"Happy holidays! (I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't celebrate the new year.) And with that snarky remark, I will make my new year's resolution to be less sarcastic and more kind. Ah, who am I kidding? I don't make new year's resolutions. Happy New Year!!"And by that, you can read between the lines and understand that though we are still in a difficult place, we are in much better spirits emotionally than we were those few weeks before Christmas. After my last update, we took a road trip to Michigan to spend some much needed downtime with Nate's family for Christmas. His mom and aunts are excellent hostesses. We ate so much amazing yumminess, watched so many Christmas movies, enjoyed curling up by the fireplace each night, and overall got a week's worth of R&R. Upon our return, we spent the new year with most of my family in Texas.
Here are a couple of my favorite images from Christmas 2013:
That certainly doesn't include all our loved ones, but I wanted to protect the privacy of those who might not appreciate their image posted on a public blog. ;)
On the job front, we were able to do some more searching while we were relaxing, and thankfully we are mostly passed the grieving and on to the taking action part of the post-job-loss recovery. Nate and I have learned some important things, not the least of which is patience.
Nate has applied to and has all but been hired for a position that, for now, is probably his second-choice on the job front. His first choice doesn't have any local availabilities currently with this employer, but there is a chance that once hired within the company, he could eventually move to the position he thinks he would prefer. He has been approved for this second-choice position (a premises technician with a major cable/internet provider) in every way save one...and that one should be a given. It's a standard requirement of almost any job. Aaaaaaand they lost the results. Gah. The HR person Nate has been in contact with assured him that this was an unusual situation and told him on Friday that she had forwarded the problem to her supervisor, which did encourage us some. After three weeks of the company attempting to track down the results, we felt the likelihood of that job being what the futures holds for us waning with every passing day. It was hard to not feel discouraged. I admit, on several days, we felt helpless and hopeless, wondering whether the job search should continue with fervor or whether we should just wait patiently for this one to be finalized. As anyone who has ever breathed air can tell you...waiting is haaaaaaaaard.
Yesterday at church, Nate prayed specifically to receive an answer tomorrow from this employer, and today, he got a phone call. !!!! To those who do not believe that God answers prayer, this might sound like a coincidence, but to us, it was exactly the encouragement we needed to continue to persevere in patience and waiting on the Lord. [As a sidenote: we have learned that "waiting around" and "waiting on the Lord" are two entirely different things.] The answer was not that they found the results but rather offered an expedited retake of the test, which he will happily do ASAP in hopes of bringing further closure to this situation.
Maybe this still isn't the path God has for us and we just don't know it yet, but I feel sure that there are reasons it is taking so long, not the least of which is this: Nate picked up part time temporary work after Christmas, and his employer still needs him. Maybe for another week. Maybe less. Maybe more. He makes more per hour at this temp job than he is likely to make at the full time position in question. Thus, it would be very much in the nature of the God I know to have our best interests at heart throughout this delay, as He always does, in asking us to wait on beginning a new position just yet.
As for me, well, my employment situation has fluctuated so much in the last 5 years that I'm not really sure where to begin, but I do know I'd like to share more than will fit here. I'll just have to do another blog post about that. ;)
Thank you all again for reading my blog, caring about us, and especially for praying for us as we are continuing on this rocky road.
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