Sun comes in the morning...

The summer days are passing quickly, I have been thoroughly enjoying my morning tea on the deck in the sunshine each morning. Well each morning that it hasn't rained, and those have been regrettably few. Today we are in the throws of vacation preparedness. Laundry, lists, cleaning, packing... we are off to the Shuswap with our wonderful, old friends. We have the best times together, all the kids get along and we never run out of things to talk about. It has been two years since we have been together, and we can't wait!

My husband will arrive home tonight to help with the prep. He has been working up North for the last week or so, and we can't wait for him to be home again. His work life is different from most people's. He doesn't work a steady job, but a steady series of jobs set up by his union. We really don't know from day to day if he will have a job to go to the next day. And when the job he is on ends, we usually don't know when he will work again.
This kind of uncertainty can be stressful and worrisome at times, but it is our life. We are quite used to it. It means we live by faith, daily. Faith that more work will come. Faith that we will find a way to pay the bills and provide for our ever-growing family. Faith that, no matter what the work situation, God will provide.
The last few years have been pretty comfy. My husband has had a fairly steady position at a local refinery, doing maintenance welding/repair and the weekly paychecks have been reassuringly steady. Then, this past February, the company he has been working for, made him a foreman on a huge refinery shutdown. He worked more hours in the first 6 months of this year than the entire year previous. We never saw him. He left long before dawn and arrived home around 9pm each night.
The money was fantastic though and allowed us to catch up on a lot of debt left behind by his welding contracting business. What a blessing to have that taken from our shoulders. Now that summer has come and shutdown season is finished, my husband is tired and thankful for the slower pace of work and life. So are we. But with spring came the announcement that his maintenance position was gone and he would have to go back to the realm of unsteady work. As our holiday approached, we were a bit stressed about the lack of income coming in, but as He always has in the past, God provided this short term job and therefore provided for all of our expenses.
Even better than that, my husband received a call that the company he is working for, wants to send him on a bunch of leadership and safety training for the week we get back. That is something that doesn't happen often, the knowing in advance that he has work and therefore income coming in when we get home. I just had to praise God that He gave us the gift of peace of mind. Now we can truly relax on our vacation!
In related news, my husband has recently applied for a new position that would not only provide steady work and income, but it would allow for him to have all his evenings and weekends at home, great time off and to not be exposed to all the dangerous chemicals etc. that he encounters daily now. We are just waiting for God's answer in this, I know that whether or not he gets this position, that God is looking out for us and will provide for us in amazing ways. He always has.