Part Three: Fire, Metal and Faulty Lungs

Alex's first welding class was taught by the most inspiring man he has ever met, and he fell in love with the process. Alex seems to have an unexplained God-given gift for welding. I keep hearing that he is the best welder anyone has ever seen. It has not been uncommon for something to come easily to Alex, but this was uncanny. Through welding, Alex discovered a passion for the basic process of things. Now, in addition to doing all his own home and car repairs, he presses cider, hunts, makes soap, you name it. The man can make, fix or build anything.

Alex and I plunged into adulthood head first. In less than a year, I graduated from college, launched my photography business, got married, bought a house, and got pregnant. Life was fun and exciting, and after dating for 7 years, we loved living a life of constant change. We had big plans. I was going to build up the photography business until it was profitable enough for Alex to quit welding and work at home with me. We were going to have a ton of kids, live in the country, working together and schooling our kids together.

Then, at the beginning of my third trimester, Alex's lung collapsed while he was sitting down at work. It was a shock, but after a short, pleasant hospitalization and the draining of our savings, we went back to life as normal. A month later, it happened again. Now he needed lung surgery, a longer more miserable hospital stay, and two months off of work, no pay. I was 7 months pregnant, and it was a very difficult experience, one you do not prepare for in your first year of marriage.

God provided for all our bills to the dollar. Things did not happen the way we expected. People we expected to help us were nowhere to be found. But God was so faithful. Random acquaintances of ours reached out and did great things for us. We got checks in the mail from the oddest places.

We came out of it with all our household bills paid and our needs met. However, there were medical debts, our savings account was liquidated, and we were about to have a baby. We needed to come up with more money than we were making. Alex's great inspiring welding instructor called and said he wanted Alex to come and try teaching a class. It turned out that he could teach just 2 nights a week and add 50% to our income. It was great!

Alex came home from his first class glowing. He looked at me and said, "Ali, this is what God made me for. I know I am supposed to teach full time."

I was ticked. That ruined all my plans. I'd been working my tail off to build a business for us, so that we could work together at home. That was our dream! But I knew Alex well enough to know that when he is sure of something, it is right. If Alex knew God had another plan for us, then I was sure it would be good. I didn't like it, but I believed I would.

Up until that point, I had great plans for everything I was going to do with my life to glorify God. And I thought that because I planned it for him, he would bless it. I never asked him if they were his plans for me. And when the thought occurred to me, I shrunk back in fear. I was attached to all my plans and did not want God to take them away. Even though experience had taught me that God has only ever taken something from me so that he could give me something better in its place.