It's completely out there and the people that need to know before I announce it to the whole world (ha ha, like the whole world reads this little piece of the internet!) have been made aware.
I've been with the company I work for today for almost ELEVEN years. That's a LONG time. I started in the call center and moved my way up to a Senior Manager in one of our Customer Service units.
While I was there...
I met Mike.
I got married.
I had Rylie.
I had Zoe.
I grew up.
I'm far from being done growing up (for those of you snickering at me because you know my age!), but it's a fact that I started there as a young single mom, still a kid myself, and have grown into a 30-something wife and mom of three. Much of my identity is wrapped up in the fact that I've been with this company for so long.
In addition to growing in worldly ways, I've grown spiritually too - again, not done yet. But well on my way to being who God created me to be. As part of that process, God began to change my heart, change my outlook on life and my career. I remember a time when I wanted to give as much of myself to my job as they wanted...the promotions and raises I received felt good! So I kept on giving and giving and giving and giving...but as I started to grow up, I started to realize that I was putting way more effort into my job than I should have been. Don't get me wrong - God calls us to be good workers in whatever we do, and my job is important to me. But God also calls me to be a few other things first, before being an employee - first, a child of His. Second, a wife. Third, a mom...THEN, an employee. The problem was that I had gone so far in one direction, it was virtually impossible to back up. I could no longer focus on the things that I knew I was good at in my job - I couldn't give back any of the jobs I had eagerly accepted along the way, trying to climb the ladder. And, suddenly I realized that my family was competing against my job for my attention.
So, I started considering a career change. Around the same time I started thinking seriously about making a change, my work world changed and I got SUPER busy...like, unbearable busy. I had to make a choice daily to work extra hours to "get ahead" (which you can never really do) or leave it at the door and go home to my family. Then, rinse and repeat every day. It was a struggle for months, and I didn't always succeed at leaving it at the door.
I began to realize that God may have been nudging me towards making a change. So, to make a long story short, I started venturing out "in faith" and looking. I say "in faith" with quotes because God used a series of events to show me that I wasn't really trusting Him with my future. I just knew I wanted a change, and I was ready to GO.
I interviewed with a company and things were going really well...it was looking good. Like really good. I really liked the company and the people, it seemed like they really liked me. No gotchas. Even so, I was anxious and wanted to know right away if I got the job. A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in rush hour traffic one morning and I posted the following status on my FaceBook page (don't judge about the driving and the FaceBooking...I was CRAWLING):
I find myself thankful right now that I don't have to have all the answers or figure anything out...I just have to live in God's will and follow in obedience.
In that moment (and since then) I finally really believed what I was saying. I really did let go and decided that God really did know best, and the job was either mine or not mine by His design, and all the worrying in the world couldn't change that. The only "job" I had in that moment was to wait patiently for Him to reveal what would happen next, and trust that whatever it was, it was in His hands.
So...later that day, I went to meet with the company I had been interviewing with one last time. And, they offered me the job! Before I even left the office! I actually fell down the stairs on my way out of the building because I was walking so excitedly (no lie...thankfully I was in the parking garage, not in their 22nd floor office so they didn't see). Just on my ankle, not all the way down on the floor. Still...really?!?!
The next step was to turn in my notice at my current job. To the boss I'd worked for for eight years. Who had no idea I was looking. So I did. And it was hard. But I'd come so far in trusting God up to this point, I knew He'd carry me through this too. And He did.
So fast forward almost two weeks later, and I'm almost through my two week notice. For this Friday (and this Friday only) I will be "unemployed". My last day is Thursday, and I start my new job on Monday!
This post ended up being mush longer than I anticipated. But these last couple of weeks have been an important part of my life, and as a result, an important part of my family's life, so thanks for letting me share.
I'll be sure to share more updates as I begin my new adventure! :)
