It
has been pretty quiet on the blog since returning from Thailand and since
the last post about Andrea’s graduation. Life however has been quite busy with
changes a plenty which have resulted in this, our first post from the ‘Cap’ (as I
call it) where we moved four weeks ago. It really is quite an amazing story and to do it justice would take far
too long a post. The easiest way to sum up the past five months is perhaps give
a timeline of our experiences.
March
29 – I return from three months in Thailand, though the last two weeks were in
Singapore where I was given the opportunity to help set up Workplace Options
new office. Andrea had already been back two weeks for her final classes at
Duke
April
4 – I returned to work in Raleigh and soon discussed a job opening in DC that had
become available. Andrea meanwhile (as she had been for
months) continued applying for positions that would somehow connect and put her
skills to work combatting human trafficking and forced labor issues.
May
11-12 – Andrea graduates!
May
22 – I interviewed in DC to join the USAID Staff Care Center and began the wait to hear back. That same week,
Andrea was invited to interview for a job which was soon offered to her. We
wrestled back and forth about it as it really wasn't where she wanted to focus (Do we
make a decision out of fear? Wisdom? Faith?) and she eventually said no to it
as it wasn’t a good fit.
This
is where it starts to get exciting! Five minutes after making the decision, she
sent an email to a contact in DC who she had tried to contact numerous times
over the previous week but each time the email came back. This time
though, it went through and within 5 minutes the contact responded AND let
Andrea know that she had forwarded her resume on to three people at different government agencies that work on human trafficking issues – one of which was an office that Andrea had been
trying to get in contact for more than a year. Within another five or ten minutes,
two people in that office had responded positively and also alerted her to a job that had just opened up that day. Andrea was beyond excited!
Meanwhile
we had been told that we could not extend our lease for our house in Durham past the end of May (we had
hoped to go month to month) as the owner wanted a commitment from someone for
the school year. Eventually we were allowed to stay through the end of July.
But we were now in limbo and waiting not knowing if either of us would get the
jobs we had applied for, but knowing that we would have to move somewhere at
the end of July. We were both at times frustrated and overwhelmed as the
waiting continued and continued for what seemed like a very long time.
We were so grateful for our Duke Chapel Congregation book group (that had met once a month for the school year - photo to the right) and other friends at church who were so supportive in our time of not knowing what was going to happen - which caused a fair bit of angst!
At
some point in June, I had agreed to go up to DC to fill in at the Staff Care
Center for the third week in July…but I still didn’t know if I was going to
get the position. I thought that this might be awkward if I was going to be filling in but
didn't get the job! For various reasons the decision was delayed and so the wait and uncertainty and anxiety continued as we got closer
to July.
July
5 – I received the offer that so many at my work said would happen and
accepted. I’m still employed by Workplace Options in Raleigh but basically secunded
to the USAID Staff Care Center. Now that we knew we were moving, we knew we only had
about THREE WEEKS to find a place to live, pack and move! Thankfully we had the
week scheduled in DC already and work was great in giving me/us a few extra days
to go early and look for a place to live. By this point we realized (or perhaps
remembered again) that God really is looking after us. We were able to take the
company car for the week which had a GPS which totally saved us as we did our
own version of House Hunters! AND we found a great place to live (more on that
in another post!)
July
12 – While we were in DC for the week, Andrea heard back from the HR department about the job she had
tried so hard not to get her hopes up, and was told that would not be having an interview. This was really
difficult news as everything seemed to be working out so well. Keep in mind,
Andrea returned to school as she felt very called to human trafficking work and
she had applied to so many jobs and it seemed like every door was being closed
to something she/we had sacrificed the past three years for.
July
24-25 – Final work days for me in Raleigh. WPO again was great in giving me the
rest of the month off to pack and move.
My counselor coworkers threw a great potluck for me, even though at this
point they thought I had used up all my potlucks. When we left in December to
go to Thailand they had a potluck and when I returned in April, another one. My
counseling co-workers have certainly been the highlight of the past two years
working in Raleigh.
July 26-August 1 – Pack our house up and start loading the Budget truck again.
August
2 – Drive to DC (There will be another post coming on the lessons learned from
this moving experience!)
August
2 – Here’s the kicker…As we were driving up to DC, Andrea got a voice mail from
the human trafficking office in DC where just a couple weeks earlier she had not been invited to interview. “Would you like to come work as a contractor with us? Please call!”
August
9 – One week after arriving in DC, Andrea is offered the job
she had her heart set on – the same job that she had previously been denied a
few weeks earlier - which she began this past Thursday, exactly 4 weeks from when we arrived here! I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, but for us, we can
never again say that God’s timing isn’t perfect – even when it doesn’t seem so
from our perspective!
Duncan
Duncan
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