Wahoo!

It is official: My husband has obtained employment.

I feel very, very blessed. And lucky. And humbled.  We made adjustments last week that made it so we would have been fine - like, seriously, fine. But now we can pretty much go back to what we were doing before and things won't change much (well, except for the 3 mile commute. That is going away. But that is so far down on the totem pole of what matters that it isn't an issue.) He starts his new job on Monday, so he has this week to breathe and relax (well, as much as Shane ever relaxes) and do some honey-do's. Hang out with the kids, go on long runs. He is super excited about the company he will work for - they seem to be good and kind and moral people and happy to have him.

I know there are people out there who are unemployed for months and months. My heart goes out to them. The uncertainty, the emotional toll on everyone in the family, the financial strain - gah, it's hard. And I shouldn't even say it's hard because I really only scratched the surface of what it really means. But: I will never forget his voice the day he told me he was coming home from work and the reality that it brought with it. I'll never forget the panic of all the "what if's" and "how will we" and "why". I learned some valuable lessons of what really matters, who really matters, and what is needful. It was a huge wake-up call. I think it's taught us both a lesson, and I hope we can learn from it on a permanent basis.

I will say this: I had a calm assurance throughout that told me it will be okay. My heart was in it for the long haul - I had no idea something would come along so quickly. I don't know why I felt that calm, but it made a huge difference. Would it have eroded over time? Maybe. Working an entire 40 hour week week last week was a reality that I haven't had in over 10 years - it wasn't a stretch for me to start feeling sorry for myself. I wanted to be at home as much as my husband wanted to be at work. But I know our temporal needs were and would have been met. That is so humbling! And so hard for me to do - I am much, much, much better at fear than faith.

Feeling super grateful.