Finally, after applying to over 40 different places, I was called last week for an interview, and was told on the spot that I had a job! Believe me, after being unemployed since mid-February, I was doing the happy dance.
So what am I doing now? I am a residential service provider, which means that I will be going into homes and being a caregiver, something like a home aide. I won't be doing any nursing duties as I am not trained for that, but will be a companion, may have some housekeeping duties in some households, and I will be there to help out my clients. The agency serves a mostly MR/DD population.
Though I cannot give out many details due to confidentiality, what I can tell you is that 4 nights per week, I will be caring for a bed and wheelchair bound young teen boy. I am there at night and turn him when he sleeps and get him drinks of water. Like a normal teen, he tries to stay up as late as possible playing video games. We get along great. He is just an amazing kid.
Tomorrow I will train at a different home and will probably get some work hours every other weekend. While I will be working 32 hours a week with my teen client, I will also work in other homes for more hours.
I think I am really going to enjoy this kind of work. I am just meant to work with people, and am happiest doing something that helps others. It doesn't pay anywhere near what I was earning as a counselor, but I think I will be happier with this work because I was under so much pressure at my last job. Also, while I was counseling, my clients were court ordered and not exactly wanting to be there. Now I have clients who truly appreciate the work I will be doing to help them. I also like this because I can actually show affection to my clients. My last job was very hands off, with the exception being if I was ending treatment with a client, many asked for a hug, but I had to make sure that there was actually very little physical contact during the hugs (we were trained how to do this). I love that I can give my client hugs, pat him on the back, rub his head.
This is really an answer to prayer.
Many of you have asked how things are coming along with the house on Bonnie Lane. I am still in limbo there. I was rejected for the government loan modification, but am now going through traditional channels to see if I can be approved for a lower monthly payment. One of the things that was hindering me was that I was not employed...several days after I was told that could keep me from being approved, I got the job! Answer to prayer! Thank you, Lord!
Many of you have also asked me how I can be so upbeat with all the things that have happened to me in the last few months. I have always been a woman who has had to depend on herself. I really do not have people that I can fall back on, no one to take care of me when I am sick, no place to go if I don't have a roof over my head, no one to help me out financially. I have always prided myself on my independence and self reliance. My security has been my good health, my home, and my job. Then starting this fall, all of my security was shaken like never before.
In September I found out that I was diabetic. I did not really get upset about this as I took it as a big wake-up call that I needed to take better care of myself and change my ways. I adopted a new lifestyle and way of eating and have dropped 60 pounds, and am still losing weight, but more slowly now. However, Thanksgiving night I became very ill with what I thought was the flu. It turned out to be my gall bladder and almost two weeks later I had surgery. Due to my gall bladder being hardened, gangrenous, and stuck to my fatty tissues (I know, yukkkkkk!), I had to have the traditional surgery and was cut open. I missed 6 weeks of work. Shortly after returning to work, I lost my job, and my house had gone into foreclosure and a sherrif's sale was imminent, so I moved to a duplex.
Yes, everything that I always counted on was shaken, and I admit that for a while I was shaken too. However, prior to getting sick, I was having an extremely stressful and difficult time at work (not related to my clients). In some ways, the time off was a blessing. Losing my job after I returned was also a shock, and I still don't completely understand why I was one of them chosen to be let go when funding was cut, but I was assured by my employer that it was nothing personal and that I had been a very good employee. I was given a great letter of recommendation. At that time, I knew that I had no resources to try to save my house. I moved out the weekend that the house was to have been sold at a sherrif's auction. I did that rather than wait until I had an eviction notice because I wanted to be sure that I had a good place to live, and the duplex was just perfect. (No one told me that the auction had been cancelled, or why. I believe it had to do with new programs coming into place so that homes could be saved from foreclosure.)
Though I was sad to lose the house and my job, I also felt a new sense of freedom. Yes, it was my dream house and my dream job, but I knew that there could be a new dream house someday and a new job that I may like even better. Losing both would open the path to relocating someday. I figured that though I didn't know why, God had something else for me to do and that he could be opening new doors for me. It also left open the possibility that if I should meet someone in another area, that I would be free to move without the encumbrance of a house or career. I wasn't worried about how I would get by, because I had unemployment to tide me over. I had to cut back big time and some weeks we just scrape by and I go to my change jar just to be able to buy milk or a loaf of bread, but we manage.
This time of unemployment has actually been a blessing. I finally had time to read, to have hobbies, to tap into my creativity, and actually have time to rest and reflect, and you know what? It was wonderful! I chose to look at this as a time that God gave me. All I had done in the past 20+ years was work and go to school full time, and sometimes I was doing both, and most of this was as a single parent.
I never thought of myself as a woman of faith, but I can honestly say that for most of the time, I did not worry about how my needs would be met. God would provide.
And now God has provided me with a job. I still don't know if I will get my house back, but if I don't, I know that God has something else in plan for me. I will be happy right here in my little apartment if I don't have the house. I know that I was put here to bloom where I am planted. I'm not sure what his plan for me is, but I know that He has my best interests in His hands and He knows the purpose for all of this. I am at peace, and I have excitement for my future.
And this is why I smile.
