One of my favourite Bible verses is the second half of Malachi 3:10 - "Test me in this', says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it".

In context it's about tithing, but in the broader sense it's an illustration of how amazingly generous God is. Seriously. When the Bible talks about him giving us more than we could ask or imagine, it wasn't kidding. God will give us things we would never dare to ask for, things we wouldn't even think to ask for. This has been brought home to me time and time again recently.

When I first met the man who is now my husband, I thought he was so far out of my league that I was determined not to even think about him in "that way". It was laughable to think he would be interested in me when he was surrounded by so many gorgeous girls. And it never in a million years would have occurred to me that just a year and a half later I would be living in California - me - little miss "I'm never leaving London, oh ok maybe Brighton when I retire".

But the past few months in particular, those floodgates described in Malachi 3:10 have truly been flung open. We have had blessing upon blessing, even when we have been scared and full of doubt.

Having taken it in February, Jonathan passed the California bar exam in May. Probably only other California lawyers will appreciate how amazing it is to not only pass that exam, but to pass it the first time. It is notoriously one of the most difficult exams in the country. The Dean of Stanford Law School took the CA exam - and failed. We prayed about that exam every day for months, and not always with a lot of confidence.

Then a couple of weeks ago Jonathan was offered a job he really wanted. In three weeks he starts as a Public Defender for LA County! It's not the most glamorous job, nor the most well paid, but after a lot of prayer and soul searching, it seems clear that this is where he is supposed to be. It will play to his strengths - and it means we don't have to move out of LA! This place is really starting to feel like home, and we're starting to feel like we can lay some roots and think about the future a bit more.

Needless to say, I'm incredibly thankful to God, and ridiculously proud of Jonathan :o)

But I'm also a little proud of myself. Little Miss Londoner just passed her driving test :o) Yes, me! Six weeks ago I had never been behind a wheel before (after all, when you're going to live in London your whole life, what's the point in learning to drive?), and now I have a California Drivers license! I learned to drive with strange new rules of the road (even as a pedestrian you pick up a few driving rules, but they don't seem to apply out here) and amidst big scary SUVs!

This was one of those things that I had already decided I was going to fail, so I didn't really bother to talk to God about it, except for a half-hearted "God, I'd really like to pass my test..." But once again he heard my pitiful prayer and threw open those floodgates.

It really has been a year of blessing after blessing after blessing. One of the strangest and most wonderful things is that we have managed to live for almost a whole year in So Cal on only my salary, while Jonathan has been studying and job hunting. And every month that we were a bit short for rent and bills, money has unexpectedly come our way, like manna. Not a lot, but just enough to tide us over to next pay day. It's been really very humbling, and has helped me to worry less about money. God will take care of us. He's brought us this far, and it wasn't just to drop us.

And now, with Jonathan's job about to start and me with a bit more freedom to get around (once I've mastered the art of parallel parking...), it really feels like the start of a whole new chapter. We're considering moving to a bigger apartment in a nicer neighbourhood, and since we have asked for God's guidance, it's pretty exciting to see what might happen next.....