19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.A couple days ago, as I was driving Eric, I asked him if he knew the story of how his father became a Speech Pathologist. He was familiar with how the idea of speech pathology came to be an option, but wasn't familiar with how this became a reality.
20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
For the record, I will write a brief summary here:
About two years after getting married and starting school at BYU, Daniel was halfway through his linguistics major. He was enjoying the computer related minor, and the classes he was taking, but realized that linguistics just wasn't something he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing. (Basically analyzing language structure, writing dictionaries, etc.) A friend from one of his classes mentioned taking classes toward a minor in Speech-language pathology. It sounded like a good idea, and after trying it out, decided that was what he wanted to do.
After another semester or two, I was working on finishing my thesis, we had a baby and another on the way, and the thought of spending another year before graduating was unappealing, so we looked at the credits needed to graduate early, and he got on track to finish his degree after only 3 years at BYU. The plan was to move to Logan where he could pursue a graduate degree. He took the GRE, applied to USU, and started wrapping up our loose ends in Provo. Sometime in April the letter came, telling him he was denied because his SLP minor didn't have all the required classes to be admitted into the graduate program.
Undeterred, we continued with the plan, had a baby, and started looking for a house and job in Logan, where he could take the missing classes. We found the house, moved, looked for work, started school, kept looking for work, and reapplied for grad school again.
By the time he second rejection came, he was working part time at a call center (that's another story within the story). At this point, we didn't know what to do. How could something that seemed so right keep going so wrong? Even his faculty advisor couldn't explain why he had been put on the waiting list.
After a month of seeming hopelessness, in frustration, I said, "In a perfect world, people would be PAYING you to get this degree. They need people trained in your field, and you want to work!" A couple weeks later a letter arrived, telling us about the Outreach Program, which was designed to do just that. In exchange for his agreement to work as a SLP in rural schools in Utah for five years, the state would pay for his graduate tuition. He would need to find a district to hire him, and the classes would be held at USU during the summer when school wasn't in session, as well as online on weekends during the regular school year.
As soon as we read that, we knew why he had been turned down, twice. This program cycled through every two years, and it was the best way for him to support his family while he finished going to school. Soon afterward, another letter arrived telling him he had moved up the list for regular admission to grad school, but we already knew that was not what he would be doing.
The next challenge was to convince a district to hire him. He contacted the special education director for Cache County School District, where we lived, but they weren't interested. Then began the stress about how far he might have to go for work. Brigham City was an option, but it was an hour away, through a canyon that often closes for bad weather in the winter. We had a house, so moving didn't seem a viable option. What to do? I don't know how much later, he received a call saying the Cache County was willing to at least interview him before making a final decision. By the time the interview ended, we felt like that hurdle had been crossed as well. Eventually the district offered him a job with the wages and benefits of a full time entry level teacher, with raises to come commensurate with the education he was earning.
The final obstacle was how to support the family the first summer when he was in school full time and couldn't work. Remember the call center job? Soon after we learned of the Outreach program, his work started a period of "kicker pay" which allowed employees to sign up for a ton of overtime, including overtime pay. He worked 60-80 hours per week for about a month, and by the time he quit the job (after only being there 6 months), we had enough to get us though the summer until his teaching paycheck would start to come in. By the time August rolled around, things were tight again. Teachers usually didn't start getting checks until the end of September, but when he went to orientation, they announced a new policy that new teachers could opt into an August check (with subsequent checks pro-rated accordingly). THE END!!!
This story might seem a little hard to follow, but here is what it illustrates to me. God is a God of miracles. Just as he parted the Red Sea for the Israelites standing on the bank, waiting for help, he parted every obstacle that would keep a young family from disaster. Not once has Daniel complained about the work he does. He loves helping kids in our little rural town, he has good colleagues, he continues to develop his skills. This miracle that started over 15 years ago has enabled him to provide for a family which has grown to 9 children on a single income so that I can be home, teaching our children to read, to dream, to trust God to do similar things in their lives as well. God is SO good to us. This is not the only miracle we have seen, but it serves as a pattern for faith and belief that keeps us trusting God even when all options seem closed.
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