Yay! We had Jeffrey firmly placed in his new school (Jeffrey Starts Middle School), and now had a church home (Church Shopping). But unfortunately we realized that our finances were dwindling rapidly, and I knew that I needed to find a part-time job. I was sure it wasn’t going to be easy as Jeffrey was not yet to the point where he could come home and get inside the house by himself, so I needed to made absolutely certain that I was able to make it home before his school bus arrived – especially since Gary was traveling so much again.
My last job I had been very fortunate in that Gary had been the manager, so he had been able to arrange my work hours around Jeffrey’s schedule (My Puppy-Dog Tongue). But now? Well, the bottom line was that I had to remember God is able to open doors anywhere, and at anytime, that He chooses.
The actual act of looking for a job turned out to be quite difficult for me. It had been before we had our first son Matthew that I had to look for work (What Was Happening To My Husband?) – we’re talking well over 10 years!
Way back when, you used to typically check the newspaper ads, find a contact person, get your resume together, and then perhaps go in and talk with them. Now everything was very digital – and secretive… No longer did they put the contact person’s name in the ad, and most of the time you didn’t even know what the name of the company was.
I applied for a few jobs that sounded like they might be up my alley, but never heard back – except for a couple rejection letters. I didn’t like those…
Then one day I noticed in the paper there was an ad for a customer service rep at a label manufacturing company only about 10 minutes away from our house – and they even gave the name of the person to contact! I was jazzed.
I made a few updates to my resume, and decided to go to the business and see if I could chat with the contact person.
The day came, and as I drove up to the office the butterflies were dancing all over in my stomach. Could I do this? Yes, I could!
The receptionist was very nice as she asked how she could help me. I told her I was there about the job opening for customer service. She wanted to just take my resume, but I boldly asked to meet the contact person:
Is “Donald” available that I might introduce myself to him?
The little receptionist gave me a funny look, and I realized I had asked for the wrong person!
I quickly said, Whoops, I meant to ask for “Stan,” not “Donald!” (Names have been changed to protect the innocent…)
It was at that very moment that I noticed a man who appeared to be in charge walked right by and looked at me. I knew he had probably seen me as I first came in, as it was a small office. And I also figured that he had noticed me flustering about. Of course, this happened to be “Stan…”
Yes, this is where I started becoming more than embarrassed, realizing that I must have looked incredibly silly.
Yet what happened? “Stan” told the receptionist to have me fill out a job application, and then said he’d give me a quick interview on the spot – WHOA!!!
However there was more.
The job opening stated it was for a full-time position, and obviously I couldn’t do that. So in my interview I explained my situation with Jeffrey and his needs, and offered to work part-time as many hours as I could.
He actually seemed a little disappointed as I explained all this to him, but said he would talk to the owner, and that he would call me as soon as he had an answer.
The next morning our phone rang. They wanted to hire me, and they agreed to all the terms that I had set as far as hours I could work!
I got off the phone in amazement, remembering again how idiotic I must’ve looked the day before as I had waltzed into the company so full of confidence and then got knocked off my keester. Yet as Gary and I spoke later, it was clearer-than-clear that the Lord had His hands all over this. Wow…
The God Of All Comfort 