I loved MamaKat’s writing prompts this week and spent quite a bit of time tonight thinking about where I could go with each one. I haven’t been feeling very inspired lately, most likely due to my being home-bound for nearly two full weeks. Thursday marks the 10th straight school day that I have had at least one child home sick. I am tired of seeing nothing but the inside of my house and doing nothing but cook, clean, blog, and hold fussy children.
Wait. That sounds like a normal day. Maybe the difference in the way it feels lies in the absence of choice to do anything else.
But I’m getting off track. I was trying to pick a prompt for today. Picking a favorite photo would be easy. Heaven knows I take enough of them (have you seen my Photo-a-day project pics lately?). I’ve never had a blind date, so that one was out. I’ve had plenty of joyous moments in my life, but frankly….right now I just don’t feel joyous.
So here I am, about to share with you, my loyal and my new readers, the story of one difficult decision I’ve had to make lately.
I’ll rewind to November 2007, when CandyMan had just received a fabulous job offer at a computer consulting company. Hmmm…..maybe that’s not far enough back. I suppose I should give a little background to those of you who don’t get to hear me ramble in real life. I’ll take you back to 1994….
Don’t laugh too hard. Don’t we look cute??
When I met CandyMan, it didn’t take me long to figure out that he had a passion for languages and teaching. And yet he didn’t want to be a language teacher. He graduated with a dual degree in Russian and International Relations and quickly discovered that a degree like that doesn’t take you very far. It was not easy to find that first job. Luckily, he is a hard worker and can do a little bit of everything. But he’s never stopped looking for THE job–the one that would be a good blend of fulfilling and profitable work. The one that would make a difference.
Back to November 2007 (you thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?)…CandyMan took the new job and was thrilled with the new skills he was learning and the people he was working with. About 6 months into it, though, a few things turned sour and it became apparent that he would need to look for new employment. The same old question came up. Where to from here?
At the end of June, a meeting with his bosses was set for a Friday. Candyman came to me on Thursday night and said, “I know it doesn’t make any sense, and I know we had planned on me staying with this job until I found a new one, but I feel like I need to go in to that meeting tomorrow with my resignation.”
It didn’t make sense. And yet I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. And I agreed with him.
We made the difficult decision to follow a prompting that made no sense. It scared us. There was no foreseeable positive outcome. But we both felt strongly that it was what we needed to do.
It was later that weekend that CandyMan made another announcement–that he felt like he needed to focus his attentions on completing the language learning program that he had been contemplating for so long. He was going to take all of those scribblings and notes and make something out of his ideas.
So we made another difficult decision. We halted the search for a new job and took a leap of faith. We started a new company. We believe in it. We have been guided and supported through nothing short of a series of miracles–not the least of which is the fact that there is peace in our home. We are not overly stressed and we’re getting along (most days).
This is not something we could have done alone. We haven’t been alone. And what was mere scribbles 7 months ago is now Peanut Butter–Language Learning that Sticks (if the name sounds goofy at first, think about it a little while. Will you forget it when you leave this page, or is it something that will stick in your head?). It’s still in production, but it’s going far. Remember, 7 months ago it was only random notes.
I don’t know where our leap of faith is going to take us, but I’m not too worried. We’re in good hands.
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