Our Trial: Part One

Our lives have been full of blessings and ease. We come from good, loving families centered on the Gospel. I had never really felt like I had been tried or tested to the edge of my limits. We'd gone through difficult times and struggles but nothing I would define as a huge 'trial.'

This time last year, D was closing in on the end of his Master's program at TAMU. He'd started applying to a few jobs here and there knowing that finding work in the Public sector can take some time and hoping that by graduation in May he would land a job. In Feb/March I started to have several very strange feelings/promptings. I just felt like something hard was coming for our family. My initial thoughts were that someone was going to get sick or hurt and I almost drove myself crazy with paranoia. I said a lot of prayers to ease my mind and had the very distinct impression that yes, something hard was going to happen, but it was not going to involve the health of my family. I am grateful now for those impressions and the preparation it gave me for the journey upon which our family was about to embark.

At the end of March, D applied for a job with a the CS police department. He passed the testing process and out of 200 applicants was one of 8 asked to interview (they would only be hiring 6-7). He felt uneasy when he first began the application process, but I encouraged him to apply and continue anyway . . . he had a fever of 103 on the day of the test as well, which maybe was a sign. When he was asked to interview they never set a firm date and the end of April started to approach. We had one week to decide if we should extend our lease and wait around to see about the job or if we should just pack up and move in with my parents in AZ. At this point this was the only job he'd even heard back from out of nearly 50 applications, so we didn't want to be foolish to turn down our only chance. We were so conflicted and didn't know what to do. It got to the point where every time I thought about him taking the job in CS I would become sick to my stomach and feel very anxious and overwhelmed. I called my mom one night to talk with her and get some advice. We were feeling like he should turn down the job, but didn't know if it was wise to give up the only chance he'd had so far. After hanging up the phone I cried possibly the hardest I've cried in my adult life. Huge sobs of doubt, confusion, and frustration. The next day David called the recruiter and told her he wouldn't be going to interview and we proceeded with plans to move in with my parents. We felt a huge weight lifted and we felt very good about our decision, certain that there was a reason we needed to be in AZ. That was 7 months ago.

Cat in the Hat

I'm way behind on blogging, but we'll get caught up eventually! I've had this year's Halloween planned out for quite some time. When the boys run around, wrestle and play they remind me a lot of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in the Hat, so I wanted to do a family theme based on that. It was obvious that Daddy be the Cat and since I'm the voice of reason in this family :) I got to be the fish. They boys thought is was pretty fun to have blue hair and I had them grow their hair out for about 2 months just for this!