Changes...

This is a fairly big time for us right now. We are endlessly awaiting Brad and Brandon's arrival back from Iraq (and thus the return of our long-absent roommate), we sold a car at a profit and Bryan bought a (in his opinion) better one, and Bryan is now in the midst of a job transition.

His new job is definately not one he was seeking, and he wasn't completely ready to leave his old job, but it is funny the way things work out. Each year that God has kept me working at Life Christian has been for a reason. At a loss for any major family drama this year (minus the cancer...knock on wood), I believe I was meant to be the teacher this year to a new family at the school, who own their own mechanic shop. Bryan was introduced to the father at Christmas time and reunited under several circumstances, including my student's basketball game. They hit it off big time, but since his shop has only been open a couple years, Bryan wasn't expecting him to do any more hiring.

The reason Bryan began to search out other possibilities was because we have been trying to figure out what to do next in life. You could say we are at a crossroads. I am about to begin my annual job search as well, and we will see where God takes me. Either way, one or both of us needs to start making more money, and the only way to do that seems to be with a transition. However, we have now thrown other possibilities into the mix. A couple of which were maybe Bryan could open his own shop or we could move to Texas. This new job Bryan will start next week will help him prepare to open his own new shop one day, as he will be taking more of a leadership role at this shop he will be moving to now. Since it is a young shop and it has done so well already, there is definately the possibility of expansion which is exciting for Bryan to be a part of.

In the end, his interests coincided better with the interests of the new shop more than the interests of the shop he has been at for four years, which in recent months has not been doing so well. And though he loves his current boss to death, he is looking forward to a change in scenery. However, because of this move, our scenery won't change as much as Texas, but that is still a possibility for the future.

This last week has been particularily stressful for Bryan because his current boss is not letting Bryan go without a fight. Enter the dollar signs. And I mean really big dollar signs. Strangely, this didn't really effect Bryan nor I. We both feel like where Bryan is going will be better than what he is leaving behind in the end, and this is all part of God's bigger plan. However, yesterday I began to ponder (in my greedy mind) all the things we could have done with Bryan's ginormous raise, such as big vacations, a brand new car (and not the POSes we currently have in our driveway :-)), Michelle quitting her job,... However, none of this means a thing if Bryan is not happy. And he is not afraid of hard work, so if he continues to work hard now it will eventually pay off in the end. Also, a raise for Bryan could've meant worse things for his co-workers, so he did not want that hanging over his head.

So Bryan will continue to do side jobs to fund his hobby and we will continue to be content with what we have! We know that God will bless us in this decision. I am also hoping God will bless me with a new job this year as well. Seeing as how it came so easy to Bryan, I don't get why it is so difficult for me! However, being at Life Christian has been a blessing in every way except financially :-). I feel like leaving after three years would be a good thing, but we will just have to see what God has in store :-).