Jehovah-Jireh, but not how I expected

Dishes were done (until I made deviled eggs for Tyler, and apple pie for myself) and clothes are now folded but not put away.  Nonetheless, it's time for my first meaningful post.  If you know anything about my life at the present, the topic won't shock you:  job hunting.

A year ago, I graduated from Tech:  Kayla Renee Blount, B.S. Elementary Education.  Now, it's time to change the world, one student at a time.  At least, that's what I thought.  So, I move back home and put my name on the sub list in Livingston Parish.  I sub here and there, and then I am offered a maternity position- hooray!  Things are off to a great start!  I take a day off, hire a sub (a sub for a sub, haha), and attend the Livingston Parish Public School job fair, along with about 600 other people.  They announce that there are only a handful of jobs available, grades PK-12, in the parish for next year, and I proceeded to hang out the rest of the day handing out resumes during the 15 min. "browsing" times.  Amazingly, I was approached by a principal to interview for a half-year position at the school that I was currently at.  I was ecstatic, and the interview went great.  To make a long story shorter, I was offered the job only to find out it was 1st grade!  AHH!  I had one summer to accumulate 1st grade things and change my whole mindset about teaching from 4th grade to 1st grade; and it was only going to keep me employed for half of a year...I was about to get married and start supporting my own family!  But, I did it, and in the end it all worked out.

I worked the first semester, taught 1st grade, then searched for jobs to finish out this year.  I ended up filling 2 6-week maternity positions (one in SPED, 4th/5th grade; the other with my same students from first semester); so, out of 18 weeks of the second semester, I was employed for 12.  Praise God!

And now it brings me to the title of this entry-  Jehovah-Jireh means the God who provides.  God provided so much for Tyler and I, but not in the ways that we expected:
1.  God provided a job for 1 semester, when the parish technically "had a handful to offer" (to 600+ eager applicants, keep in mind).
2.  God provided me the opportunity to teach 1st grade- a grade I vowed NEVER to teach- and I ended up loving it and learning such valuable lessons with those sweet and crazy kids!
3.  God provided jobs for me for 12/18 weeks second semester.  And, I got to go back to my sweet 1st graders that I had taught the semester before.
4.  God provided Tyler and I a challenging and sometimes discouraging situation (that so many new teachers find themselves in right now), and he gave us each other to encourage one another and to strengthen our relationship even more.
5.  God provided us a home (the one I grew up in) to live in when my parents moved, and now my classroom things have a place to live until they find a new classroom. 
6.  God provided me with friends, family, and a church family that have done nothing but speak words of encouragement and have faithfully prayed for me.
7.  Finally, God provided this difficult time so that I would draw closer to Him.  This is the closest I've ever been to God, and I know that it is no accident that he has me in this place right now.  When the world thinks I should be falling to pieces, God has provided me with peace and joy.  That's better than any teaching job this world can offer me.  As our pastor said during Life Group one night, we (Christians) don't really know how to pray, and maybe it's because we've never really had to cry out to God.  Well, let me say that I have been doing some crying out, and it is so evident that He hears me.  He is so faithful, and He is my Jehovah-Jireh.

I hope you can look at your own life, wherever God may have you, and discover ways that God's provided for you.  Maybe it's in unexpected ways, but I am confident that you'll find at least one...

AND, a "P.S." to go along with the topic...I had a second interview today at Country Day School, a private school in Baton Rouge, and should know something by next week!

P.P.S.  It's a 1st grade position :)