I've been meaning to write this blog for a few weeks now, and I've been putting it off because I'm just not sure where to begin. And I've finally come to the conclusion that there really is no good way to start it, except to just jump right in.
There is yet another move in my near future. And I'm doing it somewhat voluntarily. :)
I am so tired of moving. In my mere 25 years, I've moved nine times (that I remember). Four of those have been in the last 3 years. I hate moving. Like, really hate moving. I hate the packing, I hate the unpacking, I hate looking for a place, I hate using a storage facility, I hate putting Twila through it, I hate the total upheaval of me and my stuff, I hate finding a place for every little thing we own, I hate the stairs that are usually involved, I hate the stress, I hate finding a new grocery store, I hate leaping into the unknown. I just want to be settled. I want everything to have a permanent place. I want to have enough space to not have to stash stuff under furniture. I want all of my kitchen stuff to fit in the kitchen cabinets. I want to be able to decorate for holidays consistently. I want to be able to have people over. I want to live somewhere for longer than a year.
So after that paragraph, I'm sure you're thinking, "why on earth would she voluntarily move again?" And honestly, a tiny part of me has been wondering the exact same thing. So here's the scoop. I'm doing it for my amazing husband. Because he is awesome and I am so lucky to have him, and he's the leader of our household and this is the direction he's taking us right now. And because quite frankly we've been trying things our way for about 3 years now, and we've run into more than our fair share of closed doors.
When we moved back to the Austin area, James was able to transfer with LifeWay. And he's had lots of opportunities open up for him here at the Austin store. He's currently in charge of receiving as a part-time manager, among other things. He's been trusted with a lot of responsibilities, and I'm proud to say he's been really outstanding at everything they've asked of him. (Not that I'm biased or anything.) It's been suggested that he apply for several assistant manager positions in other cities. At the time we were still being stubborn and ignoring the prodding God was doing. And now the opportunity has presented itself for him to enter into the manager-in-training program to become a store manager. So we spent a lot of time praying, discussing, and crying over the decision and felt we couldn't ignore the prodding any longer. So we're going for it.
And man, is it scary. And slightly exciting. But mostly scary still. What all this means is that, right now he is working with his store manager, his district manager, and the guy in charge of the training program to get prepared to start the training. Some of the things the training will cover, he's already doing in the store. But there are other areas that they would like to see him improve in before he applies to start training. I think this is mostly because he is so young. One of the things they've asked him to do is work on being certified to be an assistant manager, even if he doesn't get a position as one right now. Ideally the guy in charge would like him to work as an assistant first, but I'm not entirely sure that's a requirement, I think it's just preferred. The way I see it, James is already doing a great job of proving himself to be a competent worker and very motivated, or his managers wouldn't have brought this up to start with. But no one ever asks me. :) From here we wait until January or February, at which point we have to start looking into actually applying and interviewing for the program (which will require a trip to Nashville). Then the plan, assuming he's accepted, would be for him to start the training program around March or April, so that he finishes in late July right as our lease is up. Assuming all of that goes as scheduled/planned, when he is finished we will be sent to the first store James would manage. This is where the moving comes in. Once he has finished the program, and there is an opening for a store manager, we can basically be sent to any one of LifeWay's 100+ stores in 27 different states, including Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, and Illinois to name a few.
I still won't claim to have written this blog very well, but there it is. Now you know. I also won't claim to be completely okay with this every day. Some days I'm mostly okay with it. But this is big stuff, and it's taking me a while to deal with it. And I won't at all claim to be ready to think about moving again, especially if it's out of state. But I can claim to be completely confident in my husband and his choices, and I know God won't take us anywhere we aren't supposed to be. And I can claim that I have fully learned that making my own plans never works, and that I am 300% ready to give in and try it His way. So that's what we're doing. And I'm determined to work on being excited about it. And I will do my best to keep everyone updated as we get more details.
And I promise to blog more now that I'm not working 7 days a week!
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