Silly Superstitions

Alright, I have a confession to make. I am by nature a very superstitious person, which is odd, in that the very idea of fate, destiny and/or serendipity, etc. actually go against what my logical core beliefs are. I know quite certainly that there is a God, and that he indeed wants me to be happy. I know that the good things that happen in life are blessings, not "luck". I know that if something doesn't workout the way I think it should, it's not because I walked under a ladder or opened that umbrella inside the house and simply fated myself to "7 years of bad luck." You see, I KNOW these things... but I have to admit that I've been avoiding my blog over the past few weeks because my silly superstitious nature has gotten the best of me!

Some of you are aware of our never-ending search for a better job, and hopefully the answer to the still unanswered school question that's been hanging over our heads. Well, a lot of you probably know that a couple of months ago, Rick applied for an air traffic control position with the FAA. It being a government position, we knew not to hold our breath since, A. It was a long shot, and B. Even if they did consider him, the government officially moves at roughly the speed of cold molasses. Well as it turned out, two months after applying, we received a phone call saying that Rick's application made it through the first "weed-out" and that he was asked to move onto the next step which was a long (and rather stupid, might I add) test. It turned out to be horrible timing, since the test was being given on the day that Rick had a very important district-wide manager meeting. It was beginning to look like we either had to throw out the FAA job (and the possibility of a future career) or Rick would simply have to skip work and pray that they wouldn't fire him. (For those of you who know Rick, this second option was almost not an option for the poor boy. He is about the hardest worker you'll ever know, rarely misses work even when sick, and would NEVER leave an employer in a lurch. If you need evidence of that, ask me about the time he tried to go to work with over 14" of snow on the ground and got stuck in the driveway... it's a funny story) Anyways, since neither of us wanted to make that decision, we decided to pray about it and then avoid it until the very last second. :-) We knelt down to pray before Rick left for work that morning and I'm not kidding you... Rick called me within 2 hours and told me that he'd gotten a message that his meeting had suddenly been cancelled and he would now be free to take that day off and go take the test. Talk about your not-so-everyday lightning bolt. At this point I'm fairly certain that this whole experience may just kill me. I am NOT a patient person. I like to be in control of things, and when I decide on something, I like to act upon it immediately. I'm not dead yet, but I've informed Rick to add a post to my blog informing all of you when I finally die from the unknown. :-)

So, back on Aug. 21st, Rick took the test. He was nervous, I was nervous, it was bad. Once again, we were told to WAIT. They said that within 7-10 days we'd get a letter in the mail letting us know if he passed or not. Lucky for me and my total impatience, I remembered that when he applied online, there was a place to check the status of your application and the whole process. A couple of days ago it was updated to show that Rick PASSED the test!!! I thought after knowing whether he passed or not that I would be able to relax. WRONG. Now, they tell us that his application, resume, and test results were sent off to the office here in Albuquerque to be reviewed. It's waiting time again. The website officially says: you may or may not be contacted for an interview. Are these people freakin' kidding me?!?

The first thing I wanted to do after hearing he'd gotten accepted to take the test, was come write about it on my blog. And THEN... the superstitions crept in... What if I jinxed it? What if, by telling people how excited I was, I caused the fates to step in and put me back in my place? Isn't the universe just that cruel?!? I know, it sounds stupid. But I kept my itching fingers away from the keyboard and daydreamed about the future blog I would write. And then the Lord really answered our prayers by opening up that door for us and allowing Rick to test. I thought for sure that meant something, right? The Lord wouldn't go to all that trouble if He didn't think that this job was a good thing, right? I put those thoughts aside pretty quickly. I know better than to pretend to know what God is thinking. :-) Sometimes an entire experience can merely be for the benefit of learning. Tough as it may be. So, I definitely couldn't write in my blog before we knew whether Rick had passed. I promised myself that once I got the results, if they were good, I would then allow myself to get excited. When I got the results I was all ready to share the great news. But once again I started to fear that possibility of "jinxing" it. I've been stalling for the past 3 days. But today I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore, and although this whole thing may completely fall through, I am just too excited about the possibility to stay quiet. That, and I desperately need all of you to start praying for us!!!! :-)

Okay, that's enough about the job stuff. That took way longer than I thought it would. But before I go, I need to make a little shout-out in honor of my in-laws. They have recently agreed to start watching Noah 1 day a week to allow me to work a little more. Noah adores them and it's such a blessing not to worry about leaving him with people he isn't totally comfortable with. He is the first and only grandchild for them and he loves all the attention. And, because people keep telling me that I need to put pictures on my blog, I thought I would start out with one of the boy playing with his new "Mac Truck" that grandma and grandpa bought him.

Can I just say that I've got the cutest little boy EVER?!?