Chris was actually downsized the Christmas before we got engaged (turned out to be a blessing with the whole getting-married thing), and I’ve been half expecting to be for the last year or so.

He was able to take a full-time job since he had switched to an online degree program a couple of months before, and got a job within a couple of months with a company that often takes forever to hire. The flexibility and low stress of the help desk job, especially with the fun, supportive team he’s worked with, was perfect for planning a marriage, keeping a stressed-out fiancee sane, working on school, working with other NFPs on the side, and being newly wed :)

(Some thought Chis was crazy for ditching a scholarship at a state school to pay for tuition, but it’s been perfect for more than just the job — it also helped him understand my experience with homeschooling, was less stressful for him, has him graduating with a bunch of the certifications he wanted anyway, and has just been a far better education. Don’t get me wrong: He is crazy, just not for that reason.)

Last month, and I’ll brag on him a bit here, he interviewed and was hired for a network engineer job (at the same company), which he was able to apply for because of his incredible work ethic (can you tell I’m proud of him?) — he’d already been the liaison with the network and server teams on several projects.

The new position is right up his alley, will land him a couple more certifications, and is allowing him experience with new implementations and technologies from the ground up.

I just got a job offer yesterday — from a company I submitted a resume to two or three years ago. I didn’t expect to hear back by just submitting a resume, but the copy chief contacted me, had me take copy editing tests by e-mail, then come in for proofing tests and an interview, and I finished runner-up, although with an encouraging e-mail from the copy chief saying she’d be happy to recommend me in the future.

Soon afterwards, I was dating Chris (and dealing with the drama that came with his ex), my brother was getting married, and it was becoming obvious that my parents weren’t happy with a marriage I’d hate. When the copy chief contacted me a year ago, half of our small team at work had quit (making me the longest-employed), my parents divorce was imminent, I had just moved out cause of drama with my dad,  I had a nine-week-old puppy with antibiotic-resistant (really too kind a word) giardia, and things with Chris were getting to the break-up-or-marry point. I had no idea how I’d make the job work and was relieved when someone with a ton of experience displaced her interest.

The timing now is perfect: Chris and I have settled (happily) into the marriage thing a bit, Astara is over a year old and will have a handsome jogging buddy to (hopefully) wear her out, and smaller publications are feeling the squeeze. So many things could have prevented this in the last couple of weeks that it’s all the more obvious how much God has been behind everything going well. (For one, the bi-annual project at my current job was cancelled two days before the copy chief called me.)

As for the job itself — I could not be more excited :) Chris said it’s fun to see me this gleeful again, and it was a liiiiitle awkward giving my first two-week notice while beaming :) Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for us as we take on new jobs, adjust (along with Astara) to new schedules, and look for a home closer to work before our lease is up.

The process takes so much: the excitement and disappointment, four graduate applications, essays, interviews — and the real problem is a lot of the work falls on others: the teachers I actually liked in college and the program heads I’d want to study under if not annoying them first by begging them to let me apply a year early and mail me crazy documents during postal strikes.

Thank you to all who have done this with me: Dr. Jay, Jeff Truesdell, Dr. Deaver, Ron Jones, Mom D, Chris, Rollins College, and the international advisers and program heads at Bath Spa University, Swansea University, University College Falmouth, and University of Winchester. I’m disappointed you guys didn’t get this win: You deserved it.

I knew we really fought well when even Dr. Jay was disappointed that the Marshall didn’t want an interview this year :) And I know it was a God-thing. Mom B was praying for God’s will even though she didn’t want to see Chris and me go, and this was the only year I didn’t make it to the second round for the Fulbright Scholarship — the letter from my most reliable recommender was mailed early and arrived a month late!

I hoped to spend a year on creative and media writing and a year writing for young people — and was excited to bring my best friend and my baby! But who knows what God has, eh? And, you know, I really would miss my pots and cookbooks :)

It was surreal standing on that beach going, “Five minutes, and I’ll be married — that’s crazy. The most serious commitment of my life, and all it takes is five minutes!” And Chris had to wait in the car getting nervous because none of the rest of us realized he didn’t have phone signal!

Chris and I are loving being married, and we’ve been so encouraged by everyone who celebrated with us and sent us congratulations — and ack, there are so many of you that we need to visit and really catch up with! Until then, I’m slowly but steadily writing notes to each of you, but thoughts of what I want to say run through my head a lot more often than I can write them to you.

We both came back to changes at our workplaces, plus a honeymoon’s worth of stuff to catch up on =) Chris has been sick a couple of times, and I had my fall chest cold. (My doctor’s going to check into asthma once I get rid of my cough completely, and both of us have ongoing health issues we’re trying to figure out and fix, if you think to pray about it.) Chris started his final college semester, and I’ve been working on my last entry for the Marshall Scholarship, as well as a Fulbright application. And we’ve had enough annoying little things happening for me to wonder who’s praying for our patience… and whether they’re friend or foe ; )

We’re looking forward to things settling down to a “daily grind” level! Until then, we’re trying to balance work and school and God and thank-yous and cleaning and to-dos and unpacking and time with each other — but we promise we haven’t forgotten you!

After all, you’re why we put a blog up: We hope it’ll help us keep in touch, especially since I’ve been burning through cell minutes with work and scholarships…