Praise God from who all Good Things Come

That is the song I have had in my head lately, and it's a very fitting one I might add. We are SO thankful for Monte's new job. Some of you don't know about our "rough" couple of years we had. Monte was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease shortly after we got married. For two years he was unable to work, and was in and out of the hospital. The Mayo Clinic wanted him to be part of a research study, but at the last minute told him he was even too sick for that. I watched my husband lose 50 pounds which he didn't have to lose in the first place. On top of all of that, his insurance would not let him renew his policy due to him being diagnosed with a disease he'll have for the rest of his life. Also, my insurance would not allow me to add him because of this. It was all a very low point in our lives together, I didn't realize when I said "for better or for worse, in sickness and in health" that we would be living the "worse" and "sickness" parts in our early twenties! The Mayo Clinic agreed to see him without insurance (something they don't always do, I guess) however they required a large cash deposit before they would even see him, then before every test he had (MRI, CT scan, etc.) they required the entire test to be paid for beforehand! And they charged WAY more than they did for people with insurance! Thank goodness Monte's parents helped us out, and also the doctors helped out by "sneeking" him in to have tests done without letting the business office know. To make a very long story short, Monte's very small hometown got together and had two benefits for us. They raised enough money to pay for all of our Mayo Clinic bills, all his other health bills, and all of the bills he has had since. Also, mine and Isabella's hospital bills were over $100,000, which of course my insurance paid for, but we still had some bills for that, and the last of his benefit money helped us out with those. I honestly don't know what would have happened to us if they wouldn't have done that.

Fast forward a couple of years to Monte being in MUCH better health, he still struggles with Crohn's and always will but it is nothing like it was. We can have a normal life now. And what has finally helped him is different natural things that he has tried, supplements, probiotics, etc. Some drugs helped, but most did not. He was on a chemo drug for a while, and that did nothing.
Ever since we got married, I was saying novenas that Monte would get a good job so that I could stay home with our children. I thought they didn't work. Monte's current job is a good job, however he does not get insurance with it, and mine and Isabella's insurance is so expensive we couldn't afford to add him IF they would even accept him. So out of the blue about 6 weeks ago, a guy that knows Monte professionaly came up to him and asked if Monte would be interested in taking over his insurance agency!! How ironic is that, after years of no insurance we will eventually own our own insurance agency!! God's hand was all over this, that's for sure! He starts in a few weeks, and 90 days after that we will all have great benefits. Yay! When I called my mom right away to tell her the news, I couldn't believe what she told me. She was in the middle of a 9 day novena, praying that Monte would get a good job with great benefits so I could stay home! And when Monte was offered the job, the guy even told him he would pay him enough so that I could stay home if that's what we wanted. If that's not Divine Intervention I don't know what is! And as for all the novenas I've said in the last almost 5 years since we got married, my mother-in-law just told me about a book she was reading that talked about how novenas are always answered, sometimes not the answer we necessarily want, but in many cases they can take years to be answered!