After almost four years of not writing in my blog, a lot has
happened. Of course, Cora was born, which was a huge blessing to my
family and me before I left my family for more than six months to a far off
place on the other side of the globe due to work. It was during that time
that I missed Cora crawl for the first time. It broke my heart not to be
there. Then I left for another work trip for about two months during
which time, my little Co-Co took her first steps and started walking.
Before Cora entered our family, I already desired to leave the work I was in
and move back closer to family in St. Louis. I was at those moments that
I missed large portions of my children's live that I wanted it more than
anything else in the world. However, the Lord always knows us better than
we know ourselves. He knew I wasn't ready to leave my work yet. So,
we ended up in Alaska from 2012 until last year. It was a blessing to be
in such a beautiful spot of the world. It was there that Nikki was
inspired to home school Savannah. If it hadn't been for Alaska, I don't
know that she ever would have attempted such a task. Now she is home
schooling Porter and Savannah, and that is no easy feat when attempting to home
school two elementary age children while raising a baby and a 3 year old
toddler. Although challenging, it has also been a blessing in our lives
and in our children's lives. In the beginning of 2014, I found out that
my employer was going to offer pay for a certain amount of employees to leave
the organization in September of that year. As soon as I heard the news,
I didn't think it was an option just because I thought Nikki wouldn't want to
pursue it, and I didn't have any job prospects even in the least. I mentioned
the payoff in passing to Nikki. It was later that day, she told me that
we should go for it. I was shocked, but pleasantly so. She told me
about how she had been looking at pictures of her family and mine and felt the
Spirit with much intensity. The next day, I handed in my paperwork to
separate from my job. It took about two and a half months before I heard
a response, for it wasn't automatic that my employer would allow me to
leave. They had to approve my early separation which was based off a lot
of factors and variables. When I went to talk to my boss about my
decision, he was supportive, but told me that he was sure that the submission
would be denied. On April 3, 2014 I received the email telling me that my
employer had accepted my application to separate early. What an amazing
feeling! At first I felt so excited that I jumped and hollered.
Then I got on my knees and thanked Heavenly Father. I think Nikki felt
the same emotions only I'm sure it was times ten, since she was about eight
months pregnant. But after the initial excitement faded, fear began to
creep in. I didn't have any job prospects, and I had from that point
until September 29th to find something before my income ended.
Thankfully, I had a good part-time job lined up which could give us great
benefits. I eventually was offered that position in May. I couldn't
start that position until my current full-time job ended in September.
However, I still needed full-time work besides that. I submitted application
after application online, and resume after resume. I contacted as many
friends and acquaintances as I could think of from Alaska to St. Louis. I
even began fasting every Sunday. It seemed like many opportunities came
along, but then they would eventually slip through the cracks. On July
9th, we left Alaska and flew back to St. Louis. From there, we lived with
Nikki's parents for a bit, then with my parents for a bit, and finally with
Nikki's brother, Merrill and his family for a time. For about five months
we lived with family as I continued to search for full-time work. In the
beginning of August, I went to visit the part-time employer I was supposed to
start with on September 30th. I met quite a few of the personnel I was to
be working with. One in particular worked at a full-time job that I was
very interested in. After being introduced to him, he showed me positions
that were open in that organization. In fact, there were positions open
in the exact same division in which he worked. I applied to those positions
that very night. However, I wasn't very optimistic as I knew that it
could take awhile to get hired into those positions. As the time got
closer to September 29th, the more opportunities seemed to dangle in front of
me, only to be squashed moments later. Around the first part of
September, I became very discouraged, losing much of the faith I had in what I
was doing. I love Nikki so much, for she is the one who always knows what
to do when I get discouraged and lost. She told me to go to my father-in-law
for a priesthood blessing. So, I did. In that blessing he mentioned
many things, but what hit me more than anything was that he told me that I
needed to pay my tithing. The Spirit was very strong. Nikki and I
hadn't transferred our membership records of the Church from Alaska to Nikki's
parents' ward. I had been calculating and saving the money we needed to
pay tithing, but I hadn't taken the steps to give it to the proper
representative of the Lord. That next Sunday, I had our Church records
transferred and paid our tithing. Also, after my father-in-law gave me
that wonderful blessing I felt prompted to look online to see the status of the
job I applied to after meeting the future co-worker at my future part-time job
that mentioned earlier. My status had changed to "referred",
which meant I was being considered for the job. It was on September 26th
that I got a phone call from that employer offering me the position that I have
wanted since I learned about the organization in 2009. Although I was
going to be taking a huge pay cut, my family and I could still make the pay
work. Especially, since the pay cut would be for a short time, as I would
be making up the pay in a few years after being there. I also was going
to have the best schedule I could ever hope for with weekends (most importantly
Sundays) off. The only draw back at the time was that I had to go through
the inprocessing phase which meant that I couldn't start the job right
away. At that point, I knew we were probably going to have to go through
all of October without any steady income. Fortunately, I was putting
money aside for such a case. I also found out that there was the
possibility of my part-time job offering me full-time work for a few months
while I waited to get into my full-time job. I contacted my part-time job
after I started it, but did not get much response in October. I then
fasted the last week of October, that I could get full-time work at my
part-time job. That next weekend, I was offered the opportunity to work
full-time until December. I fasted again the first weekend of December
for more full-time work, and again I was offered more full-time work until the
end of January 2015. In December, we also received the blessing of
getting into a cheaper townhouse that we could call home for a year. The
Lord also blessed us with a start date for my full-time job to begin February
9, 2015. What a roller-coaster of a ride 2014 has been. There are
many blessings and details which I have left out and will write about later,
most notably and importantly Henry Martin Kelly, the newest addition to our
family. What testimony builder this time has been for my family and
me. I know that it is only because of God and His mercy that we have been
blessed so much. Fasting, prayer, paying tithing, and priesthood
blessings work. I know they do. I am a witness that they do and
that God listens to us and helps us and strengthens us when we go to Him.
"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger
in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the
filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and
the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of
their yielding their hearts unto God." (Helaman 3:35)
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