Well.
I'm not really sure where to begin.
I'm at the point where it's been so long since I posted that writing seems so overwhelming. The past 6 months were some of the hardest and most beautiful times of my life and it almost feels trite to blog about any of it, but here I am. I think it's important to share the hard times in life once you've worked through them because WITHOUT FAIL there is someone who benefits from hearing it. So here I go.
August passed by in a blur of heat, splashpads, and sunscreen. Alice was content to sleep in her carseat or stroller in the shade while the kids got insanely tan and blonde from running around in the sun. September 1st came and I immediately put up the Fall decorations. I had been itching for Fall since mid-August so really it was a triumph that I even waited until September. We celebrated Kyle's birthday, my sister got engaged, and we started a little online preschool for Milo.
Around that time, Kyle and his boss agreed that it was time for Kyle to start looking for a new job. They both felt that Kyle had exhausted all of his opportunities there and it was a good natural endpoint as the busy summer season was winding down. Kyle interviewed at a few places over the next month and came very close to landing a job at Jane.com, but ultimately when his time at Big Boy Movers ended in mid-November, we didn't have a job lined up and we were unemployed.
I really can't describe the emotions of this time. Every morning for a month I would wake up with sheer panic in my head. All the questions of "how are we gonna do this?" and "what about this?" would batter my brain and I could feel my heart start racing until it thumped into my throat. Then I'd get out of bed, pray, read scriptures or General Conference talks, and without fail the panic would subside for another day. I eventually got to the point where I stopped waking up in terror, fully trusting that God had plans for us. That wasn't something that I ever doubted. What I did doubt was my ability to discern what those plans were.
As December came, Kyle and I decided that we needed to make sure we treated the surprising amount of free time we now had as a gift and really search for ways we could serve. That month Kyle was called as the Young Men's President in our ward. We dedicated a lot of time to the Light the World challenge our church issued out. We started attending the temple weekly with the help of family who watched the kids. I prayed every morning to find someone to serve and had that prayer answered every day. We were given a beautiful chance to better see our own blessings as we grew to know the situations of others.
We weren't sure how we were going to make our living expenses work, let alone Christmas and the two sibling weddings we had that month. We got a lot of help from our ward, mostly done anonymously, and some not. We had gift cards, cash, and food dropped off on our front door. Twitter friends who Venmo'ed money, parents who gave what they could, and an insane amount of prayers come our way. Kyle found cheap online courses that dramatically changed his job search, and ultimately his career path. A neighbor helped Kyle make business cards and ordered them for us. We had countless people reach out to help make connections with job opportunities, opinions about resumes, and offer interviewing tips. Meals seemed to stretch longer, food items suddenly "appeared" when I was 100% sure I didn't have them left, and bills were lessened or postponed for reasons still unexplained.
January went by quickly which was a true miracle. It's usually a very rough month for me personally but by little miracles and a lot of effort it was a cozy, happy month. We visited family, made a concerted effort to grow closer to friends, as well as to enjoy our time together as a family. We had lots of little miracles happen. Several job opportunities came up that each helped Kyle better tailor his job search. We had a head recruiter contact him and offer to edit his resume. Health insurance worked out perfectly for us as January sent us ALL into the doctor's office for ear infections, sinus infections, tinnitus, pneumonia, and the flu.
February passed by in much the same way. Kyle and I grew closer as a couple as we prayed for each others' concerns. We became more united than I thought possible in making sure we were equipped to guide our family where we needed to go. We had many extremely sacred experiences and "aha!" moments that continued to confirm that we were going to be taken care of well.
Towards the end of that month we had a lot of things happen. Jane opened up the same position Kyle initially applied for again, a CEO of a tech firm contacted Kyle and asked to meet for breakfast, and Kyle advanced to the upper interview rounds at 2 different places; Younique and BambooHR. Younique ended up giving us an offer first, followed shortly by BambooHR. We ultimately decided on BambooHR for a number of reasons like salary, benefits, commute (4 minutes away), but mostly because we knew, knew, it was where we needed to be.
Kyle started work at Bamboo beginning of March and it just now feels like we're starting to come out of the woods. In a lot of ways it feels like we had life on hold while being unemployed. Many of our normal, living concerns were taken care of while we focused on our next steps and we're just now getting to a point where "normal life" seems on the horizon again.
My point in sharing this is to illustrate exactly how much God is aware of us as individual people. In my life, I've never witnessed so many miracles occur, let alone in our behalf. He knows us deeply and intimately and we never have reason to fear or worry.
The intense love we felt from family, friends, our ward, and especially God was overwhelming and there's no way we'll ever be able to repay the kindness shown to us. We wanted to make sure we thanked everyone who had helped us during this time, but since most of the help was anonymous, this is the best thing we could come up with; a very public "thank you!". Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the very bottom of our hearts.
I'm not really sure where to begin.
I'm at the point where it's been so long since I posted that writing seems so overwhelming. The past 6 months were some of the hardest and most beautiful times of my life and it almost feels trite to blog about any of it, but here I am. I think it's important to share the hard times in life once you've worked through them because WITHOUT FAIL there is someone who benefits from hearing it. So here I go.
August passed by in a blur of heat, splashpads, and sunscreen. Alice was content to sleep in her carseat or stroller in the shade while the kids got insanely tan and blonde from running around in the sun. September 1st came and I immediately put up the Fall decorations. I had been itching for Fall since mid-August so really it was a triumph that I even waited until September. We celebrated Kyle's birthday, my sister got engaged, and we started a little online preschool for Milo.
Around that time, Kyle and his boss agreed that it was time for Kyle to start looking for a new job. They both felt that Kyle had exhausted all of his opportunities there and it was a good natural endpoint as the busy summer season was winding down. Kyle interviewed at a few places over the next month and came very close to landing a job at Jane.com, but ultimately when his time at Big Boy Movers ended in mid-November, we didn't have a job lined up and we were unemployed.
I really can't describe the emotions of this time. Every morning for a month I would wake up with sheer panic in my head. All the questions of "how are we gonna do this?" and "what about this?" would batter my brain and I could feel my heart start racing until it thumped into my throat. Then I'd get out of bed, pray, read scriptures or General Conference talks, and without fail the panic would subside for another day. I eventually got to the point where I stopped waking up in terror, fully trusting that God had plans for us. That wasn't something that I ever doubted. What I did doubt was my ability to discern what those plans were.
As December came, Kyle and I decided that we needed to make sure we treated the surprising amount of free time we now had as a gift and really search for ways we could serve. That month Kyle was called as the Young Men's President in our ward. We dedicated a lot of time to the Light the World challenge our church issued out. We started attending the temple weekly with the help of family who watched the kids. I prayed every morning to find someone to serve and had that prayer answered every day. We were given a beautiful chance to better see our own blessings as we grew to know the situations of others.
We weren't sure how we were going to make our living expenses work, let alone Christmas and the two sibling weddings we had that month. We got a lot of help from our ward, mostly done anonymously, and some not. We had gift cards, cash, and food dropped off on our front door. Twitter friends who Venmo'ed money, parents who gave what they could, and an insane amount of prayers come our way. Kyle found cheap online courses that dramatically changed his job search, and ultimately his career path. A neighbor helped Kyle make business cards and ordered them for us. We had countless people reach out to help make connections with job opportunities, opinions about resumes, and offer interviewing tips. Meals seemed to stretch longer, food items suddenly "appeared" when I was 100% sure I didn't have them left, and bills were lessened or postponed for reasons still unexplained.
January went by quickly which was a true miracle. It's usually a very rough month for me personally but by little miracles and a lot of effort it was a cozy, happy month. We visited family, made a concerted effort to grow closer to friends, as well as to enjoy our time together as a family. We had lots of little miracles happen. Several job opportunities came up that each helped Kyle better tailor his job search. We had a head recruiter contact him and offer to edit his resume. Health insurance worked out perfectly for us as January sent us ALL into the doctor's office for ear infections, sinus infections, tinnitus, pneumonia, and the flu.
February passed by in much the same way. Kyle and I grew closer as a couple as we prayed for each others' concerns. We became more united than I thought possible in making sure we were equipped to guide our family where we needed to go. We had many extremely sacred experiences and "aha!" moments that continued to confirm that we were going to be taken care of well.
Towards the end of that month we had a lot of things happen. Jane opened up the same position Kyle initially applied for again, a CEO of a tech firm contacted Kyle and asked to meet for breakfast, and Kyle advanced to the upper interview rounds at 2 different places; Younique and BambooHR. Younique ended up giving us an offer first, followed shortly by BambooHR. We ultimately decided on BambooHR for a number of reasons like salary, benefits, commute (4 minutes away), but mostly because we knew, knew, it was where we needed to be.
Kyle started work at Bamboo beginning of March and it just now feels like we're starting to come out of the woods. In a lot of ways it feels like we had life on hold while being unemployed. Many of our normal, living concerns were taken care of while we focused on our next steps and we're just now getting to a point where "normal life" seems on the horizon again.
My point in sharing this is to illustrate exactly how much God is aware of us as individual people. In my life, I've never witnessed so many miracles occur, let alone in our behalf. He knows us deeply and intimately and we never have reason to fear or worry.
The intense love we felt from family, friends, our ward, and especially God was overwhelming and there's no way we'll ever be able to repay the kindness shown to us. We wanted to make sure we thanked everyone who had helped us during this time, but since most of the help was anonymous, this is the best thing we could come up with; a very public "thank you!". Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the very bottom of our hearts.
Thank you for posting this Jessica
ReplyDeleteWow Jessica! What an amazing testimony of our Heavenly Father. What a testimony to me of the faith and trust you and Kyle have in Him and the gospel. What a fantastic example to us all of how we need to trust in the Lord and then do all we can and have faith that He'll make up the rest of what we need. Thank you for sharing this so very much!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing post. It is truly inspiring that you and your family were able to turn a difficult situation into an opportunity to grow closer and stronger.
ReplyDelete