A Story of God's Provision (Part 4)

If you need to catch up, Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, and Part 3 is here.

When Collin and I realized we needed to move out on our own again we began looking for a cheap one or two bedroom apartment. It is VERY expensive to live here in Southern Maryland. We live in the 14th wealthiest county in THE UNITED STATES. That's a big deal. There's a rather large Navy base here that pulls a lot of engineers, logisticians and other high salaried people to the area. Plus, we're less than 2 hours from D.C. so people even live here and commute. Because there is a lot of money in the county things are more expensive. But that makes it very hard for the people who don't make what those other people do. Sure I may work for a defense contractor, but I don't make anywhere close to the salary of some of those people. And with Collin working at Wal-Mart on cars, he certainly didn't make much. Now granted, if it weren't for my student loans, we would be okay, but those pesky payments are just enough that we really have to pinch our pennies.

We searched for a little while for an apartment and we found a cute little one bedroom in a community that we had previously wanted to live in. It was just the right price for our budget and we put down a deposit! We signed the lease and moved in May of 2012. It was a relief to finally be in our own place! We knew that when we moved we would have to be even more frugal with our money than we were living with Collin's parents. We would have expenses that we didn't have while with them, but we knew we could and would make it work.

We had not been making any of these decisions alone. Throughout every step we prayed and sought God's guidance for what we should do and each time we felt like the decisions we were making were the ones that He wanted us to choose. Therefore we knew that with His help we would be okay.

We were so glad to have our own apartment. But once we moved out and had a little perspective and a little bit of distance from living with Collin's parents, we saw what a HUGE blessing it had been. God provided us with a wonderful home, wonderful parents, and a chance to get our lives back together. That plan we made to live with a roommate that fell through before we moved in with his parents would have been the worst mistake, ever. If we had gone through with that, we would have had enough money from our paychecks to cover our bills but we never would have been able to pay down our credit card as fast and we certainly would not have been able to save money! Plus, that guy we were going to live with turned out to be in worse financial shape than us and we would have had to cover his part of the finances as well as our own and we would have been even worse off than before!

So after two years of marriage, we were finally at a place financially where we weren't freaking out and having to go into our reserve funds to pay for stuff. Money was still tight but we were managing it a lot better; eating out less, buying less clothing (in my case), being mindful of the groceries we buy, etc. However, we were still dealing with Collin's work. He had been at Wal-Mart for over two years and was miserable. The hours he worked were less than ideal and the only day that we both had off was Sunday; and those were usually busy because of church and then wanting to spend time with people as a couple. Throughout all this Collin had been applying for jobs all over the place. He even talked to both Air Force and Navy recruiters. He was tired of working at a dead end job, getting treated so poorly and barely making above minimum wage. Collin wants to finish college and do something exciting with his life.

In June of 2012, Collin got a new job at a locally owned tire & auto garage, one that had better hours and slightly better pay than Wal-Mart. At this job, Collin worked from 7:30-5:30 Monday through Friday and from 8-1 on Saturday. His base pay was less than what he made at Wal-Mart, but because he worked 55 hours a week he got overtime pay which was time and a half. It ended up being a good bit more than his pay at Wal-Mart. This seemed like a great step up for the time being. And it was for us financially and relational. We had a little more security with money and we were finally able to have somewhat normal hours together. Collin still worked Saturday mornings, but we had the whole afternoon and evening together! It was wonderful! But the job began to take its toll on Collin. He was so tired from being on his feet 55 hours a week. And his boss (the owner of the garage) was very firm and completely different from his boss at Wal-Mart.

At this point, the Navy was really starting to look like our best option. So we kept praying and waiting for an answer from God... just waiting like we had been doing for three years!