God is ALWAYS on time

I mentioned at the end of my last post that we had some exciting news that we were excited to share with you guys and we are at a place now where we can share that news! 

First - NO we are NOT pregnant! So many people asked me this after I posted the last post but right now we are totally loving figuring out life as a young married couple.  I told someone just yesterday that even though we dated for seven years before being married, marriage is so different that dating. A good different, but different.  We are learning and we are loving it.   Babies will come in a few years ; )

So, on to our exciting news...

Joe got a job and we are officially calling Virginia home for the foreseeable future!

Here's a little background on what we've been through...

Joe graduated in December with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a focus in Financial Planning. 

Staring last May, he began interviewing with a firm in North Carolina and went through this process for five months before realizing that this was not where the Lord was calling him.  Throughout those months he was also doing research on other Financial Planning firms and praying about where the Lord would lead our family. 

We were so torn on where to look for jobs and where to go.  

Here in Virginia I have a job that I absolutely love and I didn't want to have to find my place in another hospital; however, another part of me wanted to move closer to home in North Carolina.  So, our main job search was here in Virginia and in Charlotte, NC. He emailed firms for months, driving hundreds of miles to meet and speak with other Financial Planners to try and seek the Lord's calling in his life.

Throughout this time our constant prayer was for clarity and the Lord's will for our lives.  We had no idea where He would lead us and for the most part we really didn't care, we just wanted to be glorifying Him with the decisions that we made.  

Here's one thing I learned :: When you pray for clarity you are praying for the Lord to completely takes your own desires from your mind so that you can pray and seek His face with a clear slate.  And that is exactly what we were doing.  Part of me wanted to stay in Virginia and part of me wanted to move to North Carolina and I learned that sometimes the desires of your heart are not in the will of the Lord.  And praying for the Lord's will in your life?  Well that is just a humbling process in itself.  I had to learn to quit praying for what I thought was best for us and pray for what I knew God already had planned.  I learned that God's will in our lives is greater than any plan that I could create in my head and if I had known at the beginning of this journey what I knew now I would have surrendered so much easier.  But we are human, we are not perfect, and a lot of times it is hard to understand that God's got this. He has got it under control and all we have to do is trust in Him.  

Every day when I would start worrying about where we would end up I would always hear a voice in the back of my mind, reminding me that God already knows.  And during this time, that was my saving grace. 

Fast forward a few months (to December) and a ton of hours spent in prayer - there were two firms that had contacted Joe and asked him to come to their offices and go through an interview process.  You know the funny thing about God is that one of these offices was in Davidson, NC and one was in Richmond, VA.  

So, we continued our prayers.  We knew that the Lord was calling us to one of these two places and we had to completely surrender ourselves to him and ask him to lead us where we should be.  Joe drove to Davidson and he drove to Richmond multiple times and he continued to tell me that if he could take the firm in Richmond and put it in Davidson it would make this process so much easier.  He loved what he was learning and who he was learning from in Richmond but he loved the location of the Davidson office, being that it was on the lake and a lot closer to home.  We were torn and I would be lying if I told you that I didn't pray for what I wanted a few times.  But Joe would quickly remind me that this is not about us, this is about the Lord and where He can use us the most.  THAT was humbling!  

With our lives surrendered to the Lord and what he would have for us, we waited.  

And we waited some more.

And we waited for almost a month before His answers were clear. 

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  I was at work and Joe forwarded me an email from the firm that he was interviewing with in Davidson.  The subject of the email was clear enough to know what was happening before I even opened the email.  Joe was told that there was another candidate chosen for this position and they wished him well in his job search.  More than viewing this as "Joe didn't get the job", we viewed this as "God just closed that door because it is not for us."  And when some people may be upset because they didn't receive a job offer... we celebrated!! We celebrated because we knew that God was answering our prayers and making very clear that His will for our lives was not to move to Davidson.  

The very next day, on Tuesday, Joe received a phone call from the firm in Richmond.  

Not only were they offering him a job, they were offering him a job to work in Lynchburg!

This was in January and on December 14th we had just moved into a new home and signed a year lease.  Joe being able to work in Lynchburg meant that we would not have to break our lease, lose a lot of money, and then spend a lot of money moving somewhere else. 

GOD IS GOOD!!

So, Joe received this job offer in January but because of things going on in the office and Joe trying to finish up at his current job, they set a start date at the beginning of April.  Joe wanted to be able to tell all of our family, his friends that he worked with and his boss that he was leaving before we made a public announcement, which is why we kept you hanging on so long : )

Joe's last day of work at Liberty was this past Thursday and he jumped right into his new role as a Financial Planner on Friday morning as he started working at a conference with his new mentor that lasts through the weekend.  He has traveled to Richmond many times since January for training and he has already met with a few couples to work on plans, so he knew that he loves what he has been called to do. But, when he came home from the conference last night you could see the excitement in his eyes.  You could finally see a peace in him that I haven't seen in a few months, and it was so refreshing.  Although he is still very nervous about this job, he and I both know that this is EXACTLY where the Lord has called us and we will obediently serve Him where we are until we are called elsewhere (if we are called elsewhere). 

So, Joe is officially an employee of BDC Capital Management and we are officially calling Virginia home!  I know that it is official because we went and got Virginia license plates for all of our cars this week *big eye emoji*. We will always have a piece of North Carolina in our hearts and that will always be our home, but for now we are on this new journey and we are so excited.  We fully trust that if it is God's will for us to move back to North Carolina one day that He will open those doors for us at the appropriate time. 

For those of you wondering what type of work Joe will be doing, I will share his "elevator speech" with you.  And just remember, if you need help with your finances, I know a guy! ; )

"At BDC Capital Management We are a fee-only financial planning firm that believes investing is a logical extension of biblical stewardship.  We enjoy helping our clients extend their stewardship efforts into the investing realm through Biblically Responsible Investing.  This screening process helps us to identify companies that support abortion, pornography, or anti-family groups so that we can avoid owning those companies in our portfolios. Our dedicated in house research team also utilizes Tactical Portfolio Management that enables us to measure basic supply and demand relationships in the market place to help us determine who is winning the race for investor capital."

And that's that!

Thank you to EVERYONE who has come together in prayer for us. For those who have been by our sides through this entire time, you know what it has been like and we couldn't ever thank you enough. Thank you to those who have provided meals on our busiest days and just provided a breath of fresh air. You know who you are and we are immensely thankful for you. 

I will keep you guys updated on this journey, but remember to keep Joe in your prayers as he is just starting what he has been called to do in life.  He is so excited and he will tell you that his greatest desire is to serve people and help them with their finances while ministering to them.  

We are going to take a week vacation from all of our adult responsibilities : ) and he will hit the ground running when we return! 

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!!

xoxo

Year One: A recap

I meant to have this post uploaded at the beginning of last week, but the days got away from me and I am just now finding a quiet second to sit down and make this one live! 

SO much has changed since I published the last blog and I am so excited to share some of that with you today! One of my goals for this new year is to not be as absent from the blog as I have been in the past. 

So here goes...

Year one...

I cannot believe that one year of marriage has passed.  Some days it feels like we've been married forever and other days it seems like it was just yesterday.  However, this has been one of the greatest years we have ever experienced and we are fully trusting that each year will only get better from here on out. We hit some really high points in our lives this past year that we cannot go without sharing.  

Closer to the beginning of last year I was offered a day-shift job on the Mother-Baby unit here in Lynchburg.  I had done clinicals on this unit prior to being offered the job so I knew that this was where I wanted to be.  I started my job in August and it has been absolutely wonderful.  The joy that I feel to be able to wake up each day and go to a job that I love makes it not even seem like work.  I have had a few of those, "do I really want to be a nurse?!" days, but even on those days I still love my job.  Not only do I love the patients that I am able to care for, I love the people that I work with.  I have created such wonderful friendships, even if they do joke about being my mother! They have taken me in as one of their own, taught me so much, loved me, and made me a better nurse in the short six months that I have been with them. 

Shortly after I was offered my dream job, I graduated nursing school, scheduled a date to take the NCLEX, passed the NCLEX and received my nursing license! It was a whirlwind of a few months but once the hustle and bustle ended we were able to sneak away on our first family vacation with my family to Marco Island, FL. It was a wonderful way to end our summer and I am so thankful for the time we were able to spend unplugged from every day life to recharge and prepare for the start of a new job.  

Before I started my job in the hospital, I was not working and we were living solely off of Joe's income.  Once I started my job and we had more money to work with we sat down and created a family budget.  With Joe studying to be a financial planner, this is something that he is extremely passionate about and although living on a tight budget is hard (for me) it has taught me SO much about being a steward of our money and living without my 'wants' in life.  Before we started this budget Joe read a book written by Dave Ramsey that teaches families step by step how to get out of debt, budget, and prepare for the future.  Joe became so invested in this book and his passion for this field was (and still is) so evident through this plan that was put in action for our family.  The only debt that we have is our student loans so we have a plan in place to hopefully be debt free in two years!! Once we have our student loans paid off our plan is to start saving to buy our very first home!! 

B I G things in the Parsons 1, 5, and 10 year future plans and we are SO excited!

Another big thing we did this year was pay cash for two new cars for both of us! This was no easy task and we had to save, save, save to make this happen but we did it and it feels so good to own both of our cars. 

Closer to the end of the year Joe graduated from Liberty with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a focus in Financial Planning.  While Joe has been in college he has also worked full time, been active in campus activities, and still found time to be home and invest in our marriage.  He has made many sacrifices and I could not be more proud of him. I love seeing his intelligence and hard work and I am so excited for what's to come in his future in the business world. 

As the months passed we only got into a handful of disagreements (which mostly had to do with why there are clothes scattered all over the floor) :), we packed up and made another big move, only threw away one pan in the kitchen, laughed every single day, and so much more.  

Marriage has proven to be one of the hardest things we've ever done, but it is SO worth it.  Sacrificing ourselves for each other has taught us so much and it has given us a more clear vision of the sacrifice that our Savior made for us.  

Marriage takes selflessness, prayer, faithfulness, forgiveness, diligence, love, respect, and many other things, but when you find the one who God has created for you those things come so easy.  My greatest desire is to take each of those things and portray them to my husband each day.  

We are still learning about each other and how to better serve each other, but we are having so much fun. 

I love that our anniversary is at the beginning of the new year. A fresh start to the new year and a time for us to reflect on the previous year and make changes where necessary. 

So, as we go into this new year our prayer is that we will continue to grow closer to each other and closer to Christ.  We have so many goals and plans for this year and we cannot wait to embrace them when the time comes.  

We even have a few surprises up our sleeves and can't wait to share some exciting news when the appropriate time comes ;)

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us, reached out to us, and invested in our marriage.  You will never know how much you mean to us.  We are so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends who love and support us. 

So here's to year  T W O

If it's anything like year one then it's going to be a great year!

And if not, it will still be a great year : )