Any Day Now

Oh, the job search! Or maybe I should say, "woe" the job search. In many ways, we dug right in and got our professional lives moving pretty quickly. Joseph has five bass students on Saturdays and has been working somewhat regularly with David Bell and his company Orchestrate. As well, we were introduced to some wonderful folks at Land of 1000 Hills coffee within our first month here and were offered a job only two days later. While, for a while, that was looking like it was going to be a great fit, we decided to say no on Wednesday after some negotiations about compensation. The company has an amazing vision and they are going to be opening up their third store in Cumming hopefully by the 6th of March. We pitched the idea of Joseph and I managing the store together and we were trying to negotiate for family benefit coverage and/or some sort of commission based on the profit we could turn for the store. Whomever decides to take on the job of management will be involved in everything from design, marketing and layout to hiring, scheduling, working on the bar, doing catering events and anything else involved in making a cafe successful. I believe that Joseph and I would have brought a tremendous amount of experience into the job and really could have made it successful. While they were excited to have us on board, we believe that the expectation and the compensation were not equally yolked. They were absolutely up front from the beginning about the compensation piece, which was wonderful, and we were absolutely up front about what we hoped for beyond what they were offering. All in all, it was a good negotiation process and we are happy with our decision to say no with our blessing on their new store and the company as a whole. We are both praying that they find someone who will love the job, turn a great profit for them and be a team player so they can go on to open many more stores!
So, after saying no to Land of 1000 Hills, I began to look back towards teaching positions. Yesterday I went out with Mercy and took my resume and application to a few local Christian schools in the hopes of finding some substitute work that could possibly turn into part or full-time teaching. While I was busying myself with filling out applications and updating my resume, I also took a look at Craigslist and saw that there is a local technical college hiring for an ESL position. I quickly doctored up my resume and sent it off in an email explaining that I've never taught ESL but have a degree in English and classroom experience teaching Spanish. I really didn't expect to hear back from them but at 3 pm yesterday, I received a call from the assistant to the director asking if I could come in Monday morning for an interview. Yippee! It looks like they are hiring both full and part-time as well as nights and weekends. It also looks as though they provide benefits, which would thin out a heavy bulge in our family's budget. I am a little nervous about the interview but I also realize that every opportunity we have is solely because of God's provision in our lives. If this is the position He has reserved for me, He will help me to interview well. My prayer has been that God would be our advocate and would give us favor. I am on my knees every day, literally, asking God to show me how to be a better wife and mother, how to please Him more and to walk in His will and asking that He would direct our paths. This move has been very hard and has definitely put Joseph and I into a position of growth as a couple. As well, the blessing that we have felt and the support both here and back at home have been overwhelming. I know we haven't moved to a far off place where we are risking our lives for Jesus but it really feels like the step of faith we took to come here has put us in a position to risk our sanity and be stretched for Jesus.
Thank you to all who are reading this for your prayers. We feel lifted up and ask that you would continue to remember us in prayer when you remember us in thought.