Good Things To Come

I have mentioned in earlier posts that our move to Texas two years ago was quite a bit more difficult than we expected. We had spent well over a year planning the details of our move and looking into all of our options. Originally Marcus wanted to move back "home" where the economy seemed better for finding a first job, after graduating with a health science degree, and certainly would be a less expensive place for us to buy our fist home.

Well, after months of applying and interviewing for jobs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area it became obvious that we were wrong. Every job offer came with a much smaller salary than we hoped for or paid commission... something we were not comfortable accepting. We also discovered there was very little room for growth in any of the companies with his current degree. We felt hugely disappointed.

Hours and days and weeks of talking lead us to a point where we felt it was in our best interest for Marcus to pursue his dream of applying to medical schools. We knew it would mean a great deal of work just for him to bring himself to a point where he was a qualified and competitive applicant, let alone all the cost of time and money that would come if he actually got in. We decided, though, that as long as he was able to support our family and go back to school for the classes he needed without going into further educational debt that we really had nothing to lose. So, Marcus started looking for jobs that would provide what we needed financially as well as allow him the flexibility to go to school. And guess what? A job fell right into his lap.

With everything in place we moved to Texas in August of 2008, just 3 weeks after our little James was born. We knew we were going to have a challenging few years, but we had no idea just how difficult they were truly going to be.

I'll spare you most of the details. After all, there was good reason to not blog all about them in the first place. Let me just say, though, that Marcus and I found ourselves feeling very alone shortly after our move and our hearts ached for the love we had felt from family and friends when we lived in Utah. On top of that, our apartment was a dump. The area was full of crime and our neighbors were quite contentious and aggressive. We put our 60 day notice in as soon as we could and found a place we loved about 30 minutes away.

Just a week after Marcus started his new job he was offered a management position for another company. It had a better schedule and a nice salary, so he left the first job and excitedly took the second. Unfortunately, after about eight months the owner did away with his position. He allowed him to continue working for a smaller wage, but Marcus was forced to find other employment. We were relieved when he was hired to do marketing for a home care company. Five months later, though, they nearly went under and everyone was suddenly out of work.

We were blessed to have a good friend who owns a pest control company offer Marcus a job as a technician. We were especially happy that he was willing to put him on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday schedule so he could go to school full-time on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. This last summer Marcus joined the sales team and was able to boost our income quite a bit. In August, he was offered a position as the office manager and he has greatly enjoyed it.

School has been challenging, but pretty much what we expected. Marcus successfully completed 35 credits of hard science classes last school year and is currently taking 14 more, with 12 to come this next spring. He studied for and took the MCAT last summer and is preparing for a second test date to improve his score in the coming months. He completed his first round of medical school applications but anticipates having to apply again this next year. In addition to his work and studies, Marus has been shadowing a family physician for six months as well as serving as an assistant scout master for our church’s troop of Boy Scouts.

Our life has certainly been filled with a lot of ups and downs since our move, but I am certain each challenge has ultimately strengthened us. I truly believe that there is bright reason for us to hope for better days ahead, and that makes it easy to feel joy in the more difficult times we occasionally face now.

I wanted to share a clip that I love called “Good Things To Come”. I have watched this over and over and over… and it always encourages me to just keep moving forward. I truly believe there is always reason to hope for good things to come, GREAT things even.