One year ago...

It was a year ago today that we found out Todd was going to lose his job.  

I posted a picture that day, that I took from our front step, that described how I felt.

This picture, taken from our new front step, is a pretty good description of how I feel now.

I closed my post (a year ago) with the words, 


"It will be interesting, to say the least, to see where the rest of this year takes us".  


And now, here we are.  We have felt the hand of the Lord throughout this year and I have received confirmation from the spirit that we are where we need to be.  We found the house that was prepared for us. The kids' transition couldn't have gone more smoothly.  We're still getting to know the ward members, but Todd's recent call as Elder's Quorum President should speed up that process :o). 


Life is good.


I have saved a little story for several months that I wanted to post today.


Soon after learning about the fate of Todd's job, we realized we were going to have to try to sell our house.  I knew the chances of selling it were slim, and I also knew that any equity we might have gained by finishing our basement was gone.  We considered refinancing to make our payment lower, but it never felt right.  As I was trying to muddle through our options, my cousin Erin came over one day and gave me a hug.  She has a degree in business (and had classes in marketing) and she left my house saying that she was going to go home to pray, and think about what she could do to help me.  


I have to back up here, and let you know that after we got our new van in 2008, we gave Erin and her husband our old van.  When they finished school and were looking for jobs, I heard about the one in our school district and let them know...and they got it.  When they were looking for a house, I directed them to the one they ended up buying.  She was constantly telling me that they "owed me" (which is crazy because I really didn't do anything...but anyway you get the idea). 


A couple days after Erin had been thinking and praying, she called me to tell me that the only thing she had come up with, was the name Bonnie Kaufman, who was a real estate agent in our area.  I had considered listing our house, but I knew we didn't have any equity so we really couldn't afford to use a realtor.  I put the idea in the back of my mind, and a few weeks later when I was desperate and didn't know what else to do, I called Bonnie Kaufman. 


She didn't paint a rosy picture.  She didn't want to discourage me, but didn't want to lead me on, either.  She told me that in all reality she didn't see our house selling for at least two years.  Still, she agreed to come look at it, and do what she could to help us, so we made an appointment.  At the end of our conversation, I was explaining the location of our house and told her it was the 2nd house North of the power company.  When I said that, she said "You live on the same block as the power company?  I wonder if they would want to buy it?  If I were you, I'd call them and see if they have any interest."


I knew it was a long shot, but I was desperate so I hung up with her, and called the CEO of the power company.  I explained our situation to him, and asked if there was any chance that they might be interested in buying my house.  He said, "Well, I don't know...maybe.  I'll have to bring it up at the next board meeting at the end of the month".  


Two months later, after working out similar "deals" with my neighbors, they called back and offered to buy our house.


The Lord works in mysterious ways.  Even though I didn't think using an agent was our answer, it was the agent who had the answer I was looking for.  And it was my dear cousin, Erin, who led me the solution to our problem.


Erin, you helped me a lot more than I helped you.  I'm so glad for the time we had together in "the middle of nowhere" and so thankful that you were "in tune" and willing to help when I needed it.  


What goes around comes around.

My kind of quilt shop

This is the sign in front of the quilt shop in our new town  (well, hopefully it will be our new town whenever we sell our house)



Fabric emergencies?

I think I'll get along with these ladies well :o)

Bad news travels fast

Small town park statue

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that I knew the fate of Todd's job before he did.

Chalk it up to small town living.

You see, Liz lost her job first thing Wednesday morning, before "Corporate" had made their announcement to everyone else.

Liz told Beth at the post office, who told Mary at the post office in the next town, who called Sarah, who called Vanessa, who called me to ask if I'd heard anything about our husbands' companies closing their doors.

I hadn't.

So, I called Todd, who was on a break between Parent Week meetings.

He hadn't heard anything like that.

So I called Vanessa back to tell her that Todd didn't know anything, but in the meantime, she'd talked to Millie who confirmed that indeed our husbands' were about to lose their jobs.

I texted "the latest" to Todd, and within an hour, he finally received the official word.

I was going to wait until Todd got home that night to tell our boys, but Kortney told them at school.

That's the way it goes in a small town.

Bleak

Yesterday was one of those days that you hope and pray will never happen to your family.

The company that Todd works for has a new CEO, who has decided to shut down the three therapeutic programs in our small community.

In a town of 500 people in the middle of nowhere, 200 will be losing their jobs.

The possibility of being able to sell our house is highly unlikely.

The outlook for many is bleak.

But, strangely enough, I feel okay about it. I don't know why this happened, and I don't know exactly how we'll get through it, but I know the Lord is watching out for us.  I can feel it so strongly it is almost tangible.  I've literally only cried a few tears, as I was telling our parents, but not even enough to mess up my mascara.

A couple years ago, both our Bishop and Stake President had an overwhelming feeling that we needed to "be prepared" as a community.  I remember Bishop saying he didn't know why, but he just couldn't shake the feeling.

And here we are.

I have absolutely no idea where to even begin or which path to follow, but I am calm and I feel peace.  There were a couple hours yesterday when I started to get angry, and I'm sure in the days to come we will experience a whole spectrum of emotions, but the anger passed quickly and I know deep down that it will all be okay.

Todd often says "When the Lord closes a door, he always opens a window...but that doesn't mean it won't be hell in the hallway".

It takes awhile to close a program like the one where he works, and luckily he can keep his job until August 2nd.  Some lost their job yesterday, and others will be laid off in May, June, and July.  We feel grateful to at least have some time for the dust to settle before we have to make any major decisions.

The spirit in our community is strong.  I have no doubt that people will rally together and weather the storm as a whole.  What we DO have is a bunch of people who know how to run residential and wilderness treatment facilities.  The possibility of keeping these programs going, on a private level, is actually a very real possibility...but it will take everyone working together.  No one person can do it alone.

It will be interesting, to say the least, to see where the rest of this year takes us.

Our Chapel

Our family has the opportunity to clean our church's chapel this month. While we were there, I took a few pictures because it is such a neat building...more like a tabernacle, really.  There is no air conditioning, so we try to avoid siting in the balcony in the summer.  And yes, I have seen kids throw toys "overboard" in the middle of sacrament meeting.

View of the podium and choir seats from the balcony

View of the balcony from the choir seats

View of the hand-painted ceiling. (The RS sisters painted the gold design!)

The pillars are beautiful.