Monday, April 16, 2012

Falling into place. . .

A few weeks ago, Doug went and hand-delivered an application for a Planner II position with the City of Anaconda/Deer Lodge County (its a combined government).  It was the only option, really, since it was the day the application was due and there was no way available for him to submit it online.  He got a call back almost immediately, asking him if he could come in and interview on the following Wednesday.  We both laughed a bit, about the fact that for more than a year he has submitted application after application after application and gotten no response at all (even the applications that he submitted just out of a we've-got-to-find-a-job desperation at retail outlets and the like),  and then the first open planning position we've come across in the state of Montana, he gets an interview.

I drove over to Anaconda with him for the interview and wandered around town on foot while he was in his meeting.  At first, I was having sort of this ugh type reaction--it looks pretty rough.  Its a small, old company town whose primary economic resource has been gone for years.  Kept thinking to myself, "Do I really wanna live here?"  And then I thought about what Mission and Laie and Lindsay must look like to outsiders, and those are all places that are very close to my heart, places where I very much felt at home.  And then I remembered San Luis Obispo.  It was beautiful, in so many ways.  There were lots of things I liked about living in the area, and I was mostly happy there.  But I was glad to leave, and haven't missed it much, because I never really felt at home there.  After that, I started seeing all kinds of fascinating things in my surroundings as I wandered town, and I actually started to feel really good about the possibility of it being our new home, at least for a while.

On the way home, Doug said that he felt really good about how the interview went, and he'd felt really good about it when he'd dropped the application off, too--that maybe it was a good fit for us, and we started thinking differently about how the next 5-10 years might go than what we had had in mind recently.  Friday morning, Katy called and told Doug that she and Chuck and Rachel were going to be leaving for Utah the next day and might be able to bring the rest of our stuff if we could get the UHaul arranged and all (a lot of our belongings were left in storage in California because of the circumstances in which we moved).  So Doug got the truck rented, and things set up with Chuck to get it loaded, and Saturday morning Chuck and Rachel loaded up our stuff in California, and we loaded up our kids and we all drove to Jen's house in Pleasant Grove.  We dyed eggs with the Tanner cousins and got to spend some time visiting with the grown ups, and we all did the Easter thing together on Sunday.

Monday morning, Doug got a call from Anaconda, offering him the job, as well as a some possible perks we hadn't expected (more on that as it develops).  He accepted the job, and after spending a couple more days enjoying the company of our extended Clark/Winter family, we headed home, me driving the van and Doug driving the UHaul.  Since Anaconda is actually on the way home, we got a hotel and stayed the night there, so Wednesday morning the kids and I got to meet Doug's new boss and all the folks who work in the office (seems like a really nice group of people--everybody was super friendly), and found a storage unit to unload our UHaul at and dropped off the truck (saving us both the hassle of driving it another 2 1/2 hours home, and the gas money of taking it that far).  We drove the kids all over town to help them get a feel for the new place we'll be, and after all that, we were passing the LDS church on the way out of town and saw that there were a few cars in the parking lot--it was Wednesday evening.  So we popped in and met the entire Bishopric (yes, they were all there on Wednesday night--I'm already impressed! LOL) and it turns out that the ward clerk has one of the big old Victorian houses in town, and he rents out the top floor (2 bedrooms and a kitchenette).  So Doug will be staying there during the week and coming home on the weekends through the summer, while the kids and I stay here so that they can finish the school year and enjoy the summer with their cousins and grandparents.

After a year and a half of feeling stressed and semi-rudderless, in a week we got a job interview, a job offer, found Doug a place to live, and got the rest of our belongings up from California.  All with, really, very minimal effort on our part.  Its almost been too easy. . .

There have been so many things that have happened the last couple weeks (besides all the big things mentioned above) that have reminded me that I have a Father who loves me, who loves my family and is mindful of each of us.  And I've remembered again that while the Lord sometimes asks us to push our limits, he doesn't ask us to push beyond them.  We feel quite blessed.

2 comments:

Nate and Annah Butterfield said...

Yay!! I'm so excited for y'all!!! I know that's a huge relief!

Sam and Kurtis said...

can i just tell you how excited i am for you!!!!! I acutally quite like the old charm of anaconda. Let us know when if you need any help. And when you get a house so we can come see you on the way home the next time where headed that way. again So so so so excited for you