We're officially teachers!!

I wrote briefly yesterday about my new job, let me tell you more...

I was given today (officially) a position at Dorothy Barley Junior School for a year three class. The school is a junior school (hence the name), so it only has years three through six. I was a little worried that I might be given the year six job, and I wasn't sure how I was feeling about saying yes without knowing what grade, but God is good, all the time, and He gave me a peace about whatever it was I was about to accept. Like my mom said, it is sort of like Abraham and Lot. I let Christy chose the job she wanted (or at the very least, I gave up what I did want) and I was given something even better. This position is truly an answer to prayer, and I am so grateful for it. There is a huge weight off my back about finances and about getting from here to there. Now I don't have to worry about a lot of that kind of stuff. Oh, and one other super cool bit of God-coincidence...my newest roommate Megan is also teaching at the same school as I am. When Ryan and I got home yesterday from the mall we introduced ourselves to her and were asking about where she is teaching etc, and she said she was teaching year four at Dorothy Barley Junior. I just about fell over with relief and joy and thanks to God because now we can ride to school together, and bounce ideas off each other, and generally lean on one another when things get bad. At least that's how I imagine it. But it has been difficult for the last couple of days to be around negative people and negative comments. So we'll see how it is when I have to live with it and work with it too.

So, let me tell you about the newest roomie...her name is Megan, and she also went to Nip (small world). She knows Christy, but I didn't know her (or even recognize her) and she didn't know me either. She is also a first year teacher, and she is teaching year four at the same school that I am at (I think I already said that...)

So now there are four of us in the house. Even as I type Ryan is off to the TimePlan office to see about getting the house fixed up because he talked to the landlady today and she does not seem interested in helping us out at all. There are a ton of "unfinished" parts of the house, and she said today that she really has no intention of fixing any of them because she is not living there. Ryan is really frustrated, and I think he just wants to have someone listen. For the amount that we are paying a week, it seems really terrible that we should continue to live in these conditions.

On a seperate but kind of related note...Ryan and I were standing at the bus stop early this morning, looking in the window of an estate agent. There wasn't much else to look at, so we were checking out the prices of houses in our area (Romford). There was one house that was tiny tiny tiny, only one bedroom, and not very nice looking, for - get this - £189,000. If you have a heart condition, please don't convert that. For anyone who really wants to know, that is approximately $370,000. For a one bedroom house. I just about died. There was another house, very similar to ours except we have at least one more bedroom, that was selling for £485,900. That is almost $1M. Our house is not that great. Not a million dollars great!! So, that just reinforced for us that we would never in a million years be able to afford living here!! And it makes the outrageous house prices around Sudbury seem not so bad after all. It's all relative, right?

I am running out of time (again, this happens way too often...) so I will say goodbye for now. Please continue to pray for us as we start work on Monday. Ryan gets his kids tuesday, and mine come wednesday. And pray also for us in the house we are in. It is frustrating, and we don't want to keep living in frustration. Ok, one more thing...pray too that we find a good church home. We went to the Salem Chapel for bible study, and they are super nice, but I don't know yet if I actually want to stay there. And we can all praise God for His faithfulness and goodness, and that His mercies are new every morning. Love you all!!