Friday, May 01, 2009

God's Goodness continued....

On March 11, 2009, I wrote a blog entry regarding our current status. I wrote how God had carried us through four months without a steady income and how He used friends, family and anonymous gifts to get us through. Not much had changed until mid April hit!!! What a whirlwind...

I need to back up a little....back in September of 2009 our neighborhood had been blessed with a new couple. They moved in across the street from us. They have no children, but have desired to. Joel had gotten to know them while out in the yard and chatting from time to time. I was yet to meet them.

I finally met "A" in early December. She had walked over and rang the doorbell. Joel answered, but I was on the phone. My neighbor left and returned home. When I hung up the phone finally, I felt compelled to get dressed and walk over to meet her. I'm so glad that I did.

We sat down and chatted for over an hour and within that hour's time we had shared many things. Womanly issues, religion, faith and work situations. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to tell her our current financial status. She felt very bad and took it upon herself to try and find my husband a job. She spoke with her husband and he in-turn found out that his place of employment had positions opening. Joel applied and we waited. And waited. And waited!!

In the meantime the neighbor would pop over and ask if we had heard anything yet regarding the position. We hadn't, so she continued to talk with her husband about it. She asked on several occasions if he had heard anything. Thankfully her husband did some checking around and found out that Joel's application and resume' were put into a "reject" pile. Upon further investigation he found out that the people hiring were skeptical and thought that Joel was over qualified. Our neighbor insisted that they take another look at his application and reassured them that we had indicated we were done with our business. We were closing our doors and no longer were going to be open. They then pulled out Joel's information again - PRAISE GOD!!

He finally heard on April 9 via email that he was expected to be at a certain hotel at a certain time for an all day testing, background check and interview process. We were so excited! In the meantime Joel had made arrangements to fly up to AK and do some temporary electrical work to get us by. He was all set to go and the confirmation and travel was to take place the following week. On Wed., April 15, Joel made sure that he was on the location he needed to be and was ready for the interview. It was a long day, but he felt very good about how the day went. Before leaving the interview, he was told that the candidate picked will be notified the following week.

On Thursday, April 16th, Joel was all set to travel and get up to AK on Friday, April 17th. All of his flights and information was confirmed at 3:30pm. At 5pm on April 16th, Joel received another email from a major railroad company, thanking him for interviewing on the 15th and offering him a position for conditional employment. WOW!! Our world was getting very interesting by the minute!!

Joel weighed the pros and cons with a friend about still going to AK for a shorter time or not. He decided he needed to stay in MN to be available for the further testing and background checks that this railroad needed him to perform before starting. I was relieved to hear that Joel wasn't going to travel to AK. The next morning instead of hopping on a plane, he called up to AK and announced that he had been hired here locally!! Praise God!! The people in AK completely understood.

Over the next two weeks, Joel would run off to appointments that were set up for him and finally on April 29th he received another email congratulating him on passing all of his testing and wondering if he could start work on the 1st of May.

We were excited. It has been a journey of emotions. Closing down a business, turning a leaf to a new career has been quite the transition. We are so grateful to God for everyone he put in our path to help us on our journey. God has carried us every step that needed to be taken.

God provided a neighbor who stuck his neck out and was an advocate for my husband, who he had barely known.

We are so excited for Joel's new job. Today was his first day and I'm anxious to hear how it all went. God has been there for the closing of our doors and the opening of this door. He carried Joel through interviewing and testing. I know God has carried him through his first day. I can't wait to see what God has for us now through this job and with our neighbors!!

2 comments:

Mamita J said...

Joel and Lori,

Congratulations! I am so glad to hear of God's faithfulness in the storms of life. May God bless your family as you continue in this adventure.

Love,
Julie

Jenny and Matt said...

That's great news, Lori. I am so glad for the peace your family will have over this!

Praise the Father, Praise the Son!

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