years experience and offer him a Job or..... was there another plan God had for us?

   

Trusting God when we Don't Understand..................

As we tried to accept the News from that Phone Call, we couldn't help but ask this Question.....Why? Why was Philip not offered a Job with this New Company? There has to be a reason and It just made No sense at all to us!

His last day, January 31, 2012,  at work was very hard for him. Can you imagine, giving 35 years of your life to a company and now feeling like they could care less about what happened to you and your family? It was such a Painful  & Sad time. So much so, that at the End of his last day, he walked in the door and looked at me with his Eyes filled with Tears.  It just broke my heart to see him like this.

 We  felt like that our Lives were being turned upside down! Anxiety and Fear were both raising their Ugly Heads. Some of those "What If" questions were really coming True! No Job and No Insurance.  Just the thoughts of having No Insurance was very Scary when you have Health conditions like I do.  Without Insurance, my Heart Medicines alone will be over $300 and I HAVE to have these!  I tried to remember that at least I had gone to my Specialists recently and we had both gone to the Eye Doctor, etc. I had also just gotten a 3 months supply of my heart meds, so for now it should be Okay. Let's Not look too far ahead, I thought.  But sometimes that is Easier said than done!

Along with all the Fear and Anxiety there was one Question that kept coming to our minds more than any other, "Why was God allowing this to happen to Us"? 

Suddenly Scriptures began to flood our Minds and Hearts. These are the Scriptures the Lord gave to us:

~ Romans 8:28~ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His Purpose.
~Proverbs 3:5-6~ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct thy paths.
~Philippians 4:19~ But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
~Psalm 46:10~  Be Still, and Know that I am God

What a Peace that came over us from God's Word!  He may not have given us the answer to our Why Questions, but He gave us just what we needed, at the time we needed it the Most! He gave us Comfort & Assurance that He would  work Everything out for us according to His will. He would take care of us. We just needed to Trust Him!

So  this was only the Beginning of our Learning to Trust Him when we really didn't Understand.

The Day has Arrived.................

The 31st of January was almost here and there had been NO Job Offers nor a phone call from WATCO.  In the Interview, they had indicated they would contact EVERYONE whether they were hiring them or not.  Philip had found out that lots of Employees had already received phone calls and job offers. In fact, everyone in Philip's Dept had been offered a job except 4 people.......he was 1 of those 4! WATCO was taking over February 1st, so if they were going to hire HIM, wouldn't you think they would have called him by now?

We've all heard the saying that "No News is Good News". Well, in this case, we weren't so sure, so Philip decided to just call them. Wouldn't you know, he had to talk to a machine and leave a message! Let's just add a little more frustration to the Situation....UGH!  

The next day, he received a Return phone call from a Lady in the Human Resources Department and this is what she said, "We have NO more Openings in that Department". He replied by telling her he would be willing to work in Another Department, although he had worked in the same dept for 35 years! Her reply to this was, "I'm sorry, but there are NO MORE positions available, but thank you for applying".

Although the much Anticipated wait was over, this is NOT what we wanted to hear....Now What?!?!

A Month of Anticipation.................

The Holidays had ended and now that the NEW YEAR had begun, we couldn't help but wonder what the Year 2012 would hold for us.

One by One, as the Days of January came & went, many Questions began to Flood our Minds..............

~What IF the New Company DIDN'T Hire Philip?~

~What IF we Lost our Health INSURANCE?~

~What IF there was No MONEY for Candace's Senior Year of College?~

~What IF we Lost our HOME?~

The What If Questions just kept on coming! But with All the Questions and Unsure feelings, there also came that Assurance that God knew Everything that was happening. None of this had taken Him by Surprise. So He surely Must have a Plan!

Philip continued, as usual, to go to work knowing that January 31st would arrive sooner than we would be ready for it to! As the Days started turning into weeks, he decided to apply for other Railroad jobs, with other companies, just in case WATCO didn't offer him a job.  "But surely they Would".......I thought. After all, He had more Seniority than all the other Men in his Department.  Little did we Know that this would mean NOTHING!

A Life Changing Day...............

It was a Normal Day in December 2011, just a few weeks before Christmas and it was a day that we will NEVER forget!  Philip was at his job at Birmingham Southern Railroad and I was home getting ready to go to the Hair Salon.  Around 11:00 a.m. the phone rang and it was Philip on the other end and this is what he said..."I just got out of a meeting and was told that as of January 31, 2012, Birmingham Southern Railroad will no longer exist."  I said...."So, another company is buying the Railroad, but you will still have a job, right?" He repeated to me what he had just said, as if I had not heard him at all and then added a firm "NO!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing! He had worked at Birmingham Southern Railroad for 35 years, since he was 19 years old. How could this be happening?!?!
He said that a company called WATCO had purchased the Railroad and if he or any of the other employees wanted a job with them, they could fill out an application and would be guaranteed at least one interview. That was all the information he had been given. Our phone conversation ended.
As I hung up the phone, I began to feel Numb and Nauseous. "What in the World were we going to do"? I thought. I started crying and praying and then the thought came to me.......Nothing comes into our Lives that is not first sifted thru the Hands of our Heavenly Father. Although we didn't understand or know what was to come, HE knew all about it and had a plan.  God had always taken care of us in the past and would Not fail us Now!
Philip came home that afternoon, not only drained physically but emotionally too.  He went straight to the Computer and went online to the WATCO website and filled out a job application.  That seemed so strange that he even had to do this since he had worked for the Railroad for 35 years. Why with his experience and skills would they not automatically want to keep him at his same job?

After a couple of weeks, he was contacted by them and went for an interview.  He was told that if he was hired, that there would be some changes and his wages could be substantially lowered.  That is certainly not something you want to hear. They gave him a time frame that he would be contacted of their decision and the interview ended.  Now for the Wait!

As Christmas was fast approaching, we tried hard to NOT put our total thoughts on whether or not he would have a job at the end of January but to  focus on our Family time and Enjoy being with our Children and Grandchildren.  We didn't want a dark cloud to be hanging over what really mattered most in our Lives.

We had a Wonderful Holiday time and then the NEW YEAR began!