Three days ago Vu went before God about this job hunt in a more serious way than he had yet, handing the situation over to Him, being willing to accept whatever God does with it, and trusting that God can do whatever He wants and WILL do whatever He wants with it. The next morning, two days ago, He had the first waking vision he's ever had. He had a lot of dreams in high school, (mostly about battling demons,) and then in the past year got two more obviously prophetic ones, (he has a prophetic spiritual gift). One was of a bridge collapsing and there were construction workers in it. That happened just a few days before the 35W bridge collapsed. And the other was of a mall shooting wherein the shooter was wearing a demonic-looking mask. Two weeks after that he found an article on that one mall shooting and he said it happened only like two days after his dream. I guess, I'll have to look it up, they never really determined why the shooter did that, but from his dream we know that it was demonic influencing of some sort because of the mask. I should look it up sometime; haven't yet. But then the vision he had yesterday was right after he woke up, before he even opened his eyes. In it there was blackness as a backdrop to a tunnel of light that he began to travel through. At first it was all light, but then the black and white started to swirl together kind of like gas clouds. Then he saw that at the end of the tunnel was all light with no darkness, and he passed into it. When he was having this vision he wasn't sure if he was dead or if his mind was even concocting it for some reason, but he knew that it had to do with his current struggles in life, and that the light at the end of the tunnel meant resolution and an end to the struggles. When I woke up he excitedly told me that he had a vision and it was about his job hunting. The light represented hope, trust, knowledge, awareness, and all that. The darkness represented doubt, struggle, uncertainty, and ignorance. The trip through the tunnel represented his journey on his search for a job that God would want for him. At first he had hope and trust amid a backdrop of uncertainty and not-knowing. Then as time went by and nothing was working out the dark and light began to mix together as he experienced confusion, perplexity, uncertainty, doubt, frustration, and all that while yet maintaining a lesser degree of hope and trust and all that. And of course, reaching the end of the tunnel where it was all light represented getting a job from God. He interpreted it as meaning there would be resolution very soon. He had just had an interview the day before at a place that he learned he wouldn't want to work for, and the day of the vision, (two days ago,) he had an interview for a job that he was pretty interested in. It was the best interview experience he had yet had, and every aspect of it went really well surprisingly. It was a perfect balance of all he had wanted, and they seemed very interested in his time at Mayo, since they were both medical-related IT jobs. Then yesterday morning he gets a message on his cell from the consulting group he went through that he got the job! Tow days ago they had told him it would be about a week before they told him the results, and at most two weeks. But they decided on him right away and offered him the job the next morning! lol I guess they really liked him. And he had viewed his Mayo internship as from God, and now that internship led to this job from God!

We were all excited about that, but of course that meant that I was to search for an apartment for us ASAP. I've been looking at apartments online for many of the areas where we thought Vu might have had a chance of getting a job, and so set to the task relatively knowing what I was doing and generally faster at it. I've learned a lot about what to look for and what to avoid, I think. I felt a bit hopeful at first, but soon got discouraged. There was an apartment I had found on a previous search that I grew quite fond of, and it turned out to be under five miles from his new work! I soon discovered, however, that reading reviews must never be put off until after you get so enthused over an apartment, and by reading the reviews of this apartment I got quite dismayed- they were pretty bad, and described problems we would want to live with. Building back up my hope after that let-down, I put all my learned skill and thought power to work and attacked the search with all I had. A few hours later I had a selection of tabs lined up in one window with the best potential apartments, which I had weeded out among many others, and had them all in order of preference, ready to begin reading reviews and further weeding them out. Well, after all that effort of mine using my natural abilities... God mysteriously closed that un-book-marked window. I can only speculate it had something to do with the computer being slow and my hitting the close button for another window too many times, thereby closing the window under it- the one I wanted open! I got very frustrated, began feeling irritable, and then angry. I was upset that God would let me lose all that work, (He is sovereign, you know,) and I was already mad at Him from keeping me all these years from being comfortable, happy, and from having my own space to keep the way I like it. I began an attempt to remake that list of apartments and regain the lost work, but I saw it was going to take some time and effort to do so and stopped. I then, giving up, turned to God as I had refused to do so at the start, (out of desire to do things myself and my way,) and just like Vu had done the other day I presented myself and my situation to Him, acknowledging His goodness in all He does and lets into my life, giving up my own will so that He can show me His, and being ready to accept His will... even if it means living with Vu's parents for a lot longer and further delaying my FERVENT desire to have my "own" place. I didn't leave it at that, however- I told God what I was feeling, and I told Him what I was wanting from an apartment if I could choose. About five minutes later, while poking around online looking at even more apartments, (but without a real drive to search since I had left it all in God's hands,) I found something strange that I hadn't seen on the many other websites I had looked at: a marker for an apartment on a map... right over where Vu's new work is! I looked further, and to be sure, it was an apartment building DIRECTLY across the street from Vu's work! And you know what?? Just as Vu felt about his job, it had basically all of the features that I had wanted! And it's even connected by a very picturesque walking trail, (though across the street,) to the back of his work building. He can take a very nice walk to work in good weather from the apartment through trees and all the while next to a pretty pond! I could hardly believe it.

And this apartment! I know it's not perfect and all... but not only is it nice and extremely affordable, it's got a LOFT!! Vu and I both really wanted a loft sometime in our lives, and this APARTMENT has it! With big windows, (or at least, a lot of them, on that beautiful, tall wall! The loft with become the office, faces over the living room downstairs, and fulfills my desire to be in eye-sight and ear-shot of Vu from those two rooms as we'd probably spend a lot of time apart in those different rooms. We always want to be together, (still hold hands going up and down the stairs sometimes,) and one of my big layout priorities was where the door to the office would be in proximity to the living room. In this case the two rooms are melded into one, even while kept separate by space and a railing! We can see and talk to each other like that, and even share music! And think of the flying space Zoe Zoe will have! Only on staircases has she seen that much vertical air to fly around in. Now she's have more, and her cage will be in that space, allowing her to at all times chirp and echo to her hearts content! As well, I love playing music in big spaces! And lots of and/or big windows! There's so much to speak of that's great about this apartment. Our own washer and dryer in the apartment, a window letting light in lengthwise into the kitchen, a corner window in the bedroom and full-sized walk-in closet, a balcony that's not entirely exposed, a fireplace, a breakfast buffet, closet space, another two story section of space above the stairs on the other side of the stairs, newer building with apparently concrete walls and surplus parking space, professional website we can manage our account from, many apartments that will open up soon that we can choose from, including being on the top floors! Of course if we don't get the layout we want right away we can switch later. Oh, and there's WATER in the form of ponds right out the window! I LOVE looking at bodies of water. And tennis courts! How more perfect could it get?? CANOES!!! That's at his work, and for free. And for Vu: BROADBAND!!! And for our future, small dogs and cats allowed! And room for a growing baby! A heated outdoor pool! (Better indoors, but at least it's there and heated.) And NOO vertical blinds!!!! I detest those things with a passion! There are mini-blinds and your own drapery. I thank God. lol And if the place turns out to be hell instead of heaven... a 6-month lease! Very nice. Not to mention down the street from a mall, (Ridgedale,) and at the intersection of two major highways- 494 and 394. Convenient. Oh, yes, and a nice fitness center for in the winter when we can't go walking out the backdoor through the trees and around the ponds with their fountains, or canoeing, or going swimming... or playing tennis. lol Did I mention I can walk to Vu's work so we can eat lunch together from his cafeteria while looking at a pond?? There's a huge marble fountain inside his building too, along with all the other marble and fanciness. *holds snooty nose up in air* lol Oh, and tanning and BBQ facilities: two burning sessions all at one locale! Gee ain't that swell! And don't even get me started on the frost-free fridges! I could go on all day about those babies! (j/k) I know I'm boring you by now but give me a break; I'm in heaven just thinking about it all.

But, of course, it won't be as perfect as we like to think of it right now. And ya know what? That's fine with me. I'm just happy to think of it so favourably and within reach, and I'll be quite happy with whatever it may be like, (I hope!). God may with-hold twenty-plus years of your life, but if you love Him, follow Him, trust Him, and hand yourself over for His care... you get Good from His Hand eventually!