So the people who know me personally know that my husband is a full time student right now. With his work schedule and his class schedule it makes things pretty crazy. It is important to us to keep our babies at home, so I am not working a career type job that would interfere with my husband's schedule (so that one of us can always be home). Anyway, it has, in the past few months, been becoming increasingly apparent that I probably do need to find some additional income to help take the edge off of some of our finances and possibly allow my husband to reduce his work hours (so we can see him every once in awhile).
With this realization came the thought - well that's never going to happen. Honestly, I am a mother of four who homeschools two children, has a very active two year old, and is nursing a young infant. My husband is very rarely home, so working around his schedule is next to impossible. My degree is in Range Management (an agriculture degree - managing natural resources, wildlife, grazing systems, ranching type stuff - you can get an idea from this blog post). Because of the way life works, my career has been spent mostly teaching (you can see more about that here). So how in the world was I going to find a job that allowed me to homeschool my kids, continue to nurse full time, keep our home in order, and give my husband the support he needs, with the degree and resume that I have? Yeah - sounds impossible right?
So I started to pray. I implored God's help constantly, and I asked St. Joseph for his help. I should have known then, but of course I worried. Every time we got a bill in the mail and we were juggling to figure out how to pay it, I worried. Every time my husband would be gone for hours on end and struggled to balance his heavy class load around his demanding work schedule I worried. Every time our children needed clothes or shoes or school supplies I worried. Every time I thought about Christmas or birthdays I worried. Finally, in desperation, I started looking into night jobs at places like Wal-mart. I had no idea how I was going to work at night and do everything else I needed to do all day, but I figured that God would give me the strength. I only hoped we would be able to afford the massive amounts of caffeine I was going to need to consume.
Then I got an e-mail. Last spring a dear friend who I had worked for at the USDA (as a range specialist) had told me about a job with the Texas Wildlife Association. It sounded great, so I e-mailed them. They weren't ready to hire someone quite yet so nothing came from it. Well, they e-mailed me back and said they were ready to start looking into hiring. Here is the position they were looking to hire for - a contract educator. Basically they needed someone to work mostly from home and around their own schedule to go into classrooms and teach kids about wildlife and resource management. They needed someone with a degree and background in agriculture and resource management but that had teaching experience especially with younger children (elementary aged). Did I mention that it was a position that was to be worked from home except when in the classroom, and the classroom time is scheduled around the educator's own schedule? Did I mention that they needed someone with a background in agriculture AND teaching? Blink, blink.
So I did a phone interview, thinking that this was too good to be true. Surely there was a catch. Then they called me back for a second interview - this time they wanted to fly me down to their home office for the day. Wait - fly me? That sounds serious.... And they did! Our baby and I packed up and flew down for the day, and I interviewed again. The pay? Oh yeah - that little detail? Um - it was more than I made as a full time teacher. And on top of that, it was a job that sounded like something I would enjoy. Really? I would get to work a job that I LIKED? Yeah right - I had to be dreaming. But just in case, I continued to pray. Then I started to let myself actually get slightly excited. I started to allow myself little thoughts about how great it would be to be able to work a job that let me enjoy both of my passions - teaching AND range management. I started to wonder if it could actually be possible that I could do that without sacrificing the other things that are so important to me and our family. But I was still scared, and I was tired of being disappointed. So, I didn't let myself get too excited, but I definitely prayed non-stop. St. Joseph was implored for prayers, and God never stopped hearing my voice. Everyone I knew was praying as well.
Then it happened. I finally got a phone call and they offered me the job! I couldn't believe it! God really outdid Himself this time, and St. Joseph was definitely smiling. God is SO very good! I was desperate in seemingly desperate circumstances, and not only did I find the job that I needed, but I found the job that was tailor made, perfectly suited for me. Who would have thought? Okay, well given my background and other times God has come through for me in my life, I should have thought. Once again I am humbled and floored and overcome by God's tremendous generosity. Once again I pray that I can live up and strive harder to be who He wants me to be. And once again, I hope and pray that I can figure out how to quit worrying and just realize. I hope I can realize that God really, really does have me and I am safe. I hope that I can realize that I have an entire communion of saints, with a few favorites (like St. Joseph) who are right there with me, calling to God and holding me up because they love me and because God is SO very pleased and glorified through their love. One day I hope I can just realize and relax because God is SO GOOD!
