You wouldn't know it from this post...but I am trying to get away from talking so much, and showing more pictures in posts...lol....maybe starting tomorrow?? ;)
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If you would have told me 7 months ago we'd be out of the Marine Corps AND still living in Arizona, I would have told you that you were nuts.
It was Christmas Eve and we were packing for our plane trip to California on Christmas Day. I didn't want to cook and mess up the kitchen, so we got take-out Chinese food, which is a Christmas Eve tradition in my husband's family, anyway.
My fortune cookie gave me this little note...
I'm not one to believe in these things, but I thought it was nice, so I put it on my fridge.
We came back a week later with the
new feeling we needed to get out. We realized we were at the end of our road with the Corps, and we were trusting God to show us the rest of the road.
We had just been told the renters were moving out of our house in N. Carolina, and knowing the economy there, our house would be a trial to sell or re-rent.
It has been.
Even now, almost 8 months gone...it is still sitting empty.
If you've read my past posts, you know that this challenge with our short sale and leaving the Marine Corps has been a pretty stressful one. Being 18 when he enlisted, my husband had just learned to drive, never had a real job, never had to interview for anything, and had no vision for what he wanted to do in his future.
He joined the Marine Corps because God told him to.The night before he went off to boot camp, we hung out for only the second time. We left and I said "Ill write to you". Letters and hours of phone calls...4 years of "dating" long distance... and then 5 years of marriage and 2 girls later, we continue to just trust in God.
I couldn't have orchestrated it any better. Well, of course I wouldn't plan to be going through a short-sale or other financial stresses that have come and gone, but I know that its all part of our story. It was written before time.
Before Levi even finished his last month with the Marine Corps, he had been asked to interview for Intel. We would have to fork over money for a plane ticket to N Carolina, and some travel expenses for him to just go attempt an interview. It was going to be a costly "maybe" kind of thing, but we did it anyway.
Within a day he had the ticket, the new suit, and his bag packed.
He came home feeling unsure, but when the job offer came over email the following week, we knew what we were supposed to do. How awesome would it be for God to supply a great job with half of the hours he had been working as a recruiter, same money, just 20 minutes from where we already lived.
That's what He did.
Our hopes to move near family in Northern California were dashed, and we were sad. We accepted the job anyway, since we knew we couldn't gamble a living in California with no job.
After his last day of recruiting, he had 2 weeks of "decompression time" before starting his Intel job.
I knew he would have some mental breakthroughs during that time, but I didn't realize how much of a "mini- mid-life crisis" we would experience. Recruiting is more than a job....heck, being a Marine is more than just a job. Deployment and the stress of recruiting had gotten to him more than we had had time to realize.
Many times he'd just sit and have "light-bulb moments"... things like making plans for his future were new to him. Before the Corps would tell him what he was going to do and when.
He left for work on his first day at Intel...I said a prayer and hoped it would be a good one. I kind of felt like a mommy letting her kid go off to kindergarten, hoping the other kids would be nice and not do anything detrimental to him.
I was relieved and ecstatic to see his smile and hear his positive words about his first day. I knew it was going to be a good change for him and for us. He says people want to talk to him, and eat lunch with him.
Daily, he has something new to tell me about Intel.
He starts with "Did you know...." and I just have to let him tell me, even though its obvious I don't speak "tech-geek" language at all.
He's excited to be talking to engineers about tech-stuff, and having a video game break room with all you use PlayStation's, x-boxes, and endless Starbucks coffee and fruit.
He's now in his second week and on his way to finishing some training.
In the Marine Corps, they take classes about weapons safety, and tacticsAt Intel, Levi has to attend classes about how not to get "keyboard wrist" or "gaming-related injuries"LOL!You should've heard the shock and seen his face when he got the text from a new co-worker asking to hang out. He looked like a deer in the headlights..not knowing how to respond.
Its fun to see Levi gaining new confidences in an area of his life, and making friends. I can't count the number of times he's said "I can't believe people actually want to hang out with me"
We've got a lot of hope and our future riding on God's plans, and I am just so thankful we don't have to figure all of this crazy life out.
We couldn't be more blessed, with happy-healthy daughters, and a job.
Please continue to pray for us, our short-sale, my small-business/hobby and our beauties.
If you have a prayer-request, please let me know too!
Happy Tuesday!
I had just attended a "vintage" sale and had been gawking the many chalk paint creations: frames, side tables, buffets and dressers...when I decided to stop at Goodwill.
