On The Job Front

The main all consuming event of my summer has been my job search. Really the search had been going on for over a year and my emotional reserves were wearing thin. My financial situation has been really tenuous for a long time. Every week I faced a new crisis and they were all related to my lack of gainful employment. Each time God provided for me in really wonderful ways, sometimes through friends, sometimes by providing me with temporary small jobs and once he provided by sending a check in the mail. Each new answer to prayer increased my confidence in my God but my main prayer was always that he send me a job that would meet my needs and be right for me.

Many times I thought that I had found my new job. On at least three separate occasions employers actually told me that I was hired and that I could start as soon the background check passed. Each time I was so confident I was so relieved that I stopped looking and waited for the phone to ring. Unfortunately it never did. The prospective employer would always tell me that the home office had not approved me, or that their supervisor had decided to extend the job posting. I began to feel distinctly paranoid. I wondered if I would ever be hired and even though I was certain there was nothing amiss in my background, I ran a background check on myself. I began to feel quite depressed and withdrew from my blog. It seemed that there was nothing to write about. I was totally consumed with finding a job and yet I did not want to right about it. It seemed that each week I would find a job that would be perfect for me and I would pray to get it. All my energy would go into that but I did not want to write about it because I didn't have it yet. I figured that it would be bloggable if I did get it but otherwise it was just nothing. I felt like waves tossed by the storm, raging and filling the world with sound and destruction.

Then over a month ago I applied for a driving/ assistant activity director position at a local retirement home and I wanted it badly. But two weeks after I turned in my resume, I had still not heard anything from them. That is when my friends began praying. I had given up hope but they had not. That same week I received a call and set up an interview for the position. The day of the interview I was so nervous and tense that I had the worst migraine that I have had in a very long time. I almost did not keep the interview because it meant that I would have to drive across the city while experiencing dizziness and double vision. In the end though it was the knowledge that so many people were praying for me that kept me going. I couldn't not go.

The interview seemed to go well and I was very encouraged but at the end of it the HR lady in charge of hiring told me that she would finish the interviews that week and the she would be out on vacation the week after but she would begin her call backs the following week. Three and a half weeks later, I had heard nothing at all and again I gave up on it. My friends hadn't though and they kept praying. I was amazed and excited to have a second interview. Again I didn't feel well but wasn't as sick as before. I was told that I would know the answer by then end of the interview. By the time it was over, I found out that I was one of two people being considered for the job but no decision had been reached yet. Again I left without a job.

Finally today I went back for the third interview. I was so nervous I wasn't able to eat all day long. I was relieved when 3 arrived and I could leave for the interview. In the end, it was over rather quickly. I met the director of the facility and he interviewed me, then after a pause he said that he was offering me the job. It was what I had prayed for and hoped for and almost dared believe would happen but was afraid to. The paperwork took longer than anything else and I really have more to do but when 5 o'clock rolled around we agreed I could finish it next week when I come in for my first day.

It is so amazing, I HAVE A JOB!!! I cannot express what this means to me.

RW