Plans To Prosper

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" - Jeremiah 29:11

Some days it's so very hard to trust those words.  Especially when it seems like we are just being pummeled with disheartening news.

Recently we got some bittersweet job news for both me and Cort.

The end of the school year has been stressful for me now for about four years.  Every year they cut more and more positions which puts me lower and lower on the seniority list.  This year I found out that our school would be cutting one English position.  The good news is that they decided to change my current position from full-time English to full-time Spanish in order to save me from being on the pink slip list.  This will however have a domino effect.  The Spanish teacher whose position I am being "given" will be reassigned an ELL (English as a Learning Language) position, and so on and so forth until someone gets the ax.

It's hard to describe how I feel about this without sounding ungrateful.  So let me put it out there right now that I am SOOO thankful that I am 99% sure I will be off the pink slip list and be in a job next year.

However, I just finished up my seventh year of teaching English 11 (juniors) and to think that the curriculum I have dedicated myself to will be given to other people is hard.  I've also spent 10 years getting a Bachelor's and then a Master's degree in English.  I love the subject.  It's my passion.  Don't get me wrong, teaching Spanish is fun, but to NOT teach English is heartbreaking to me.

The plus side will be a LOT less department stress and grading stress.  Hopefully this opens up some of my time for some other possibilities.  I may blog about those as a I get a clearer grasp on their likelihood of happening.

Yesterday Sluiter Nation was dealt another couple sucker punches in the job arena.  Cort got an email from the company he has been waiting WEEKS for an answer from.  He interviewed THREE times with them and waited almost two weeks from the last interview.  Yesterday they let him know they went with someone else.  He also received a phone call from another place he had had an interview with.  No job there either.

So he is back to square one.

Like I said, it's so hard to think that maybe we are just doomed for bad luck.  Both of us want so badly to pursue what we love so we can show Eddie that it's important not to settle in life, but it's hard!

We have to just keep in mind that God has plans to "give us hope and a future".  Every time we have gotten disheartened, he has brought us joy.  He will come through this time too.  We are trying to look at all of this as just an opportunity for both of us to have the chance to pursue dreams and do what we love.

We trust that we will have a great future.  And we know we just have to be patient and listen for the way to go.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." - Psalm 32:8