Today begins a new normal for our family as my husband starts his new job; I feel like I sent off a child to a new school. He left home at 6 a.m. so Atlanta traffic could not making him late on Day 1.
Bryan not only lost his job of 17 years on April 3, but also the day-to-day interaction of co-workers who’d become friends. He didn’t dwell on it, but I know he felt it. He’d spent more waking hours of the work week with them than us for a long time.
Now we’re hitting the reset button on our Monday-Friday routines. In order to meet his 10:30 bedtime goal on the first night, we sacrificed our nightly binge of Turn: Washington’s Spies in favor of an early shower for him while I steamed wrinkles from his dress shirts.
I will miss our days together but I’m thankful we enjoyed them, unclouded (for the most part) by fears for our future. We think this new position is the best for him out of all the possibilities, and it wasn’t even available when the job search began.
Never doubt the Lord’s perfect timing.
Bryan has a deeper understanding of our days at home, although he mostly saw our summer schedule rather than the school year routine.
Three of the kids are out-of-town with friends and the remaining daughter just left for the day. It’s awfully quiet.
Is there an area of your life where you have to (or need to) hit the reset button and establish a new normal?
This post was such a blessing to me this morning. I pray that yesterday was a good day for your husband – and that you even came to enjoy all the extra quiet:) God’s timing really is perfect….and learning to rest in it is a wonderful feeling!
Thanks for sharing. Enjoy the “new normal”!!
Jennifer, I’m still adjusting. The new job is going well, but we’ve gone from spending all day together to barely seeing each other, thanks to my busy evening schedule this week. Hooray for the weekend! 🙂
Congratulations to your beloved, Bryan, on his new position, gift-given by the Lord in His perfect time. I had to smile over the phrase “new normal,” simply because I don’t even know how to define normal in the first place. 🙂 Patsy Clairmont has been noted as saying that normal is a setting on a hairdryer. What I so appreciate about your journey, Dawn, is how you and Bryan refused to let doubt and even despair of the unknown cloud your journey. What you made normal was your usual t rust in the Lord to provide for your days as you leaned on Him. I know you will both continue to do that as you move forward into new job territory. Remember, He has already gone ahead of Bryan and has winnowed his path. He waits for him there, and amazingly, also walks right along with him along the way, and stays behind with you at home. What a good God we serve!
Love
Lynn
Lynn, I think you are so right that this is the position the Lord had in store for Bryan. I’m not sure anything in our household can ever be defined as normal. 🙂
Yes, I’m resetting the button now. Our new norm has just changed with a new job I started yesterday. I was so stressed out, or the smells of the building, I’m not sure which, gave me a migraine that caused me to be sick, and pull over to sleep on the way home…rinse and repeat until a 35 minute drive took me almost 3 hours. I was praying the second I awoke. If this is where God wants me to be, and all things considered, it must be, I’m praying for the migraine triggers to be gone. 🙂
I hope your husband has adjusted well now and is getting into the groove of the new job and routine. That summer off together was surely a gift for you all. 🙂