new vocabulary word: "furlough"

The good news is I have the day off today.  The bad news is I pretty much have every day off until I can get full-time employment again.

So there I was Thursday, on the side of the road between Shelley and Idaho Falls at 6pm in the driving snow, with a flat tire, waiting for AAA to come take care of me when I made a decision.  Why waste my energy, thought I, on being upset when there was nothing I could do to change the situation and all the other situations that have been happening lately.  The only thing that I can change is my attitude.  So I did.

I had worked so hard all week to get my 32 hours required to accrue vacation/sick pay before Thursday so that Jed and I could take off Friday but then after I got back to Idaho Falls at 8pm I decided it just wasn't worth working another couple hours.  So I drove home in the snow to my lovely Jed and then we headed down to Utah the next day after having to buy a new tire as the old one wasn't repairable.

Then Friday I was called by one of my bosses to let me know that there had been a meeting that morning and they had to cut all of the case managers' (2 full time and 2 part time) hours because they'd made an error on calculating available hours and we'd burnt through them all too quickly.  So she said don't come in for the week while we figure it out.  Oh yea, ok, no big deal..  We didn't technically get laid off; it's a furlough.  New word for my vocabulary.

This week is a mess.  People are quitting left and right and it's a really volatile environment.  I applied for unemployment and am looking for a new job.  There are a few openings, so I should hopefully be okay.  It's pretty lame though; I didn't think 2 months into a career I'd need to be looking for a new job and starting over again..

But here's the thing.  I'm trying to stay positive and not have an anxiety attack over our having a lapse in income when we can't afford it.  Normally I'd be angry, bitter, and frustrated - and though it's difficult and I'm not doing perfectly - this time I'm allowing myself to have faith that God is taking care of us.  He never will leave us alone and always has us in mind.  He knows what's best, He knows what's going on and what struggles we're having.  I know that I can't just sit on my hands and expect Him to drop a job in my lap, but I know that if I do my best, He will make things work together for my good.