The Story Of Us: Careers

Welcome to Part 6 of my series "The Story Of Us". (Sorry it's been SOOO long since my last writing in this series!)

If you have missed any of the other stories so far, here they are for your convenience:
Part 1: The Beginning
Part 2: Dating
Part 3: Getting Engaged
Part 4: Getting Married
Part 5: Infertility

John and I never had any specific education towards a career. We each went to bible school but after going down that road we decided that full-time ministry wasn't really for us. So we just got whatever jobs we could for the time being.

I wasn't really planning on working with the bank forever and actually while pregnant with Brianna I had contemplated running my own daycare so that I wouldn't have to return to work after my maternity leave was done.

John was working for a money-hungry, poor management man. It was a small independently owned machine shop where John was the purchaser. He didn't enjoy his job and I often saw how displeased he was with that part of his life. I encouraged him to figure out whatever he wanted to do, and that we would find a way to make it work. At one point, John even picked up an application for the Saskatoon Police. He never filled it out. For many reasons; it was expensive with CPR/First Aid courses and the actual application fee, the long months of training. It must have been about a year later when I was pregnant with Brie. John figured that he would just be stuck in that type of job forever.

Then that phonecall happened.

It was December of 2003. As I said in the last post, I was 8 months pregnant and anxiously waiting to be done work and to hold our newborn baby. Never once did I consider that either one of us would lose our job security.

John called me at work one afternoon to say that he had just been laid off.

2 weeks before Christmas with a baby on the way in a month or less.

Nice.

I remember bursting into tears at my desk (keep in mind that I worked "reception" and was visible to lots of customers). I quickly got someone to cover my desk without any explanation other than my tears and went into a closed office to call John back.

What on earth were we going to do?

How would we make ends meet?

How could we bring this new life into the world without John having a job to support us?

After a brief explanation to my manager I left work early that day. (I found out afterward that all of my coworkers were concerned that something was wrong with our baby) John and I got home and we both cried. It's kind of hard to not cry in a situation like that.

We called lots of family and a few close friends and asked them to pray for us. One good friend actually called John's boss an *&!@&*! and at the time we completed agreed!

Seriously...who lays off someone right before Christmas?

When they are expecting their first child?

We were mad. And I think that we had every right to be.

But this was also the situation that opened the door to John's future career. (And today I wouldn't have it any other way as this was EXACTLY what needed to happen)

We were desperate!

We updated John's resume and started up the printer. He talked with companies that he dealt with on a regular basis as the purchaser, to find out if they had any openings. Unfortunately, nothing was looking too promising. The timing just wasn’t good.

We started discussing again the possibility of John applying for a police force. But how would we actually be able to afford the CPR/First Aid as well as the application fee, when we were needing to buy diapers and food and pay for our mortgage and utilities?

This is when God really started to show himself to us, during what was a very stressful traumatic time in our lives.

A family member offered to pay for those application costs so that John could apply for both the RCMP as well as the SPS. So John picked up the applications for both organizations and quickly filled them out. For those of you who aren't familiar, a police application is very extensive (for good reason)...lots of detailed questions, lots of references (both work and personal), etc. When the forms were finally all completed, he dropped them off and we waited.

By the time that Brianna was born, we still didn't have a clue what John was going to do. We went into the hospital without him having a job. There was a lot of praying going on!

We stayed in the hospital for 3 days, due to some breastfeeding "issues" that we were having. Becoming parents for the first time and not being able to successfully breastfeed were very stressful issues, but the biggest one was leaving the hospital without a job. John was almost physically sick with the stress of it. We were sleep deprived and overwhelmed.

The day after we returned home, John got a job with Acklands Grainger. We were so very grateful! It's quite difficult to be trusting when you don't have a clue how the money situation is going to work out, but it did. Yet God provided for us in a variety of ways during and after this ordeal.

John started to get phone calls regarding his police applications. He was scheduled for written exams and a PARE (RCMP's physical abilities requirement exam) and a POPAT (SPS's physical abilities exam). Thus began the long road of that process. We had been told that it would take a minimum of about 6-9 months to go through an application with the police. There were lots of other testings; psych exam, polygraph, interview, background check, etc.

John was enjoying his job with Acklands, but we were still hopeful about these two police applications. We knew that he had 2 strikes against him though. He is male and he is white. Unfortunately this makes it much more difficult to enter an organization that is trying to become more diverse in the types of people that it employs.

Both applications were coming down to the end. SPS was calling all references and making their final decisions. RCMP was completing their very thorough background check, in which they even went door-to-door around our neighbours and asked for their impressions.

We finally received notification from SPS that John was not accepted. We were disappointed at the time, but we still remained hopeful for this other application.

John was scheduled for a second PARE, as during the application the score is only good for approximately 6 months. He had improved quite a bit since his initial exam and the very next day there was a phonecall at 9 am. The call display said that it was the RCMP. John was at work so I anxiously answered the phone. The lady on the other line said that she needed to speak with him so I quickly spouted off his work number. Then I waited and waited to hear what the phone call was all about.

Not too long after, John called me. He was leaving for Depot in 2 weeks. He was accepted!

We were thrilled, but this was a time filled with mixed emotions. Depot was in Regina, 2 ½ hours away. We still had a house in Saskatoon and I would definitely need to return to work in order to pay our bills.

Brianna was 10 months old at the time. John was sick about leaving us for 6 months to complete his training. He was terrified that Brie wouldn’t remember him the next time that we would meet. Obviously we were close enough to be able to visit, but the training program is very busy, full of long days, exams and physical exertion. We had no idea how often we would actually get to see each other.

So John made up some home videos for me to play to Brie. There was one of him reading "Are You My Mother", a good morning message and a good night message. We would watch one every day. I definitely had the book memorized. And it was a perfect way for Brie to "see" her daddy every day. We never once in those 6 months had an issue with her playing strange or less than thrilled to see John.

My return to work was creeping up in the new year and although I wasn’t eager to go back, my inlaws were willing to watch Brie thus saving us the cost of paying for childcare. That was a huge incentive to go back, knowing that she was in good hands.

I called up my manager to discuss my return date and was in for a shock. The reception position (technically called "Customer Relations Coordinator") that I had when I left for maternity leave was not up for discussion. She wanted me to return to work as a bank teller.

I was completely devastated. The CRC position that I held was a contract position but we had specifically discussed this before I started my leave. I wanted to know what position I would return to and she assured me that they wanted me to come back to CRC. I had been a teller for 5 years previously, and it was a high stress job for me. I didn’t want to go back into that environment, especially with a one-year old at home, and a husband away for 4 more months.

I started calling up family asking them to pray for this situation. My mom, who also happened to work for the same bank but at a different location, said that her branch was actually hiring a CRC. I called up the manager there to discuss if that would be a possibility. She sounded quite excited and asked me to come in right away to discuss. They were looking to fill the position before Christmas and my leave wasn’t over until the beginning of January. I said that I would be more than willing to cut my leave 2 weeks short in order to get the job that I really wanted, and felt I was best at. I went to that branch for an "interview" and was hired on the spot! How incredible!

So I returned to work at a peaceful location. It was a completely stress-free environment for me. When I left work I could just enjoy my time with Brie and not worry about anything else. Thank you to God for working out the amazing details of that job!

John was able to finish up his training and together we moved to small town Saskatchewan. It was a big change for all of us, but we were finally together again! I didn’t really care where we moved to. I was able to take a Leave Of Absence from my job, so that I could maintain my benefits for a full year.

Amazingly, very soon after we moved, we found out that I was pregnant with Ella! We were excited and blessed to not have to deal with that struggle once again. During the course of my pregnancy I also found out that I would qualify for EI once Ella was born. The minimum hours required to apply was 600. I was literally at about 635. Because I was willing to go back to work 2 weeks early, God was blessing us with EI. This was amazing because currently we were still taking in less money than when we were both working. God definitely had his hand on us to bring us to where we are today.

Now almost 4 years later, I really enjoy the small town life and can hardly imagine living in "the big city" again. John enjoys his job (most of the time) and is currently dreaming about what road to take in his career. There are many options available, but we will just pray and wait and see what God has in store for us next.

With John’s job I have the fortunate experience to get to stay at home with my girls! It is a gift that I am truly very thankful for. I do plan on returning to work in a few years, but that will all depend on where we live, school, extracurricular activities, etc. For now, we can just enjoy where we are.