The little things

Well this has been a crazy past few weeks. Not enough work for me with my contracts and not having the time and/or availability to work in June meant July was a tough month for the Youngkins'.

Although, at the beginning, I said, "God, finances are yours and I'm sure you'll work this out." It is truly hard to follow through with that kind of faith. So this week, what happened? Well, after two months of training my last contract came through.

After reviewing this with one of my medical transcription contracts I have, I discovered that I only have to take one file per day with my new contract and keep my medical contract and BOOM we have enough to meet our basic needs and a little leftover. This will help us get back into the Baby Steps from Dave Ramsey.

I always tend to note the bad side and this contract has a net 30 payday. Yet, I'm not bothered by that at all. What I feel is peace and excitement because my husband and I knew the opportunities were there and thought they would pay off and here they come. Thank you God with a sincere heart for the blessings He is providing and the opportunity to share with others.

The other thing I learned happened just between yesterday and today. We made plans to celebrate our son's birthday today (almost a month late due to life events). I had made a Lightning McQueen cake and was planning on decorating it last night. I got home and discovered I was missing two ingredients for the icing and Grey was already in bed. I thought, well, he and I will make a trip to the store first thing in the morning.

Wrong. Grey was not in the mood to shop and just wanted to play.....ashes, ashes (ring around the rosies). So, we ate breakfast, did puzzles, ashes, ashes and had a wonderful time. So the cake is still sitting on my stove tonight waiting to be decorated and no ingredients to complete the plan.

See, I tend to need everything to go as planned. Some call that perfectionism. My response is isn't that how everything should be? Well, I've learned the answer is no. The time I had this morning playing ashes, ashes, puzzles, reading, etc. with my dear 2-year-old son cannot be replaced. If I had chosen the cake this morning we would've fought at the store and I wouldn't have made memories. Well, maybe some memories but not what I want to remember about our time together.

So, as July closes out and we embark on a new month. How has God blessed you this month? Has God provided you with minutes to make memories? How did you choose to spend those minutes? Maybe in reflection you realize you may have messed up. Don't be discouraged....instead pick up and take advantage of them now.

God bless.......Melissa

The Reason

I signed up for this blog on 3/24/08. As you can see no posts have been made. The original purpose for this blog was to post updates about my son, Grey, so family could easily access the information. However, this purpose has been changed.

Over the last few years, I have discovered God's faithfulness in a way I could not imagine. However, most recently God has proven to be faithful and there time and time again. My mom has continued to encourage me to write everything down and I keep saying, "I will, I will eventually." Last week I ran into a woman in the line at Wal-Mart and was encouraged to write a book about faithfulness. So - WOW! Here I am writing.

I have been living the walk, talking the talk Christian for about 3 years. In January 2007, my husband and I took Financial Peace University as taught by Dave Ramsey. We followed his principles on and off for awhile. Slid back into old habits and after I got a new job last August, I decided we'd better get on track. I was tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired as Dave would say.

We were doing great. If you are not familiar with Dave's material here are the basic steps. First, emergency fund of $1,000 in the bank. Second, debt snowball. Pay down smallest balance to largest balance except for house. For all steps and more information please visit http://www.daveramsey.com/.

On March 17th, I was let go from a job as not a good fit for me. It was the most peaceful I have felt in a long time. I was not upset nor discouraged. That night my husband and I talked about our next step. Our choice was made easier and not too panicky because we had just completed step #2 and had put quite a bit extra in the bank to start Step #2 at the end of the month.

See, I had started medical transcription (MT) school in January 2007 and we felt if I could finish that then my income would be replace. So I had eight weeks to make it work before our savings ran out. During this time, I applied for jobs and even had a job offer that found me. Amazingly enough I either did not get called back or turned it down; simultaneously receiving new contract invitations from companies.

I will not be dishonest and say it was not hard those first few weeks because I was just as scared and felt more pressure than having a B&M (brick & mortar) job. However, life has happened and why things happen have been so clear. Thus leading to my stronger belief in God and God proving how faithful he is.

From feedback from others I discovered that while learning MT I should try general transcription (GT) work because the pay is well and typing is what counts. I type 107 wpm with 100% so I knew I could handle that. I landed a few positions and ended up coming in a great time because of financial season. Each quarter companies hold financial calls reporting how they did. Well, there are companies that are paid to transcribe those calls and thus posting a transcript. God provided two contracts for me to do this.

When we have been short, money has appeared. For example in June our son's budget was short $200. Well, I ended up working extra on a contract which was unexpected money covering the $200 deficit. At the same time, in cleaning out his room I found $150 in cash from birthday cards given to him in 2007 that I never looked at again. So this provided us with $200 extra for the month of June.

During June here is what life presented us: our son was sick, had surgery, a death in our family requiring a trip to Phoenix, our son got sick again for almost two weeks and well we all know about the economy with prices increasing. Our extra money provided us the means to travel to Phoenix for family, pay cash for our son's surgery deductible and be okay.

So now we are here in July and I will tell you this has been the scariest month. You know we cannot help but be human and this is where it is so important to trust God while human nature tells us to doubt. Our July budget has been short and we knew that going into this month. Yet, another month that God will show his faithfulness and my trust in Him is 100%. I am depending on God to provide and know that He will not let me down.

Although there have been many other things during this three month period because time has passed I cannot recall them all. I can tell you that I currently have 9 contracts and am still working on my MT work. So stay tuned for how God reveals Himself and may God bless you in yours.

Melissa