Flipping the Script

On Friday morning, I received some pretty tough news. My company has been going through a lot of financial woes, and they had to lay off a lot of the staff. Including me.

Huh. Didn't really see that coming.

Honestly, I'm not all that surprised. But it's still a tough pill to swallow.

Our local economy has really been tanking in the past year, and I worked directly in the field that was hit the most. So yea, not so surprising. That also means good jobs are scarce.

Monday morning I woke up to start my first official day of unemployment. I'd already applied for unemployment on Friday afternoon, so check that off my to-do list. I've also applied for 10 jobs so far.

Ten.

That's maybe a lot, but knowing that there's 50+ applicants out there for every job, it doesn't give me much hope. However, I know that God is with me, and he'll get us through this. I don't talk about my faith much here on the blog, but it is the one thing I am desperately clinging to right now. Faith that God has a plan for me, and that he will provide. My next job may not be something I love, or the "perfect" job (I honestly don't even know what that would be), but I know God will direct me where I need to go.

Two funny coincidences I have to mention:

1. Our pastor's sermon this Sunday was about letting go of anxiety and worry, and having faith in God's plan for us. As I sat there in the pew with tears in my eyes, I thought "boy, if I ever needed to come to church on a random Sunday, this was it." We braved -35F temps to go, and I'm so glad we did because the sermon was exactly what I needed to hear.

2. I posted this on my Facebook timeline a few weeks ago:

I didn't realize that this would hit home for me in a few short weeks. I am in a dark hallway right now, but I still have so much to be thankful for! My husband and daughter, unemployment benefits, the fact that we have no credit card debt, that I have good references, that I was laid off and not fired (!), and that I have a God that loves me. Little, insignificant me. But he does!

So, I'm working on creating a new normal for myself and my family. I don't know how long this "hallway" will be (hopefully short), but I'm hanging in there until God opens a new door for me.