Image via WikipediaReally, to frame last year properly I have to go back to the end of 2008. In October of 2008 my family and I were living in Mesquite, Texas. Things were pretty much the same for us as they had been for the last few years. I was working for the same company that I had been with since 2003. We were able to have Shelly stay home and homeschool. We felt like that we were blessed. But really I had hit a glass ceiling at my job. There really didn't seem to be growth opportunities. We had a good church and the same few good friends that we had known for the last few years. Life was by no means bad, it just wasn't very exciting or fulfilling. But the really sad part was that we didn't even realize it. We were in maintenance mode, stuck in a self preservation rut! Life had become about keeping the kids healthy and not going into more debt. Not bad things to be concerned about, but not quite what we were hoping for when we married.
So there we were with our heads down going through the day to day when two events happened that would put things in motion to cause change in our lives. First, my company "merged" with a competitor. Now they called it a merger but in actuality it was a takeover. My company decided to basically sell our division to the other company but they were too chicken to tell us employees what was really going on.
The other thing that happened was that my mother was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Lung Cancer.
I won't go into too much detail on either situation but to say that it made 2009 a very difficult year for me especially. After a round of Chemotherapy and a summer of remission, Mom succumbed and passed away on December 22nd of 2009.
Work was no where near as bad as loosing a loved one, but I was having by far the most difficult year of my career. All of the leadership from my old company had been replaced by people from the purchasing company. Managers were let go and everyone who knew me, and the reputation I had spent 5 years building up, were now gone or demoted back to new hire status. When you work in implementations, new hire status means you get the really crummy gigs. The ones with the longest travel. I myself had gone from being a senior consultant to being 'low man on the totem pole'. So, I was back on the road full time traveling every week for 4 or 5 days a week. And to make it worse, I was working for idiots who knew less about their jobs than I did. On top of all of this in October of 2009 while working in my backyard, I dislocated my right shoulder so bad that it required two surgeries and a lot of physical therapy that lasted half way through 2010. The end of 2009 I spent burring my mother and wondering how things could get worse.
The one bright spot had been that I got a call from a recruiter who found my profile on Linked In and called me about a position with a medical center in Mississippi of all places. It was a supposed to be a step up and a lot more money. This happened in early December.
So, there is the setup for 2010. Along about the second week of January I was driving back from South Carolina where I had been gathering my inherited furniture and stuff. (anyone from Texas will understand this next thought) I remember looking around as I was passing through Mississippi and thinking, "how could I leave Texas for this place?" I got back to Texas and went back to work. I ended up having an interview with the medical center and it went well, or so I thought. I waited and nothing ever happened. So in my mind I wrote it off as a dead opportunity. In the mean time, things continued to stay bad at work. Some of you perhaps have read one of the first posts in this blog..."No Score and 7 years ago today". It was about this time in early March and in this environment that I finally came to a decision that it was time to leave my place of employment and find another job. Even if the economy was bad, I decided that I just couldn't stand it anymore. Besides, recruiters were still calling pretty regularly. I followed up on one of these calls and I interviewed for a position at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. It seemed to be perfect and I let my emotions get wrapped up in that opportunity. It seemed to be just what I was looking for. I'd be off the road and at a well respected hospital with room to grow my career. Well, after going back for several return interviews I got the cold shoulder. I was upset and couldn't understand why they had strung me along if they weren't interested. It turns out that the recruiter actually screwed up my chances by not following up with them letting them know I wanted the position after telling me to "let him do the negotiating". Don't ever use Tek Systems in Dallas for an employment recruiter! So it was back to the drawing board. By this time in May I was beginning to think that perhaps I would never get out of this rut. The thought occurred to me that perhaps God was trying to teach my something that I just wasn't learning. I'd certainly heard plenty of well-meaning friends and preachers say something to that effect. I mean why were things staying so bad for so long. And why couldn't I get out of the work situation I was in?
In mid-June I got a call from the same recruiter that had called me about the position in Jackson, Mississippi. Things had changed at that company and they were going a different direction but they still had my resume and were interested in talking to me about helping them implement a new software package. I gave it some thought and said, "what they heck". I still didn't want to move to Mississippi but at least it sounded like they appreciated my talents and abilities. So while I was on site with another client I set a noon appointment for a phone interview. That turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. There is another post to this blog about those days so I'll just skip ahead to say that I started with my new job on Aug 16th of 2010.
What a difference! There were so many things that changed for us when we decided to take a leap of faith and move to Mississippi.
- First was my Job situation. I had forgotten what it was like to actually enjoy going to work. The people I was working with were glad I was there and seemed more pleasant to be around. And now six months into this job I've already received a promotion to program manager over a great team of folks. Plus, I am now able to be a Dad that is going to be around. No more missing all those simple but important moments that happen around the dinner table and while you're tucking your kid into bed.
- Second had to do with my girls. The neighborhood we lived in back in Mesquite was fine we thought. But when we moved into our new neighborhood we immediately saw a difference. We knew every family on our street by the end of the first week here. And on top of that there is a little girl my kids age that lives directly across the street from us. I guess the best way to describe how this has changed our lives is in what my oldest daughter who has Asperger's syndrome told us. She said she prayed for some friends and now she has one. If you know anything about asperger's you understand what a miracle this really was. Now, our kids bounce in and out of her house and she does the same to our house. I'll just sum it up by saying it's really a great neighborhood where we actually know and like our neighbors.
- Another great thing is how my wife is so much happier than she was before. A few weeks after moving here we met a great family that homeschools and sees many things the way we do. My wife and the mother in that family have become fast friends. Their practically inseparable. All because we listed an extra refrigerator we had on craigslist and they responded. Talk about a God directing your steps...
- The last way is definitely not the least in this list. It has to do with how we feel God has brought us to a new church for such a time as this. Our church back in Rockwall, TX is a wonderful church. And we had been there for almost 15 years. We were married while attending there. Our children were dedicated and baptised there. And we have lifelong friends and mentors from there. Some of whom we are still very close with. But sometimes you just have to get out of the nest if you want to really fly. That's really what I feel God is doing with us here. We've started attending a great new church called Highland Chapel. It's a church plant that is less than a year old. But we really feel like its home already and love the vision and excitement of what is going on there. I think this could actually be the main reason we are here.
Two cities. Dallas and Jackson. The book is now closed on one and a new chapter is underway on the other. I wonder if it's really Dallas and Jackson or is it this earthly city and Heaven?
