A Season Of Change!

After watching my husband work a crazy 24/7, 365, INSANE work schedule for the past 3 years....it's finally OVER! Jonathan GOT A NEW JOB!

For those of you who have been close to our family over the past couple of years, you know how HUGE this news is to our family. Jonathan has always worked over 40 hours at his job, but he never got paid any over-time. He managed an entire hotel (the IT stuff) by himself, and never had anyone who could help him out. It made our life SO stressful, because we felt like life was always on hold. He could hardly work a second job, because he was always on call at his first job. He worked holidays, weekends, and in the middle of the night! Whenever that cell phone rang...he was back to work! There was no such thing as a vacation either! He was even called into work the day our third child was born....nothing was sacred. Not to mention the two trips to the ER for health-related stress problems. I was beginning to think this job was going to kill my husband.

I tried to be patient and supportive through all of this, because I really didn't have any other choice. It was awful to see the kind of stress that he was under, and even worse when I saw that he was never really appreciated. It's so hard to see someone you love make huge sacrifices & then not get anything in return. It's heartbreaking!

However, God did see! How quickly I forget that God sees everything! Back when I wrote about "El Roi" (the God Who Sees), you can bet I was also thinking of my husband & his work situation. However, it's amazing to me, even stunning, how quickly I FORGET! It's seems like we had prayed SO LONG for Jonathan to find new work, that we started to forget that God's timing is not always our timing. We had several ups & downs in the job search, and I began to "not get my hopes up"...not even when things looked good. I have to admit that I stayed quite "numb" through this recent job inquiry, even when it looked "good", because I didn't want to feel any more disappointment.

Now, for the good news...

Jonathan will be working for a bank! A BANK (*although THE bank will remain nameless for now)! 10 Federal Holiday's a year...PLUS 15 vacation days (what are those?). Since the beginning of our marriage Jonathan has never, I repeat, NEVER had this sort of luxury! It's almost too much to process. I wanted to cry tonight when my neighbor said "now you can be a family!". He's right!! Jon will only be on call once every 5 weeks, and the kicker...HE WILL BE PAID OVERTIME when he is on-call! We haven't been familiar with that term since the good old SPRINT era ;-).

There are some things I will miss about the Hotel though. Jonathan did work with some great people, and I will miss getting to see them & be connected with their lives. There is always a bit of sadness when you have to move on, and I will always remember the good things about his Sheraton job. Like the $49 hotel rooms anywhere in the US, our awesome $420 King-size Sheraton "Sweet Sleeper" bed, and the free food :-)

I'm positive that God placed Jonathan at the hotel for a reason. I'm also certain that He has a plan to use that time in our lives to learn and grow us for bigger and better things ahead. So as not to sound "unthankful", I want to praise God for sustaining us over the last few years. I am thankful that my husband had a job, and worked so hard to support our family. God really is good...all the time.

If you read all of this, give yourself a pat on the back. This was really cathartic to be able to "vent" and let go of this tension I've had bottled up. I think I'm just now letting myself believe that I may get to have my husband back in my life now. I'm still in some state of disbelief, but I'll get there....I'll get there.

Praise be to God!