Sunday June 15, will mark TEN years that Jake has been working at My Employees. A few times over the years, I have tried to find the post about when he took this job and each time I realize that I never actually did a blog post about this BIG job change. It did make Instagram. In hindsight, no blog post was probably due to being rather busy with little kids and also how quickly the transition was from a WCA teacher to the Art Director at My Employees. So on this ten year anniversary, I am going to write down this story. This blog is our family photo album, but also a way that we REMEMBER how God has directed and provided for our family. This was a major Ebenezar, stone of remembrance, for our family. Many times, while retelling the details of 2015, I have been struck with how 2015 was a crazy year of changes and transitions and experiencing God's faithfulness.
It was a Thursday evening in late May of 2015, just 3 days before Ella's 3rd birthday. The kids were in bed and Jake casually mentioned to me, "what if next year is my last year teaching." I was trying to not have a completely shocked face as I nonchalantly asked, "what do you think you would want to do instead of teaching?" Remember that in July of 2014 we took MAPP to become foster parents. In October of 2014, we decided that I would be staying home full time as we welcomed more kids. We did this as a step of obedience, but it also did not make sense on paper for me to not have a part time job, Jake is on a teacher's salary and our family is welcoming more children. Back to our conversation... Jake said he was interested in video production for a church, graphic design or possibly police work. We decided we would pray about it; he would have a whole school year to look for options and plan.
Well that Sunday morning, 3 days later, our friend Teena approached Jake at church. She told Jake that the graphic designer at her workplace was fired on Friday and Jake should apply ASAP. I was serving in the church nursery that morning. When Jake told me this afterwards, I was shocked. We had mentioned this to no one. It had only been 3 days. We hadn't really even had time to pray about it. Jake decided to pursue this. He called the employer, updated his resume, applied for the job, and started the interview process. He had some homework to do - a couple videos to create, to show them what he was capable of.
The timing of all this can only be explained by God and His sovereignty. This was the only couple of weeks out of the school year that Jake was not under a teaching contract. The WCA school year had just ended. They were in the midst of out-service. When Jake's administrator asked him about signing a contract for the next school year, Jake let him know that he was interviewing for another position and would need another week or so. Also during this 2 week period, we were at a Child Family Team meeting and that day we found out that Serenity was on the way. Benny's birth parents were expecting another child and she was about 12 weeks along.
God's blessing's are not always financial, but this new job was a big financial blessing as we went from a family of 4 to a family of 6 all in 2015. Another blessing was that Jake was home every single night for dinner. Jake previously had a lot of responsibilities with athletics at WCA and this kept him at the gym and field a lot of evenings and some weekends. We were also able to make some other changes for our family, that God had previously stirred in our hearts.
"This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." Psalm 118:23
Today, Jake was appreciated for his 10 years.
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