And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
I have often heard this verse and not really known how it might feel until the last two months. I needed to write this down not only as a witness to others, but a reminder to myself for the next time I take my life for granted.
Last winter I loved my job more than any other time in my life. I was traveling about 25 or 30 percent, making great money, learning new things and just loving life. In February I began to question some of the financial dealings at work and could not seem to get decent answers to the questions I asked. Work became much less rewarding during the company's financial downturn and I could not seem to gain any satisfaction in that facet of my life. As with all things, dissatisfaction in one area will ALWAYS affect other parts of your life. It may come in varying degrees and some can control it better than others but it's there. I decided to seek a different job with the hope of regaining that rewarding feeling I had during 2007. I could not find a suitable opportunity in Knoxville and we felt led to look in the Northern Kentucky or Cincinnati Ohio area. I found a job with a Fortune 5 company that seemed like the perfect job on paper. Our family had spent the past two summers vacationing in this area and we were really excited about the change of scenery.
I moved to Kentucky while the family stayed behind to sell our house. The first week was spent learning every facet of the company's history, and began to give me a weird vibe all around. After three days of orientation where they tried to convince me my job was like a manufacturing process I finally got some projects assigned to me. One was writing secure hardening guides for servers which I have done on more than one occasion so I just had to tailor them to this company's environment. During this exercise I got my first paycheck. I noticed that I was paying TWO county income taxes, KY is an "occupational state" meaning you pay county taxes where you work, a city income tax and a state income tax. My 8% salary increase from leaving my previous company was more than gone with the 20%+ cost of living. I was stunned and also accepted that this was a lack of research on my part. During this time I had been paid a total of fourteen thousand dollars in house-hunting and temporary living expenses. I also soon realized that this company had some serious issues with their IT infrastructure at a foundational level. Some discussions with different folks made it apparent these issues were not going to be corrected anytime soon either. This lack of concern and efficiency coupled with the cost of living got me to start trying to move home. During the search, we went through several different emotions and most of them weren't good. The relocation agreement states I have to stay for a year or pay the money back. I simply couldn't stomach the thought of living apart for that long, and I certainly didn't have enough money to live apart that long anyway. Mrs. Dude was stuck in TN with all three babies and everything that goes along with that. Our stress level was horrible, even the smallest challenge could become monumental over seemingly nothing. We also had a deadline looming over paying back the 14k since we would incur the taxes on that money if we did not pay them back before the end of December. After finding a new position near Knoxville, I attempted to research the best way to terminate my employment since they shutdown on the 24th and don't reopen until January 5th. I didn't want to "steal" their vacation then walk out the first day back. I approached an HR person about this requesting confidentiality and received almost none. She was able to arrange for me to leave and still receive my benefits through the 26th as my new position doesn't start until the 29th. This allowed me to move home ASAP, AND still have some vacation with my family in Florida next week.
With the frustrations at work and personally while being in Kentucky I could not have even imagined a better scenario as this last week panned out. I felt so helpless and sad listening to some of the conflicts at home or having to deal with being apart from my family for so long. After all the struggles and conflicting emotions this was the most amazing answer to prayer I have ever experienced. It was a good experience for me to learn contentment with my current surroundings, i.e. Knoxville. I am not sorry I left my previous Knoxville employer as I met some neat people in Kentucky. One lady I met has a husband that desperately needs a heart transplant and I have enjoyed speaking with her and getting updates on his condition as time allowed. I have also learned that just because a company is big and successful doesn't mean it's a good career move. The last thing I want to mention is the verse I started with. We used that verse to name our newest family member "Gracie" that I brought home with me from Kentucky. She is a small Dachshund/Hound mix that seems to have captured the hearts of the whole family after our very interesting ordeal.
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