The stories of a blessed life: Finally a new post!

(James cuddling to keep warm in our new "apartment")

So our lives sure have changed the last month! Here's the story. One Sunday night, I was searching for teaching jobs on jobsnd and I happened to come across a teaching position available at Jim Hill Middle School in Minot, ND. Now we have had terrible luck finding teaching jobs, so I wasn't too optimistic, but we figured that with the recent flooding, they might be a little more motivated to find a teacher!

So Nate finished up his Resume etc. and mailed it in Monday morning. he then called the school district and was greeted with much enthusiasm and interest. He got a call Tuesday morning asking if they could set up a skype interview for Thursday. We were really on the fence at this point. Do we take the job if they offer? Where would we live? What would we do with our house?? What about daycare and my job? So we decided to pray and take it one step at a time. Nate informed his boss at the Mission that he was going to be interviewing for a teaching job in Minot, and they were very understanding and supportive.

Nate did his skype interview on Thursday morning (wonders of modern technology!) and they called him back an hour later offering him the job. He of course said he would need some time to pray and think it over. They gave him 24hrs. They had other candidates and needed to know by Friday (the next day) Technically new teachers were supposed to start on Friday. So we prayed and thought about all of our options. We had nowhere to live. How were we going to afford it? We decided to take a leap of faith and accept the job. That evening, The principal texted Nate and let him know that there was a lady at her church who had an apartment for rent that she really wanted a family to move in to it (and not one of the many oil-field men in the town) We contacted her and found the apartment was still available.

The "apartment" was in actuality the basement of an old 1950s church. It is how you would imagine the basement of a church to look. It is 1000sq. feet of tile floor, and an open ceiling with tracks for room separators. A small kitchen with green counter tops and a serving window. She did put in a washer and dryer, and a shower in the bathroom. We decided to take this $900 dollar a month "apartment" since there was NOWHERE else to live and we knew there will still people who lost their homes in the flood looking for somewhere to call home.

Back to the story, Nate called the Minot School District on Friday and accepted the position. I called the landlord of the apartment and told her we would be taking the apartment. Nate found out he would need to be in Minot by Tuesday morning to start work. Nate's family was up the weekend so we pretty much spent the weekend hanging out and enjoying ourselves before the whirlwind of the next month would take place.

Nate's mom generously offered to come up and stay with James while I work. I work 12hr shifts rotating between days and nights, so this obviously doesn't work when there is no one there to pick up James from daycare at 5 or be home with him at night. We decided to keep our house in EGF for now, as we would have to sell it for a loss and we really do like the house. I am going to continue working at my job 24hrs a week. Nate's position in Minot is a one-year contract, so we will find out in the spring if he will be asked to stay on for the next school year. I am learning to take life one day at a time.

In the meantime, James and I flew down to Atlanta to visit my mom, sister, nephew, and aunt Susan over labor day weekend. It was so wonderful to see them all. We hadn't seen each other in over a year! James sure has changed a lot in the last 12 months!!