Where God Puts Us

by Christina

As I sit here, nursing the baby, I can't help but wonder just how I got here. Well, how WE got here, Richard and I. If you had told me five years ago that I would be an Air Force wife with a little boy, I probably would have peed my pants and maybe cried. But I love it! I don't want to be anywhere else. God's got me where he wants me, and by golly, if it ain't the best place for me right now! He knows best—go figure!

Richard and I met in college in Virginia—we were both at a foreign language event that neither of us wanted to be at but felt obligated to go to. I was a senior German major at the university down the street from where he was a freshman history major. Our relationship almost didn't go anywhere, as we never exchanged contact information, till he asked his German professor, with whom I'd taken a couple course, what my name was. (He had a terrible memory for names!) He emailed a generic postmaster address at my school, asking them to pass on a message to me, and a few days later, we went out to dinner!

While Richard and I were dating and he brought up the possibility of his joining the military, I kind of went along with his mom in encouraging him to NOT join. I don't know what my prejudice was against military families was at that point, but I didn't want any part of it.

After getting to know my then-soon-to-be-husband, though, I did a full one-eighty and knew the military was the only place for Richard. I watched him struggle to find a job after graduating from college and sympathized with him as he worked a retail job that, while giving him good experience, he hated. When he entered basic training February 2012, we never looked back. And he loves his job, and I love mine.

I never had any interest in a career; I used to say I wanted to translate comic books (ha). In college I joked about marrying a premed student so I wouldn't HAVE to get a job. The thought of working full-time outside the home was incredibly depressing! I knew staying home wasn't an option unless kids were in the picture, though, and for four years I worked as a dental assistant before Richard enlisted and whisked us to Colorado. Assisting was a good job for me—not career—and I really liked it, but I was so glad when I didn't have the task of being the breadwinner on my shoulders anymore.

I never had even been all that keen on having kids, either, but the Lord worked a slow (and I mean SLOW) change in me over the last few years, culminating in our becoming pregnant a few months after moving here. Even though His timing is perfect, may I selfishly say that I am SO glad we didn't have a baby before we did! But, again, His timing is the best, and we have the son that He wanted for us at the time He wanted him for us.

It's always so interesting to learn what God has going on behind the scenes when it seems nothing is happening! Whenever it seemed like life had stalled—my not wanting to work full-time, Richard's wanting to work full-time—I would remember Psalm 37:5-6.

"Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."

He's always got a plan for where you're going; just trust him.

Richard, William, and Asshur

I love my job of stay-at-home mom—and that's the first time I've ever been able to say I love my job. And it is, of course, the hardest job I've had, but it's the most fulfilling by far!

It will be so exciting to see what God has in store for us next!

See you in the Round!
Christina

*Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.