Well, it has been a whirlwind week! I think that an important part of life is learning to deal with the twists and turns, and finding joy in every path that God sends us on. At least that's what we are learning this week.
On Monday Josh came home from a long day at work, like always, tired and hungry. As we were talking he mentioned that he had met with his manager and discussed his year end evaluation. Of course everything was great as he has been progressing well and learning a lot in the ER. He had even received a raise. After he told me about his evaluation he mentioned that he was supposed to meet with the HR department the next day at noon. He knew that the Hospital was having financial difficulties and thought that perhaps they were going to be reducing the health benefits. So we prepared ourselves for a possible slight disappointment the next day.
When Josh got home from his meeting on Tuesday he told me that he had been laid off. The hospital was doing mass layoffs and they had to lay off 4 nurses in the ER alone. Even though Josh has worked for the hospital for 5 years, he had only been employed in the ER for about 8 months which left him one of the least experienced nurses in the ER.
I can not even describe to you the shock that we both felt. I think that it took several hours to really grasp what it meant to be jobless. However, the hospital is giving a severance package and cashing out his PTO bank, so we still have about 6 weeks of pay, and they will COBRA our insurance for 12 weeks. So even though we are jobless, we are not hopeless!
For the last couple of weeks we have been feeling strongly that we needed to prepare to move. We had discussed how we would love to move to Seattle and work at the University of Washington Hospital, and go to school at the University of Washington! But at this point it was still feeling like a dream.
However, Josh needed to complete his 2nd year as a nurse to receive the remainder of his sign on bonus (which would have been in 2 weeks) and we are in a lease with our house until the end of November. So even though we had been discussing a move, we did not think that it would be happening very quickly.
It's amazing how the Lord prepares us for the twists and turns when we don't even realize He is!
Tuesday night we went to the Temple to be comforted and to get guidance. And that is exactly what we got! We came home with a firm faith that the Lord will provide for us in this scary time. We felt that Josh would be able to get a job and that we were definitely going to be moving. We don't feel scared anymore... we're very excited!
Wednesday morning Josh began filling out applications for nursing positions he was qualified for at the UW Medical Center. Wednesday afternoon he received a call from the nurse recruiter and Friday morning he had a telephone interview with the manager of the Radiology Department! We do not know yet if he will be hired, but the nurse recruiter told Josh that she was determined to place him in their hospital! So we'll see what happens. It is sometimes difficult to have faith that Heavenly Father will provide for us when we can't see into the future to view the results! Maybe that is exactly what we need to learn in this experience. We are determined to just be faithful and diligent! (That's what we've been teaching the kids in Primary... that in order for the Holy Ghost to guide us, we have to be faithful and diligent)
After days of talking about what we are going to do and how we are going to do it, we have come up with very little! At the temple I felt that my responsibility in this trial was to get our family packed and ready to go. Josh hasn't had the motivation to pack, since he doesn't yet have a job. I can't deny my guidance from the Holy Ghost, so after talking today we decided that we just need to do what the Lord says to do even if we don't know why. So we are packing and planning on leaving very soon. There really is no point in staying here since Josh won't be applying for jobs in Las Vegas... so we might as well go visit my family in Washington until we know exactly where Josh will be working!
(I know that this is a really long post, and probably very boring... but the documentation is important for my journal!)
Now, to top it all off, Jorgan has been really sick for 3 days. And Rachel does not cope with change well. So with all the packing, the mess, and the non-routine way that life has gone this week... we have Rachel and Jorgan who are constantly crying and Elizabeth who is bored out of her mind! Josh took the girls to see Toy Story 3 tonight... so hopefully they will feel better tomorrow.
Well, I think that is everything for now... when we know if Josh has a job, I will update again. Until then... no pictures because my house is a disaster and that would be too embarrassing!
