So after I read my last post as a refresher on where I left off, I realized that A LOT has happened since my in the last few months. This past spring, I had a couple of interviews with different universities for faculty positions. Jamie and I were really torn about the idea of leaving Greensboro, but also felt a great peace about the idea of a move. We basically left the decision up to the Lord and man did he have some awesome stuff in store for us, but first let me tell you about my temper tantrum.
This past spring Jamie had accepted a temporary tax season internship with a local accounting company who assured him that if he worked hard they would probably be able to make him an offer for a full-time permanent position that would start in September of 2014. Being that he accepted this internship last fall, we really grieved over the idea of waiting almost a whole year for him to be employed full-time, but somehow we knew that we could make it through and held onto hope that they would make him a full-time offer. This tax season Jamie worked his tail off between working lots of overtime with his internship and continuing his part-time position in the evenings doing land-survey drafting. Some nights he wouldn't get home until 10pm from his internship and then he would stay up until 2am working his second job. But after a long tax season, came the time when Jamie was pulled into the partners office and was told how impressed everyone was with him...but they did not have it in their budget to hire anyone right now. He later found out that they also let full-time people go after the tax season. This was the second time Jamie had worked an internship hoping for a full-time offer and I could tell he was really disappointed. Well, I definitely had some very real moments where I was flat out angry with God. How could he let this happen...AGAIN? I encouraged Jamie to study his butt off for his final section of the CPA exam, so during the summer accounting interview season he would have "Passed the CPA Exam" on his resume.
Then the miracles starting happening...no really....
In the first part of May, I calculated up all that we had saved for our fertility treatments. I think my response went something like this..."Wait! What? Let me check this again....ummm...Noooo? Really? Oh My Gosh!!!!" What I discovered is that after a year of temporary and part-time jobs, we had reached our goal of what we needed to move forward with the fertility treatments. The burden of having to save thousands of dollars was now lifted. I called Jamie in to the living room and told him. We were both in shock and prayed with tears of thanksgiving.
Now began the hard part...making sure we didn't use the money!! I created a budget for the summer based on really tight spending and lets be realistic summers are always more expensive, but based off of this budget we would need to use a couple thousand from our savings just to make ends meet. I totally understand that some people would see this alone as a blessing to have savings like this and we did, but being that we worked so hard to save for our fertility treatments, the idea of taking out a loan seemed a little sad. For those of you who know me, I can be a little bit OCD. So I wrote on a giant poster the additional amount we needed and taped it to the fridge so we didn't have to dip into savings. I told Jamie you and I have to work together to make this amount extra this month and every time we make extra money we would put it on the goal poster. We thought of ideas such as me selling extra furniture, Jamie mowing lawns on the weekends, and so on and so forth. Around this time, I had an interview with a local design company, but it quickly became clear to me that it was not a good fit.
About a week or so later, I woke up in the middle of the night...4am to be exact and had the crazy idea to go apply at a local kitchen design company that I had heard about. The next day I walked in off the street with a resume in hand and got a part-time job that paid over what I was hoping for per hour, was willing to work around my teaching schedule, AND they gave me my own office. After updating our budget, we discovered God met almost exactly what we needed for the summer months so we could keep our "baby fund" intact.
The last week of May, Jamie took his final section of the CPA exam. He anxiously awaited the results, but I knew he passed. Come on this is Jamie we are talking about! He is one of the smartest guys I know. As we waited, he was called in for 3 interviews for the first week in June. Wow! Three interviews in one week! Awesome! The last interview he had was on a Friday morning for a Tax Accounting position, exactly what he wanted, AND he had a really good feeling about the company. Only a few hours after leaving the interview he found out he had passed the last section of his CPA exam! We were able to craft some really fun thank you e-mails to the company updating them with the news.
Monday afternoon the company he interviewed with on Friday called him with a really good offer and Tuesday he accepted it. Ahhhh! After a year of praying for him to find a full-time position with lots of sadness, hoping, and tears, God finally opened the right door and we didn't have to wait for him to start this fall, which is when most tax positions start.
The next day after Jamie accepted his new position, I went to check the mail. Inside was a random $500 check from a family member just because. I started weeping in the driveway. Jamie came out and asked "what's wrong?" I just passed him the card and the check. We both were in shock. I literally cried through the tears "God this is too much! We don't deserve this."
Amusingly the Saturday night we went out celebrate his job, I got the last and final rejection letter in the mail from my faculty search. At that point, I already knew that those doors were closed and I really felt a huge amount of peace over it. I am teaching interior design at two colleges, and working several design jobs, including owning my own business. Plus, my husband just got his dream job and we get to stay in Greensboro with our friends, our church, and our community. I couldn't have worked out something this perfect even if I tried.
In fact, this past Monday was Jamie's first day at his new job. They escorted him to his new desk and on it was a huge gift basket and a card welcoming him to the team with signatures of all the employees. At lunch they gathered a big group of people to go out and celebrate his first day. How nice is that? Medical insurance is going to kick in right when we need it too so we can move forward with our dreams of getting pregnant and growing our family.
Wow! It is like everything just fell into place after all of our waiting for the job situation to be worked out. Words cannot express my gratitude and praise for all that God has been doing to make all of this happen. Let me be clear...I don't believe in the prosperity gospel or the "name it and claim it" mentality. In fact in this life there can be moments, months, or years that can be downright heart wrenching. Especially lately there has just been some very very hard things going on with some of my friends and my family members. In those tough times it can be extremely hard to believe that God still loves you. At least that is how I feel during the hard times, but I always find joy in hearing how others came out on the other end of those trials. I am still struggling with the fact that we are not pregnant. Mother's Day this year was my hardest yet. But I am finding hope in all the answered prayers from the past two months and I am getting excited to see what God is going to do next.
