I’m so thankful – I was offered (and I accepted) a new job last Thursday evening.  I’m excited about this job for so many reasons – the opportunity to focus on prevention and primary medicine, being able to help and serve my patients, and working for a good company – but mostly, I’m in awe of how things have worked out.

What do I mean?  Well, it’s hit me that life experiences that were frustrating for me at the time have worked together to build and mold me into what ended up being a great candidate for this position.  One of the requirements of this job was the ability to build trust, quickly form relationships with others, and “go with the flow”.  And over the last 8 – 9 years, I’ve often wondered what was going on with my career and what would happen with all of the the moves we’ve made.  I’ve felt like my jobs were always horizontal moves whereas Chris’ were vertical moves.  His career was improving…. mine was just staying still, but in different locations.

However, little did I know that all of those “horizontal moves” and shifting from hospital to hospital, country to country, was in fact a way to prepare me for this job.  When the interviewers asked me how I was with making relationships, adapting quickly to new environments, and working under stress, I was able to give great examples, both personally and professionally, of how I’ve had to learn to integrate myself into new departments, new cultures, etc., and how this would make me a great employee for the position.

It made me realize how there have been times in my life where I’ve wondered why God was working things out the way that He was, why things weren’t going according to my plans of what a successful career path looked like.  I’m humbled to realize that He had his hand on this all along.  That while I couldn’t see how He was preparing me for this job, He could see it and had a purpose.

And in line with returning to work, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the childcare center we’ve chosen for Joe and Jack now offers a 10% discount for Chris’ employer.  This is a brand new incentive and we’ll be the first family to take advantage of it.  Yet again, a small sign (at least in my opinion!) that we’re moving in the right direction.