Embracing Change

This is our engagement photo. We were 18 years younger and had no idea about the life on which we were embarking. We have more gray hair now but the same smiles on our faces.

Sometimes life throws you for a loop. (Where does this saying come from?) There's nothing you can do when it happens but deal with the problem, issue, or situation. In our case, the "loop" came on Valentine's Day. Mike lost his job. (I think this is a funny saying, too. I mean, can't he find his job anywhere? Is it hiding from him?) We didn't expect it to happen but yet weren't totally surprised. 


When bad things happen, I like to look at all the possibilities. One possibility was that we could feel devastated and believe we would be penniless and out on the street in time. Of course, we didn't think this way. We are fortunate to have a savings account and to live fairly frugally so we knew we had a lot of time to make some decisions about employment. The possibility that we chose to go with was that this was an opportunity.


Mike has long talked about getting back to teaching music full time. He stopped teaching when he started working at this small company. In the past year he picked up some music students one evening a week because he enjoyed teaching. Of course we couldn't see our way to having him quit his job to start teaching as his job was our main source of income. Without quitting, it would have been very difficult for him to focus on getting enough students to support his family but he couldn't support his family if he quit his job. Quite a catch 22.


In addition, with Nathan back at school and Nolan finishing his last year of homeschool, I began to wonder what I would do with my time. In fact, Nolan is so self sufficient (generally speaking) that I was already wandering around the house a bit. I starting thinking about going back to work in some capacity in the next year.


Well, when this Valentine's Day opportunity came along we started thinking that it made more sense for me to find a job and for Mike to pursue music as a teacher and performer full time. I have a degree in social work and have generally found it somewhat easy to find a job in relation to the general population. So, on Monday I will begin working full time. Mike will take over Nolan's last two months of school (with my supervision in the evenings....I can't let go that easily) and work on filling his teaching schedule. He's already gained a few new students.


We feel fortunate. We believe God has laid a path before us with love and affection. We are the lilies of the field.