Before i even get "caught up" on all the other stuff that's been going on, here's another new twist...
A while ago (September?) i saw an ad in the paper for a service technician job... to install and service dairy parlours, including robotic milkers. Computer skills, welding, and farming background all assets. These are the 3 things Jonathan MOST enjoys in the line of work. The welding and/or farming has been a difficult decision and he said he wished he could keep doing both! When i saw this ad, i thought it might be a perfect fit for him... so i showed it to him, and he applied. But he didn't follow up or pursue it further...
NOW, this afternoon, they finally call for an interview!
We've agonized about the decision to leave the farm ~ especially after the way it worked out with the other guy giving his notice too, and after we find out the farm is willing to pay better wages to keep him (why did they wait til now??). Still, feeling bad about leaving them in a predicament... that wasn't our intention.
And we were kind of feeling bad about keeping the new welding job waiting (although they've been awesome about it all)... while finishing up the farm job. But also been looking forward to being there full-time ~ the people are great and the shifts are good. Sounds like they like Jonathan too.
So Jonathan's initial response to this latest possibility was, "I've taken a new job starting full-time on Jan. 2."
UGH!
After talking about it, he called back to see if they could give an idea what wages are... and even with no experience they would start him at a significantly better wage than what he's getting now.
Umm, he's taking the interview on Wednesday! (an interview isn't a committment... but could help make that decision).
Is this God's plan for us?
We have a few questions... who pays travel expenses? what kinds of hours? benefits? holidays? etc.
Please pray! We really need God's direction ~ again!
It would be really hard to tell the new bosses he's not staying after all the waiting...
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Sorry it's been so long since i've updated here... i started a blog more specific to our adoption journey, and i guess i have just not blogged a lot lately. The website for the other blog is
http://harderfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/
I hope you've all had a great Christmas. Ours has been pretty good.
Jonathan was officially (or unofficially?) done his job at the farm on the 25th (well, the night milking, so technically that would've brought him to the early am of the 26th ~ lol)... and his new job doesn't start until Jan. 2, so we had he's had a few days off which has been WONDERFUL! He did a night shift at the farm on the 28th, and he's agreed to doing a few Friday or Saturday nights in January... not sure how long that will go on, but I think it'll be ok.
The whole job thing has left us (or me anyway) with some mixed emotions. Since giving his notice at the farm, they clarified that they had given him a raise the previous month, and offered him (i think have given him for December), another raise (to encourage him to stay??). Why did it take so long? Truth is, at this point, his new job will now be a cut in pay. However, we anticipate a raise at the new job fairly quickly too, so we are confident it'll all work out. And we ARE looking forward to the regular day-shift hours with ... um, weekends off?? Lol... eventually. Jonathan hasn't agreed to Sundays though, so if he's only doing one day or shift/week at the farm, it's not bad.
Christmas eve, the kids wanted to open the gifts they had bought for each other. We don't emphasize Christmas gifts, and we don't buy them for the kids... but it's fun to see them thinking of and buying gifts for each other. They had a few gifts for Jonathan & I too. In particular, one of their gifts just blew me away... they collected cash (probably Darwin's idea, and he contributed the most) and did up a note saying the money was for our adoption fund. It's a significant amount of cash for our children (they don't get much from us), but Darwin gave generously from his hard-earned work money. It blessed me SO much! Does that tell what they think about adoption? It's almost hard to accept money from my children... but how can you say no? And really, I don't want to rob them of the blessing God wants to give them for their thoughtfulness and generousity.
Christmas day i didn't feel great in the morning ~ woke with a headache and my tummy was a bit yucky. So I didn't go to church. We kind of left it up to the kids if they wanted to go with Jonathan or not, and they all stayed home. That felt different... normally if there's church, they would've just gone. But for some reason, i felt like Christmas morning often has too much emphasis on the gifts everyone got, and it was just easier to let them decide rather than try and have them get ready on time. My headache lingered until late afternoon/evening when i was helping Darwin make dinner. (He wanted to make Christmas dinner, but it was a bit much for him to do alone). When Jonathan got home, we had a lovely meal together. Then we watched The Sound of Music on tv. Jonathan had to leave again for work by 9 or 9:30, and the boys ended up trying out a new computer game (Oregon Trail), but Janique & I watched the movie to the end. I love that movie every time I see it.
On the 26th, Jonathan & I went shopping. We had been waiting for this day to hopefully buy a bed at a great price. It was a long day, and by the time we came home, we had actually "bought" two beds... we ended up cancelling the first one because the second one was a better deal. That's an interesting story too... when we went back the next day to cancel the one from "store 1," i was curious what their Sealy beds were selling for ~ just to compare with the deal we got at the other store ~ so we went to look. The sales rep saw Jonathan holding our bill/sale (which we were about to cancel) and was curious... when we told him about the deal we got, he said that was such a good deal he wouldn't be looking anywhere else. Basically "unheard of." (But being a sales rep here, in his words, "i didn't tell you that.") The cool thing was, i was able to tell him "we prayed about it before we went shopping for a bed, and God must have led us to the store (store 2) at just the right time. We thought we were done shopping, but happened to be in the area of "store 2" and remembered that store had crossed our minds earlier... so we thought we'd just check it out. We were there right about 5pm, and they just happened to be having a one hour sale ~ half price on all their clearance items in the back ~ from 4-5pm. Then when the bed we decided on seemed to be sold (no longer available in their computer), she offered us the same bed, but a "new" mattress for just $100 more." It was so neat to be able to tell this guy how God had directed us... he said "God bless you."
Hmm, it's getting very late... lol... why i don't blog often ~ i'm too slow at it because i spend so much time thinking through what to say and how to say it. I have more to share, but it'll have to wait...
good night.
http://harderfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/
I hope you've all had a great Christmas. Ours has been pretty good.
Jonathan was officially (or unofficially?) done his job at the farm on the 25th (well, the night milking, so technically that would've brought him to the early am of the 26th ~ lol)... and his new job doesn't start until Jan. 2, so we had he's had a few days off which has been WONDERFUL! He did a night shift at the farm on the 28th, and he's agreed to doing a few Friday or Saturday nights in January... not sure how long that will go on, but I think it'll be ok.
The whole job thing has left us (or me anyway) with some mixed emotions. Since giving his notice at the farm, they clarified that they had given him a raise the previous month, and offered him (i think have given him for December), another raise (to encourage him to stay??). Why did it take so long? Truth is, at this point, his new job will now be a cut in pay. However, we anticipate a raise at the new job fairly quickly too, so we are confident it'll all work out. And we ARE looking forward to the regular day-shift hours with ... um, weekends off?? Lol... eventually. Jonathan hasn't agreed to Sundays though, so if he's only doing one day or shift/week at the farm, it's not bad.
Christmas eve, the kids wanted to open the gifts they had bought for each other. We don't emphasize Christmas gifts, and we don't buy them for the kids... but it's fun to see them thinking of and buying gifts for each other. They had a few gifts for Jonathan & I too. In particular, one of their gifts just blew me away... they collected cash (probably Darwin's idea, and he contributed the most) and did up a note saying the money was for our adoption fund. It's a significant amount of cash for our children (they don't get much from us), but Darwin gave generously from his hard-earned work money. It blessed me SO much! Does that tell what they think about adoption? It's almost hard to accept money from my children... but how can you say no? And really, I don't want to rob them of the blessing God wants to give them for their thoughtfulness and generousity.
Christmas day i didn't feel great in the morning ~ woke with a headache and my tummy was a bit yucky. So I didn't go to church. We kind of left it up to the kids if they wanted to go with Jonathan or not, and they all stayed home. That felt different... normally if there's church, they would've just gone. But for some reason, i felt like Christmas morning often has too much emphasis on the gifts everyone got, and it was just easier to let them decide rather than try and have them get ready on time. My headache lingered until late afternoon/evening when i was helping Darwin make dinner. (He wanted to make Christmas dinner, but it was a bit much for him to do alone). When Jonathan got home, we had a lovely meal together. Then we watched The Sound of Music on tv. Jonathan had to leave again for work by 9 or 9:30, and the boys ended up trying out a new computer game (Oregon Trail), but Janique & I watched the movie to the end. I love that movie every time I see it.
On the 26th, Jonathan & I went shopping. We had been waiting for this day to hopefully buy a bed at a great price. It was a long day, and by the time we came home, we had actually "bought" two beds... we ended up cancelling the first one because the second one was a better deal. That's an interesting story too... when we went back the next day to cancel the one from "store 1," i was curious what their Sealy beds were selling for ~ just to compare with the deal we got at the other store ~ so we went to look. The sales rep saw Jonathan holding our bill/sale (which we were about to cancel) and was curious... when we told him about the deal we got, he said that was such a good deal he wouldn't be looking anywhere else. Basically "unheard of." (But being a sales rep here, in his words, "i didn't tell you that.") The cool thing was, i was able to tell him "we prayed about it before we went shopping for a bed, and God must have led us to the store (store 2) at just the right time. We thought we were done shopping, but happened to be in the area of "store 2" and remembered that store had crossed our minds earlier... so we thought we'd just check it out. We were there right about 5pm, and they just happened to be having a one hour sale ~ half price on all their clearance items in the back ~ from 4-5pm. Then when the bed we decided on seemed to be sold (no longer available in their computer), she offered us the same bed, but a "new" mattress for just $100 more." It was so neat to be able to tell this guy how God had directed us... he said "God bless you."
Hmm, it's getting very late... lol... why i don't blog often ~ i'm too slow at it because i spend so much time thinking through what to say and how to say it. I have more to share, but it'll have to wait...
good night.
Friday, December 7, 2007
We had our second homestudy meeting on Monday, and it went fine... but for some reason (maybe because we talked about my post partum breakdown in '99), i felt myself feeling a bit inadequate to adopt. Actually, i was building quite an inferiority complex during the week. After hearing (on Wednesday) that the proposed timelines have been extended, on top of everything else i was feeling, the thought crossed my mind to give up.
However, in my gloom yesterday, i prayed about it, asking God to show me something to clarify/confirm if we should continue ~ and I vaguely thought the Orphan's Hope grant would be concrete enough confirmation ~ maybe because i thought it was such a far shot ~ but what would be the likelihood of that? We had only applied in October or so, with no guarantee that we'd ever get anything.
Later that afternoon when I went to the mail, there was registered mail... from Orphan's Hope!
I don't think i can do justice trying to tell you how much this means to me! I felt such an enormous outpouring of God's love on me! I was in tears before i even opened the envelope (i did make it out of the post office and into the van though before the tears started ~ lol). It really humbled me too ~ that God would speak so clearly (with the one "confirmation" that i had considered), and with such a huge financial blessing too ~ ok, i just REALLY felt like He dumped buckets of love on me! And such patience with me!
So here's the writing on the wall for me... "God has qualified you!"
However, in my gloom yesterday, i prayed about it, asking God to show me something to clarify/confirm if we should continue ~ and I vaguely thought the Orphan's Hope grant would be concrete enough confirmation ~ maybe because i thought it was such a far shot ~ but what would be the likelihood of that? We had only applied in October or so, with no guarantee that we'd ever get anything.
Later that afternoon when I went to the mail, there was registered mail... from Orphan's Hope!
I don't think i can do justice trying to tell you how much this means to me! I felt such an enormous outpouring of God's love on me! I was in tears before i even opened the envelope (i did make it out of the post office and into the van though before the tears started ~ lol). It really humbled me too ~ that God would speak so clearly (with the one "confirmation" that i had considered), and with such a huge financial blessing too ~ ok, i just REALLY felt like He dumped buckets of love on me! And such patience with me!
So here's the writing on the wall for me... "God has qualified you!"
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