Hmm... Coincidence?

As some of you may know, my original intentions were not to be in Nebraska this year. In fact, my plan was to not even be in the United States at all. I was supposed to be seeing the world by living with a rich family in Spain in exchange for taking care of their two kids. As you can see, my plan didn't work out. I believe it didn't work out because it was just that: my plan, not God's.

Working with kids has been a passion of mine, which was why the deal with Spain sounded so good until the monetary and legal roadblocks came up. I came to Nebraska not expecting to be involved in kids' lives all that much until summer camp. And although I ended up working with kids more than I expected, my assumptions were correct. I've been toying with different ideas of ways I can work with youth in a ministry setting after this. I had ideas, I was just waiting for an opportunity.

This past year has introduced many new passions into my life, as well as rekindling some old. I'm still terrified of heights, but I just love the adrenaline rush of being suspended thirty feet in the air on a telephone pole. (Doing the safety checks on our activities would have been a horrible and nauseous experience otherwise.) When I was in preschool, I wanted to be a builder, but then I got older and decided I was too smart/female/cool to be a builder. But after a few construction projects I've helped out with this year, today I decided to start my own secret project for the camp. I learned to love planning things, and this love of planning hasn't changed even through recent frustrations of things not happening due to lack of communication and poor planning on other's behalves as well as just the general topsy-turvy craziness that has happened this year. I also learned that I have a passion for hating spiders as they have begun to appear in places like the serving line, the living room, and even in Eli's truck while we were helping a friend move. But anyway, I've gained passions like these while other passions diminished, but my passion for working with kids stayed strong, and even seemed to grow.

So today, I got an e-mail from a lady I don't even know who lives in Wahoo (which is a short drive from Fremont). She has four kids with a fifth one on the way, and her current nanny is planning on going to college in the fall. She asked me if I was interested in becoming her nanny in October. I e-mailed her back telling her about myself, and she responded with more information. She sounded really excited hearing about me and my willingness to work with kids. Although Nebraska definitely is not Europe, doing this next year is almost exactly what I had originally wanted to do this year (although more kids equals more fun!).

But here's the dilemma: As soon as I accepted this job in Nebraska, I realized that God's plans are always better than my own. So with this upcoming opportunity, I want to know whether or not it is God's plan before I make it my own. Some things that make me think that it may not be is the fact that I've been spending this year learning about ministry to end up with a job the next year that was not in ministry. (Although I suppose it could serve as a great opportunity to minister to this one individual family, and my weekends would be open so I could still work at Rivercrest.) Plus, after things didn't work out with Spain this year, passions that I had for a long time (like living internationally) quickly diminished, and I'm not sure whether or not being a nanny would be one of those lost passions. I guess what I'm saying is, I could really use some prayer for this decision, and if I'm not meant to work in this capacity, I pray that God opens up the door I'm supposed to go through and leads me through it.