Sunday, July 25, 2010

a year and a half.

It's been almost a year a a half since we left Asia to clear our heads and "figure things out." We're settled, I gave birth to our second baby, we bought a house, and have a new career on the way, but my head is no clearer and I've figured nothing out.

A good friend recently told Mr. Reliable that he has felt that his time in the ministry is a race and he has always vowed to finish well; not knowing wether that finish line is at the end of his life or just around the corner. Mr. Reliable later explained his feelings to me this way:

"It's like I was running a marathon. I was doing well, keeping a steady pace the all of the other runners, not struggling to keep up and not running far ahead, just running well. Then, when I closed my eyes for a second it was gone. Not as though I had finished the race, but like it simply vanished. There was no trace of the race, so sign of the other runners, and no markers for the course. I couldn't find any evidence of it at all."

He put into words exactly what I have been feeling for the last year and a half. I just keep hoping that as we move on with life, we'll find more than just proof of some race, but maybe we'll stumble onto the... I was going to say prize, but that's not really what I'm looking for. The truth. Maybe we'll stumble onto the truth.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

He Did It!

He did it!
Mr. Reliable is officially a fire cadet!
2 boys with fevers are calling my name; but I had to share my excitement!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Fighting Fire

Tonight is Mr. Reliable's last night at a job he hates. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. He's leaving his steady job, (at which he would easily be promoted within 2 years) to fight fire. He has applied for the fire academy that 23 of the fire departments in our area hire from; but we won't find out if he gets accepted until the last week of July (the academy starts the first week of August). We saved and saved and have paid our mortgage and car payment ahead until February; we've done all we can to get our ducks in a row. So now we wait.




He's not a man who can just "do a job" for a paycheck. He needs to do something he finds meaningful. The job he is leaving could lead to a $100,000 a year salary within 10 years, the one he's trying to get will probably never reach anywhere near those numbers. But it will allow him the freedom to love people, to treat people with compassion and respect, and to be with people in their hour of greatest need, and no six-figure salary can compare to that. I'm so proud of him and there is no one I'd rather be out on a limb with.