New Job, New Adventures!

Whew! What a whirlwind of a week! So much has happened I have to back way up to give the full story...

While we were in the Atlanta airport on our layover during our trip to Texas, Matt got a phone call from the temp agency he had worked with in the past. The company he had interviewed with several times before (and who had previously offered him a job back in December - after he had already accepted this current job with our apt. complex) had an opening they wanted him to interview for. [I know that's not grammatically correct. I don't care. I'm tired.... Ok fine - It's driving me crazy -- "...an opening for which they wanted him to interview" - THERE!] We came back to NY on a Monday (just barely, if you know the story) and his interview was set up for Tuesday. They were hiring for several open positions, the interview went well, and Matt felt pretty confident and positive, thinking there was a strong chance he'd get the job. They expected to make a decision that week and would get back to him.

Well the whole week went by and no phone call. We figured they had not made a decision yet. By the next week (which was last week) we were getting impatient. On Wednesday Matt got a phone call -- he did not get the job. He was a little disappointed as he thought this time it was finally going to happen. His current job has been a major drag for him lately -- just a really light workload and a lot of non-essential busy work to fill the time. Better to be busy than to have nothing to do and spend the day trying to look busy. So he's been ready to move on - just nothing had come available (still) in this flat economy.

In addition to the 'no job' news, our plans for housing when we moved out of this apt. fell through. Some friends of our have a house in an estate they were going to rent to us at an affordable price. It needed some painting and fix-up work, which we were going to help do, but it would have given us a lot more space & a better setup than most apartment options in this area. It's such an old area -- most of the apartments are crummy and still charge a ridiculous price. Anyway, it just turned out this house we were going to rent just had too many fix-up projects to really be practical for us to move into. We didn't have the time, energy or resources to do all the work that was needed (nor do our friends), so we had to say 'no' to that plan. We also checked into another place we really liked early in the week, and it turned out that wasn't available.

It was a discouraging week -- lots of No's. No job, no house. We were back to square one, stuck in this job, stuck in this apartment, no end in sight. Tiring. Frustrating. We have so strongly felt that we wanted to be closer to Seneca Falls where our church is, that the Lord would have us be more involved. Being this far away (an hour's drive), it's impossible to really get involved in ministry there, especially when we have 2 little kids. So we felt discouraged - like, 'Lord, if you moved us here and would have us get more involved in our church and the lives of our friends, why would you keep closing doors and keeping us so far away?'

Then, late on Friday afternoon, Matt came flying through the door, still on his phone saying, "I got the job with Maximus! I don't understand it yet myself, I'll explain later!" And back out he went. I sat there with my jaw hanging open not sure what to make of what just happened. Turns out, while he initially thought he had gotten the job they previously told him he hadn't gotten, it was actually a different position he was being hired for. A lady who worked for the company put in her notice to quit and, since they didn't want to go through the appln/interview process again & had liked Matt in his interview, they called an offered him the job. And he's starting Friday this week!

The job that he got is with a company called Maximus. It's basically a company that works with Medicare appeals cases, something Matt is already somewhat familiar with due to working with Federal programs in the Congressman's office. It has quite a bit of variety to what he'll actually be doing, so shouldn't get too boring for him. The location of the company is, ironically, here in Fairport -- and yes, we'll be moving toward Seneca Falls, so he'll have a 45 minute commute. Not ideal, but at this stage in the life of our family, he feels really strongly that he'd rather do the commute to work to allow us to live closer to family & friends and allow me easier access to helping hands if I need it. He's very excited about starting and the new work he will be doing.

So with the new job that meant we had to figure out the what-next question for housing sooner than later. We knew the Lord would provide, but we've just been so discouraged when looking at the rental options available. It's sooo creepy. :-P And slim pickin'. As we were crunching numbers and looking at what was out there, we realized, "I think we an afford a mortgage!" And that started us househunting... and calling realtors... and checking out houses. This has all happened within just the past few days, mind you! Like I said - a whirwind. The housing market is also slim pickin' but there is one house we both like & have looked at and seems to be within a budget we can work with. We still need to check it over with a fine-tooth comb, plus we want to look at a few more places, but it seems to be pretty certain that we are definitely going in the direction of buying a house vs. renting.

So we're excited! But really stunned too. I said I am trying to proceed with fear and trembling, knowing what a big decision & responsibility a house is. But it will be sooo wonderful too to move into a place I know we won't have to move out of. I HATE moving. It's exciting to think of having our own place, too, to do with what we want. So keep us in prayer as we make some big decisions, and we'll keep you posted when anything becomes final on the housing front!