6/10/12

Big Decisions and Hidden Blessings

You know, timing is an interesting aspect of this life. For a long time, we tried to add a little person to our family. Then, once it happened, life told us that it was time for another change, too. (This is a long post; just scroll to the bottom if you want to read about the end result.)

Nick has enjoyed work as a civil engineer. He has enjoyed the challenges and successes as well as the people he has met through work. But he was starting to feel a bit trapped, like there was more for him possibly elsewhere. We tried a few times to see if he could get such things at his current job, but it didn't quite work out. At one point, I told him to start looking for jobs to apply to, but he refused and said we needed to wait until after the baby.

Shortly after this point, he went to a conference in Cheyenne, WY. While there, he was approached by two separate people about three possible job opportunities. It became rather obvious at that point that it really was time to look. We decided that he should apply but that we should see what else was available to us. The result was several job offers and the need to decide where we should end up.

First, he was offered a very good job in Cheyenne with the Water Development Commission. It was a very nice offer, so we decided to drive up over Easter weekend to visit Cheyenne once again (it had been a long time since I'd been there) and see how we felt about it. Truthfully, I had never really felt good about Cheyenne. There are people I love who live close to there, but it just didn't ever feel right; in fact, it felt very wrong. But Nick still needed to come to the same conclusion. On the way there, though, he got a phone call requesting him to interview for a job with Idaho Power. (By the way, he really, really wanted this job.) That phone call, and the fact that Cheyenne just didn't feel right, helped us both decide that we needed to continue looking at our other options. It was hard, but we turned the job down.

Nick had an over-the-phone interview with Idaho Power soon after that he didn't feel good about. But they told him they were going to hold face-to-face interviews the next week on the 26th. (An interesting side note: Nick had tracked down some contacts via a family friend who lives in the area where this job would be, and he planned to call them. Somehow though, we couldn't find the paper he wrote the names and numbers down on. We searched and search, but to no avail. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had he been able to make those phone calls.) Then we found out that he didn't make the cut to the second round of interviews, and for a couple of days he was very, very disappointed. Then an interesting thing happened.

During the job hunt, Nick found an intriguing job listing in Douglas County, NV. It's a civil engineering job for the county there, which happens to be nice and small community no more than a day's drive away. It paid well and offered good benefits, so he applied. He got a call to come in to interview on the 26th. That's right. Interviews there were scheduled to be on the same day as the interview with Idaho Power would have been. Interesting how the chain of events allowed Nick to interview with Douglas County.

During this trip, Nick also stopped in Richfield, UT to interview with a consultant engineering company there. The trip resulted in two job offers. Let's just say that it was very, very difficult to decide on paper which offer would be better. The consulting company was a great company and they offered Nick the chance to work in Price and possibly become their new office manager after six months, and it was a lot closer to family. The job in NV didn't pay quite as well, but had several PTO and retirement benefits, yet is far from family. It became a matter of prayer. I'm very grateful for answered prayers.

As a result of all of this, we accepted the job in Douglas County, NV. They agreed to let Nick start after the baby comes, but they want him there as soon as possible. Bitter sweet. It's a good job in a great area, but it's a long ways away from friends and family. We're interested to see what the next phase of our life brings in so many exciting ways.

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