The past few weeks have been some of the busiest ones that we had since being married. But all the craziness has brought about incredible changes that are definitely God planned and timed. Since October of last year, I had been contemplating a job change. I liked my job as a counselor, I felt good helping people, but in the space of 1 month, my director, supervisor, and co-worker all left for different positions elsewhere…making my job responsibilities and stress levels considerably higher. I decided that it was time for a change…however…a change to what? Josh and I considered several different options and I began going on interviews. Along the way I found a couple jobs that I was pretty interested in, but when they didn’t happen for me, I began to get discouraged. But I decided that despite my circumstances, I was going to try my best to maintain a good attitude. However, it wasn’t easy to do always, lol. Once we saw the physical effects my stress levels were creating (higher blood pressure and migraines) Josh encouraged me to just quit my job. He reasoned to me that we could afford it and that while things were nice financially with me working, it wasn’t worth the toll it was taking. So, after making it to the 2nd round of the application process of a job I had applied for, I went ahead and gave my notice to my office. Relief and peace were almost instantaneous. I wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out, but I definitely knew I had made the right choice. After all, I told Josh that if I couldn’t find another job, I would be a great housewife J
Well, then this past week happened. J I actually was offered a new position as a Case Manager for Gulf Coast Jewish Family Community Care Services. This means, that I get involved when DCF has determined that a home is no longer safe for a child. I then become responsible for the well being of that child and accompany them to court to verify the improvements or lack thereof that their parents make in order to get them back. When a child then goes back into the home, I make treatment plans for the families and home visits with them for 6 months to make sure things are going well for the family. It’s going to be a pretty big change for me, but a very welcome one. Its better hours (more independently set) and a pretty significant pay increase. The company has a pretty neat history as well. It was originally established to help Jewish refugees and then turned into a child and family services organization. So after 4 months of wondering how things would go or which direction to take, God has finally made things clear and they are better than I thought.
Another pretty big change is that Josh and I are trying to purchase our first home. Since we’re going to be in Lakeland a little longer with Josh pursuing his Master Degree through Southeastern University, we decided to go ahead and take advantage of the low interest rates of the housing market right now. It’s actually cheaper to buy than it is to rent at the moment. So it’s been a lot of fun. We recently changed our realtor and she is a great resource. We’re actually seeing several homes tonight after work, so we’ll see if we like any of them.
Besides my new job change this past week, the next most exciting thing is that Josh and I are finally able to go on vacation. We couldn’t before due to my not being able to get time off work, and since I will have a week in between my current job and new one, we decided to take advantage of it. So we booked tickets to fly to New York for a few days. We wanted to take a really big vacation to sort of make up for not being able to have a honeymoon when we got married. (My grandfather had passed away a few days before our wedding, making us not able to go away) So this trip has been greatly anticipated by both of us for awhile now. We’ll be gone for 4 days, and those four days are going to be packed full of things to do. I’m planning our day to day, while Josh is concentrating on our dinner reservations. He’s definitely a food enthusiast, lol. So far he’s come up with the Russian Tea Room, The Four Seasons, and The BLT steakhouse. He mentioned something about Kobe beef being there, but I was lost looking at the pictures of the restaurants. They are really beautiful. Since Josh has never been to New York, we’ll be doing all the tourist things: statue of liberty, Rockefeller center, central park, Ellis Island, etc…But the thing I’m most excited for is I was able to get us tickets to see the show Mary Poppins on Broadway! J
So this week has been a bit of a blur and I’m sure week will as well, but one thing has been consistently clear, God has opened up doors I never knew were there. And I’m incredibly thankful for his timing and provision.
