Ivan: This afternoon brought yet another blessing to thank God for…I am extremely grateful and excited to announce that I have accepted a position as Conservatory Teacher at Valley Christian Schools! 🙂 Only God could have opened the door for such a wonderful opportunity, and I am eagerly anticipating the beginning of the school year in August. A few months ago, when we realized that Grace would not be able to return to work, we started to pray that God would provide a full-time job for me, as my multiple part-time jobs would not provide the medical insurance we needed. Thus began an extensive job search, in which I pursued both musical and non-musical jobs. The fact that God has granted a job in my field, after the completion of my master’s degree, and furthermore in a Christ-honoring environment, is such an incredible blessing!

Tomorrow marks exactly six months since the accident, and it is somewhat mind-boggling to look back and reflect on just how far God has brought us. He is truly the God of the valley and the mountain, the ever-present help in time of trouble and the joy of our salvation. There is always so much to thank and praise Him for. Our journey is far from over, but we are thanking God for the opportunity to keep focusing on His faithful provision as we continue moving forward! Thank you all as always for continuing to walk with us 🙂

Grace: One of the less-published aspects of our journey over the past 6 months has been the ever-present job search. It became clear at the beginning of February that we had transitioned from a dual-income to single-income home, and we began fervently praying (and on Ivan’s end searching) for an opportunity that would meet our new needs – needs that now included rather specialized healthcare coverage. As a wife, it was an amazing blessing to watch Ivan accept and tackle this next hurdle (in addition to working, finishing school, and taking care of me), but my heart felt a mixture of gratitude and sadness as I also observed his willingness to pursue literally any position to provide for us – even if it meant laying aside his musical goals and not using his new degree. In this context, you can imagine our amazement and joy to watch God provide not only a job in Ivan’s field, but also one that is part of an amazing Christian school…a school that is literally 10 minutes away from my parents’ house! Wow. We truly serve an awesome God!

There’s still a lot to sort out this summer: housing, getting established in the Kaiser Northern California medical system (believe it or not, for practical purposes Kaiser NorCal is not really connected to Kaiser SoCal), and as always, more therapy… but watching the employment burden lifted from Ivan’s shoulders in such a unbelievable way has filled us with new hope and energy to keep trusting God as we seek to navigate these challenges and integrate into our new community. I can’t think of a better way to end our first week in San Jose!