To Not Panic

My husband hadn't worked since Wednesday. There was a bad snowstorm on Thursday, he was off Friday and Saturday, and then they cancelled work on Sunday. We can't afford for him to miss work without pay - or for him to use two of his three annual sick days within the first seven days of the year. My anxiety levels go up just thinking about the ramifications for the rest of the month ... and the rest of the year.

And then he arrived home from work last night and gathered me and our seventeen year old, who works three days a week with my husband, together in the living room. It was 9:30PM,  I was exhausted from a busy day, and my head was in the vice of a migraine. He announced that the company he's working for is filing Chapter 11. I nearly had a panic attack as he continued speaking.  The impact of this  was the laying off of many employees and hiring of some to help restructure the company. They were shutting down on Sundays. This meant that he had several options to get in his forty hours a week. 

"That first," I told him. "If you are telling me something about work that contains the words bankruptcy and lay-offs, you say you still have a job first!" After laying out the won't work option of working Monday through Friday (he teaches at our Friday homeschool co-op) and not-so-wonderful option of working Monday through Thursday and Saturday, he gave the option - the best choice in his opinion - of working four ten-hour days, Monday through Thursday. I was stunned.

From panic to answered prayer in minutes. 

Earlier I had been contemplating what changes needed to happen in our lives. I kept coming back to spending more time with my husband. It was nice having him home until 11AM Monday through Thursday, but his early nights to bed Saturday nights, early mornings to work on Sundays, and not getting home until I was ready to curl up in a ball and recuperate from the weekend wasn't working well for any of us. If only he could work four days and have three off - including Sundays. That would be phenomenal. And then it happened. 


Today, I intend...

... to breathe away the panic and anxiety and pray for and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. 

... to see obstacles as opportunities and stumbling blocks as stepping stones.

... to give thanks for the blessings that come from the rough spots.