WORK- A Sweet Four-Letter Word

I have a job!!! I can't tell you how absolutely wonderful it is to go to WORK! And it is at BYU of all places; they have a hiring freeze going on. Back on December 9th I decided to apply for a rare job opening at BYU. Two days later I was contacted for an interview for the following Monday. The job is for a marketing consultant at the Print and Mail Production Center in the University Press Building. I interviewed with 5 people and left feeling OK about how it went. I was called on Wednesday for a 2nd interview for Friday. That interview was much more formal and was with one of the VP's. I left that one feeling a bit down, thinking that I should have done better. Not a good way to go into the weekend. Monday morning Ken, my former boss, called me to say that BYU had called him for a reference check. John Gerhauser called to say the same thing. Monday afternoon I was called by Doug, my new boss, to come in Tuesday morning. I got there and he offered the job to me. I got emotional right on the spot! What a HUGE blessing and relief! And I love my new job, the environment, the people are all awesome and I truly couldn't be happier! And my wife likes me again!!!
November was getting real depressing- thinking about not having a job going into the Holidays. The Wakefield's were getting ready to move and I was really struggling. The weird thing is I couldn't get into the Christmas spirit, even though, as my daughter said, "You've been listening to Christmas music since October!" I just couldn't feel it, though. I told Jayton that I would probably get a job as soon as he moved and sure enough, after packing their truck in the 9 degree weather, this all happened. (We still are having Wakefield with drawls) This was one of the weirdest Christmases ever. We did go to Carl's house for Christmas Eve and had a fun time as usual. We came home and Madalyn did a Family Home Evening lesson for us that saved my Christmas! It was a great spiritual experience.
I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning where Nephi first mentions the "tender mercies of the Lord" and also about keeping the commandments and being led to a land of promise. It was a small reminder to me that the Lord has blessed me with this job.
So, there you have it. It has been a HUGE learning experience for me and my family, and hopefully one we won't have to endure ever again. The stress of unemployment is not fun, but I learned you have to just keep plugging away day after day. It gets way depressing at times and you almost don't want to be excited about interviews because when they fall through or don't work out and your back to square one, well, the emotional roller coaster is not fun. Our hearts go out to our friends who are still looking for work. Maybe our stupid fool President and the bumbling congress should come live with a few unemployed families and see what priority healthcare or cap n' trade really are on the list when you don't have work.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers and to those who have been so generous with their means. It has been an eye-opening experience of the goodness of my neighbors and the Christlike attitudes and love they share.
And as Peter, one of my classmates in the MBA program said, "Make sure you Pass it on".