happy birthday to me

When I turned 34, my birthday wish was to become a mom. Last Friday, that wish came true. God blessed us with a beautiful daughter.

While I was nursing her in the wee hours of my 35th birthday, I spent some time praying for her and my husband. We are trying to figure out how to strategize his career-- namely where he should pursue his graduate degree in philosophy and how to pay for his studies, especially with a new addition in the family.

Yesterday, he came home to say that he had his quarterly review at work that day. His supervisors not only put in a recommendation for a raise, but a higher raise than normally given at the quarterly review. They also set up a meeting with the plant manager to discuss possible ways to offer a scholarship for his studies. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but the news was a wonderful answer to prayer.

I happened to be reading about the life of Joseph that morning, and it struck me that while he had a "lucky break" in interpreting the dreams of the cupbearer and baker, any "strategizing" on his part was really nothing next to God's unfolding sovereign plan for his life and the salvation of his family and an entire nation.

We may not know how to get where we think we want to go, but God will direct us each step of the way.