PE Teacher In The House!

So the last few months have been a little crazy at our house in the 'employment' department. The story goes like this (you may want to buckle up for this whirlwind ride)...
Jim had been working at Texas Oilpatch doing basically sales of oil parts to oil rig companies for the past year and a half. The job was paying the bills and for the most part Jim didn't mind what he was doing, but I could definitely sense a restlessness in him. He didn't enjoy his job and there were times when he was downright discouraged. It was time for a change. We talked off an on about the possibility of him trying to do teaching again, only this time I encouraged him to try for his certification in PE (whereas we had attempted getting certified in Spanish before). I got my degree in teaching PE and loved it, and I just knew that he would too (after all... athletics has always been such a huge part of his life!). So, with that idea in his mind, and during a particularly stressful period of time at work, he decided to put in his two weeks notice and leave the oilfield business behind. This happened back in May/June. Then it was suddenly a whirlwind of trying to study for the PE certification test, while taking his scouts to scout camp, while looking for possible PE job openings (since that was basically prime hiring time for the upcoming school year), and wondering what we would do if he ended up not getting hired for the upcoming school year. After all... he had just quit his job with nothing actually lined up to take its place! {Side note: We had both felt completely at peace with the decision for him to leave his job, so we were taking this step (albeit a very scary and uncertain step) on faith... thankful that we had some savings to rely on if/when needed.} Well, as it turned out, his brother, Davy, called him to see if he would be interested in selling some land for him... not with the company, but some of Davy's land he personally owned and had invested in. It could be just an interim job or a permanent one if he wanted. It was such a generous offer from Davy and we were very relieved to have something available as both a source of income for the time being (assuming Jim could make some sales) as well as a backup plan in case teaching didn't work out. {Another side note: Davy is constantly watching out for us and helping us out when needed. We feel so eternally grateful to have such a wonderful brother/brother-in-law as him!} So Jim got additionally busy selling land, studying some more, and I got busy searching the internet for job openings, revamping the resume, and applying at several positions for Jim. We were hoping to not have to move anywhere (we LOVE our city!) so I was mostly looking for jobs nearby, but was still applying at some that would have required a move. Jim also has some connections in a few school districts that he put a word in with to let them know to keep their eyes open. Our top hopes were for some openings in Angleton (a commutable distance) and even better was when I saw (and applied for) an opening come available in Pearland (our neighbor city). I even have a good friend (Jackie Shepherd) who works in that school district and asked her if she knew anyone at the school with the opening (Rogers Middle School). She said she did actually know the Assistant Principal there and would send him Jim's resume directly along with a 'glowing recommendation'. :) So she did and we were thankful for her even helping us out that much. But then she even told us about a job opening at the high school (not for PE) with a coaching position that she thought Jim would be good for and she put in a word at the High School level too. (Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness Jackie!!) Anyway, we became optimistic about opportunities when the Pasadena school district called Jim about a PE position they had available (we hadn't even actually applied with them, but they had heard from a coach in Alvin that Jim was looking to get hired), but when they found out he hadn't passed the certification test yet, they said that they couldn't even interview him without having that passed. Ugh. So that put a major damper on our spirits. By the time Jim would take his test and find out if he had passed it, the jobs would be pretty slim pickings... if there was anything available at all. PE jobs tend to be few and go fast (which is why we had opted for trying to get certified in Spanish the first time around). So as time kept passing and we weren't hearing from anyone, we figured all the schools probably had the same policy and we were starting to think that it may just be a year of working in the land business.
Then one morning, bright and early, we got a call from one of Jim's old high school football buddies (Chip Keele) who was an Assistant Principal (although he'd switched to being the HS Athletic Director this year) in his old school district (Shepherd) and said they had an opening just come available for the Athletic Director at the Junior High and basically wanted to offer the position to Jim. Wow! He would be teaching a class about youth leadership/character development and then coaching two to three sports (football, track, and basketball) in addition to being the Athletic Director. The pay in this school district is pretty low (it's a real small district) and it would require us to move... back up to Jim's hometown (which we weren't necessarily wanting to do), but we obviously felt like this was a great opportunity and didn't know how we could pass it up! Even if we didn't make it a permanent spot, it would be a great foot in the door and to be able to have the title of 'Athletic Director' right off the bat would be a great boost for the resume. So we anxiously started looking at all it would take to make this happen. We would need to sell the house, buy a house, have Jim take/pass his test (although they were willing to hire him on a 'permanent sub' basis if he didn't pass his test right away) all within about a month, plus figure out how finances would go with such a low salary, and wow! It was crazy! But we pretty much figured it was going to happen. So we set up a day to go meet with Chip and walk through the school to get a feel for it, learn what his responsibilities would be, and check out housing in the area. When we met with Chip and his wife and did the walk through, everything felt good and right. School was just where Jim was supposed to be. We could feel it. The first crusher was when we found out at the end of the tour and started talking salary that insurance was not actually covered by the schools. In Texas, they have a teacher insurance option-- you choose what plan you want and the district pays a certain amount of it for you, but you pay the rest (which is most of it). It's good insurance at a decent price, but we were under the impression that insurance was covered 100% and had factored that into our ability to make ends meet. So that was a blow. Then we went driving around to look at some housing options we'd seen online, and this was blow #2. Wow. Nothing felt good. Nothing felt even remotely comfortable, and we left the experience with a knot in our stomachs--even though we'd felt so good walking through the school. So we were very confused, to say the least. We were pretty sure this would be Jim's only shot at school employment for this year (because again, he still had to take/pass the test and time was definitely running out) but we were feeling so unsettled about this option. With all the craziness that would be involved in trying to make this work and our own unassuredness, we decided to turn the job down, which was a huge letdown to Chip, and Jim and I both felt terrible about it. I could see Jim weighing the decision in his head as to if he'd make the wrong choice and I assured him that if he wanted to take it, we could make it happen. So he asked Chip when he needed the final word. Chip told him they could wait to see how his test went (which he'd be taking in a week... that Saturday) and talk after that. Well, this time we knew it was time to call on the true power we had been neglecting all along. Not that we hadn't been praying about this... because we definitely had! But this time, Jim set aside a day to go to the temple and pray. He would go on Wednesday, and in the meantime, we started thinking more and more that we would just have to get brave and pull the trigger to get moving on this option. We even had a real estate agent over on Tuesday to look at putting our house on the market. We were fairly certain this is what we needed to do because we just knew Jim was supposed to be teaching. So he took that decision to the temple on Wednesday, and I was just waiting for the call on his way home to say 'pack up the boxes and let's get going' and had already been spending the past few days doing some deep cleaning so the house would be ready to 'show'. However, when he called he had quite the opposite answer. He had felt, yet again, that we should not take this option, but this time he felt at peace with the decision. The temple was just what he had needed in order to not only receive an answer, but to feel settled and good about it. So when he got home we talked and figured this year we would just stay put and sell land and work on getting him certified in as many areas as possible. I was definitely relieved to be able to stop the mad cleaning rampage and relieved that I wasn't going to have to pack up my entire house... especially considering I was about to head out to California in two days for a week (I was going to see my brother get sealed, otherwise I probably would have just cancelled the trip if we were going to be moving!), and I felt a huge relief that Jim was at peace with his decision. More than anything, that was what I had been praying for. So we just sat back and breathed a deep sigh of contentment.
Well... the Lord works in mysterious ways (and by 'mysterious' I mean amazing and inspiring), because the very next morning (Thursday), Jim got a call from Rogers Middle School in Pearland asking if he would be available to interview for the PE position there. (Squeal!!!!!!) He explained to them that he had not taken his test yet, but would be taking it on Saturday (in two days), and wouldn't know the results for probably another week after that. They said that was alright and they'd like to go ahead and interview him anyway. So they set up the interview for the following Tuesday. Holy moly!!! I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a few beats at that time and the thought that came to both Jim and I was that 'ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith'. It felt so amazingly right. Pearland! That would mean no move, a lot better pay (among the top in the state), PLUS Jim could still sell land for Davy on the side for additional income! It was like a too-good-to-be-true type of situation, so I was hesitant to get my hopes up. And I was even MORE hesitant to get my hopes up when Jim went to take his PE certification test the next day. He went into the test feeling pretty prepared. He had been studying well and was a natural in the field anyway. But when he came out of the test, he gave me a call and said that he did not feel good at all about how it went. He said he had probably guessed on about 60% of the questions and I figured that barring divine intervention, this test was going to end up like the last three times he'd tried to pass the Spanish Certification... without passing. And on that note, I packed my bags and Austin and I headed to California (leaving the girls with Jim). :)
Well, the results from the test were supposed to be ready in anywhere from 2-7 days. Experience with the Spanish test was that results always came on the last day possible, so we were not expecting anything sooner, and yet Jim's interview was coming on Tuesday. So he was getting prepared to go to this interview with the feeling that he had likely not passed his test, and not sure how this would all play out. Well, Tuesday morning came, Jim got ready for his interview and then headed over to Davy and Shannon's to drop off the girls and as he was getting ready to leave there and head to the school, he received a text that his test results were ready! This was about 5 days sooner than we were expecting them! He called me right away (in California). I wasn't sure whether to be excited or not. If we checked the results and he hadn't passed, then what was the point in going to the interview? They needed to meet him and see how awesome he is so that they would have no question about what a great job he would do, but they would never hire him if he didn't pass. Oh me of little faith.
Luckily, I happened to know Jim's login and password for the testing site, and from California I jumped online and checked his results. It took me a second to find the information I was looking for, but there it was in big bold letters: PASSED. He had needed a score of at least 260 and had made a 270. I felt completely numbed and shocked. It felt surreal! I called Jim back immediately, and of course I had to play it cool and make him think he hadn't passed... I'm just a stinker like that. :) But as soon as he was thinking I had bad news for him, I let him know the AMAZING NEWS!! HE HAD PASSED!!! We were so giddy with excitement!! Now he was going to be able to go into this interview confident in not only his abilities, but confident with the knowledge that he was officially hirable! :)
Well, I'm sure you can guess how the rest of this basically goes. The interview went really well. Jim learned that he was 1 of 25 applicants (yikes!), but an amazing point came when the Principal (Dana Miles) said to him something to the effect of, 'I believe in divine intervention, and I don't believe it's a coincidence that you're here at this time.' I told that to my mom (who was with me when Jim was telling me all this) and she just teared right up. It really was a humbling experience to feel the hand of the Lord so obviously in our lives. There was a second round of interviews, but they told him right away that he would be getting a call for that. So the next Monday he had his second interview, and on Tuesday morning they called to offer him the position. :)
His position is really about as ideal as they come for a beginning teacher. He is team teaching with another PE teacher who has been at the school for 10 years, so she already has all the lesson plans set up so he is able to just glean from her experience, follow her lead, and add any insights he may have along the way. He does not have a coaching requirement in addition to PE, so he has more free time to be with the family and do land sales on the side. He loves the age group he's working with (5th and 6th grade), he loves the staff at the school, and he absolutely LOVES being able to wear his gym clothes to work everyday. :) Bottom line: He loves his job! I've heard over and over for the past few weeks, "I have a dream job. I have a dream job." :) He will likely be asked to help out with Track and Field at the High School when that season starts in the spring, but that is just another of his passions, so he is excited for that opportunity, especially if he ends up doing it as a full time track coach and getting a coaching stipend for it. {Funny side story: The HS track coaches found out about Jim's abilities/ resume and asked if he wanted a job at the HS instead, but the Asst Principal at Rogers (Doug Hagar) said 'No way! He's signed a 5-year contract with us.' ...which he hasn't, but it's funny that they're fighting over who gets him. :) }

Anyway, to say we feel blessed beyond belief for the way this all played out would be an understatement. This was truly a testament to me of how involved the Lord is in the details of our lives. I know this isn't the first time it's been so apparent, but it is always so remarkable to me when I receive such obvious blessings. I feel so humbled and thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves me and my family so much as to not only bless us with the desires of our hearts, but to give us even beyond what we had asked for. I can only hope that I will always remember how blessed I am and to never take these things for granted. (Hence I have recorded this whole story.) :)
We hope you are all doing well and know how much you are loved as well! Loves!!
P.S. Props to anyone who actually made it through that whole thing. And now you know why it's taken me so long to record it. :)