Newlywed Love (#22)

January 21, 1970

Nate's noteAfter Nate’s law school quarter ended mid-January, he and the other students got a few days off before beginning a new round of classes. He used those days to intensify his search for a part-time job and also to secure all the textbooks he’d need.

I would have waited till the first day of school to crack open the books, but not Nate. He aggressively went after the first week’s assignments and began work on the mountain of reading as soon as he knew what it was.

I was impressed with his diligence, but he said everybody else would be doing the same thing.

TextbooksAnyone who wasn’t prepared on that first day would surely be singled out by the professor for a grilling –-  “…my worst nightmare,” Nate had said. I thanked the Lord I wasn’t a grad student. I also thanked him for a smart husband — something I considered to be very sexy.

And then one day as I walked in from work, Nate greeted me with his biggest, most handsome smile. “Guess what! You’re looking at a newly hired tax man!”

He’d just received the good word that he would be doing income taxes for people. The job would evaporate as soon as tax season ended on April 15, but it would pay pretty well till then. Our stranglehold finances would open up just enough to let us breathe, and the work seemed perfectly suited to Nate.

Doing taxes would take him away from me for more of each week, and with fewer study hours, his stress level would rise, but I promised to do my part to ease his burdens.

We got another piece of good news later that same evening. Dad called and said that if we were willing to drive to Wilmette for the weekend, he would help us shop for a second car. We’d been limping along for weeks with one car between us, scrambling to meet the demands of wildly varied schedules. And with my carpooling duties, it was usually Nate who came up short.

With the new job and ongoing study commitments, though, it was impossible for him to take the weekend away. But, as he put it, with Dad and the Lord monitoring the car hunt and purchase, I would be in good hands.

Used car lot.Both of us had the strong confidence that I would return to Champaign driving a new-used car at the end of the weekend, so wisdom dictated I take the train to Wilmette rather than drive. I’d used that train often when we were dating and knew the ropes. That would leave Nate with wheels over the weekend, and of course I couldn’t drive both cars back to Champaign anyway.

Neither of us liked the idea of being apart for that long, but at the end of our separation, we hoped we’d have an exciting reason to celebrate. We prayed together that God would protect Dad and I from any dishonest car salesmen and would lead us to a fairly-priced, reliable vehicle.

“If you… know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11)

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