Hello, this is Brian. I don’t normally post here, but this year I wanted to re-cap some important events that happened in our life. It has been a year full of stressful challenges that has grown our faith. I wanted to cover some of the ways that God has provided for our family.
January – OT Challenge. Our church issued a challenge to read the Old Testament in one year. We didn’t know it yet but God was preparing us for a difficult year. We found comfort in God’s steadfast love for the Israelites. Especially in light of the times the Israelites were facing certain death and God made a way to save them.
March – Pregnancy. We found out that Tera was pregnant with our second daughter. We were very excited!
May – Layoff Announcement. After several rounds of nerve-racking layoffs, the company I worked for announced that they were closing due to the bad economy. By God’s grace they were able to announce a clear plan for how they would be closing the company. I was scheduled to be laid off in September and given a fair severance/bonus package.
August – Classes. Our church offered a Dave Ramsey class on Wednesday nights and we knew that a rock solid budget was very important - considering that unemployment for a few months was a very real possibility. This class was a blessing sent by God to give us Financial Peace (pun intended). In addition, I began to take a theology class that provided a lot of encouragement during this difficult time.
September – Job Interview. With my layoff date approaching quickly, I was able to get a job interview with a company in town. The job wasn’t a great fit for our family, but I was definitely qualified for it. We needed it to work out or we would be in trouble financially. In a strange twist of fate, they hired my boss instead of me and my current employer decided to keep me on in my bosses place. They paid my severance/bonus package as if I had been laid off, but communicated that they would employ me on a week-by-week basis until the end of the year (with all my benefits). God was certainly at work in this. In addition, I received a call from a former employer that they would like to hire me back at a future date - to be determined. It was not a sure thing, but due to God’s other work in our life, we were confident that he was providing for us yet again.
October – Toledo. As a condition of my continued employment, I agreed to go to Toledo every other week to supervise equipment installation. This was hectic for our family since Tera was 37+ weeks pregnant and considered full-term. We prayed that Telia would be born during one of the weeks that I was still in Louisville.
October – Home Repairs (Carpet/Insulation). Due to high energy bills the previous year, we knew that we needed to have these home repairs done. But since there was a lot of uncertainty in my job situation, it was risky to pay out a bunch of cash that we might need. Still, we were confident that God was at work so we proceeded to have the home repairs done.
October – Swine Flu (H1N1). The week we scheduled to have the home repairs done, the whole family came down with the swine flu. The first day I had it, I had to stand out in the rain all evening and feed insulation into the blowing machine for the attic repairs. Tera spent a whole day with Ruby and the flu cooped up with all of our belongings in the living room while our bedroom and Ruby’s was being carpeted. Talk about a difficult week.
October – EIT Exam. Since my work load had been light all summer, I knew it was the right time to consider pursuing my PE license (Professional Engineer). The first part of this process is to take an 8 hour grueling test called the EIT exam. I studied for it all summer (~120hrs) and took it on the 31st of October in between trips to Toledo, with Tera only 12 days away from her due date. Everything went well and I received a letter in December stating that I passed. It brought to mind the verse in Psalm 1 that states – he is like a tree that is planted by cool waters, which bears its fruit in season, his leaf does not wither.
November - Telia Abigail Laffin. Per our prayers, Telia was born during a week that I was not in Toledo. A few months prior, I noticed that Telia’s due date (11/12/09) was very close to being a sequential number (11/10/09) and Ruby’s birth date was also a sequential number (09/08/07). I prayed that God would send Telia on 11/10/09 as a good gift for our family. Tera went into labor at 6:30am on the 10th. After a quick and relatively easy delivery, Telia was born on 11/10/09. There were no complications for mother or baby and we're very thankful for God’s great blessing.
December – New Job. A former employer received the Notice to Proceed on a big transit project in NY and recommended that I apply to come work for them. My current employer laid me off two weeks earlier than I expected, but I was able to transition to the new job without missing a day of work. God provided for a seamless transition.
Psalm 1
BOOK I : Psalms 1-41
1 Blessed is the manwho does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
