Motherhood

My dear cousin, Mandy posted this on her blog. Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God It's a wonderful message from Jeffrey R. Holland. How appropriate for all of us mothers that struggle day to day with our children. Each give us something different to stress over. Babies frustrate their parents because they don't know why the baby is crying sometimes. Toddlers throw tantrums demanding whatever they want. Teens are similar, although they've graduated from tantrums to sulking and/or stomping off to their bedrooms and slamming doors.

My baby has been ill with a virus. The pediatrician even mentioned Rotavirus since she was losing lots of fluids from both ends. Luckily she wasn't dehydrated and is already starting to feel better. Matt was bitten by ants and his feet were swelling up like balloons, so that was worrisome as well. But I think my greatest stress was telling my oldest that Joe had been offered a job in Arizona that we're considering.

The job doesn't really pay any more than what he's making, but we'd be closer to family. That's a big plus. The down side is that it is a six month contract-to-hire, and Joe's afraid of being burned. He had one of those with FedEx years ago and was told that was how FedEx hired. He got into the position and then was told that the hiring wasn't a guarantee. He stressed so much over that nine years ago. We were fortunate, though, and FedEx did hire him when the contract company was ready to cut his pay due to FedEx being unwilling to pay the company as much for contractors. Joe said he couldn't do that and was going to look elsewhere, so FedEx hired him even during a hiring freeze. He doesn't want to go through that process again.

Yesterday he called the church offices since he interviewed with them a few weeks ago. Tuesday he should know more about what the status is for that position. He'd rather get the job in Utah, but we'd only be two hours form his sister in Arizona, so that's a positive aspect. Now it's lots of prayer and soul searching and doing number crunching to see if this move is going to be financially possible. Joe keeps saying that it's going to be hard and I keep thinking of the saying "I never said it would be easy, only that it would be worth it."

Hopefully whatever job he gets will be worth the long wait and the various stresses that we've had in the job search. We're flabergasted that he was offered this position without even an interview and that the government told the contracting company they wanted Joe in the position two hours after getting his paperwork. Apparently it generally takes days or even weeks for them to get an answer. I talked to my mom on the phone the other day and she said that maybe somebody received inspiration that Joe was to get the job and never felt the need to interview because of it. It sounds like that may be the case. Now if Joe can decide what the Lord is telling him to do.

Me, I feel another move coming on and am starting to organize the house and get things ready for Goodwill. I had considered a yard sale but decided that I don't have the energy to sit in the 100 degree heat and humidity all day trying to get rid of stuff. Besides that, the tax write off for the charitable contribution could be worth more than the money I might be able to make selling our old stuff in a yard sale or through eBay. Now if I could just convince the kids that getting rid of more of their toys is a GOOD thing... I may just have to endure the tears and chalk it up to one of those trying days that Elder Holland spoke of...