It's Neither Good Nor Bad

 Have you ever heard the saying, "It's neither good nor bad, it is yet to be seen." My husband told me a Chinese

parable where this was the theme. My recent job endeavors have been like this.

Flashback to 2019. I was pregnant with my second child and a stay at home mom with my daughter. I was currently working a super part-time job that was so perfect. It was only on Fridays. My husband would make that his one admin day where he would work from home. So he'd be home with our oldest and I could go to work. It was at a family practice office. I loved it. I worked with great people and it was so nice to get out of the house. I definitely missed my daughter while I was gone, but it was nice for me. The doctors and staff appreciated me because nobody wanted to work on Fridays lol, except for me. So while everyone was burnt out from the week, I wasn't and came in ready to work. 

So I've got this awesome 'mom' set up. I have my baby and think it'll all stay the same.

Well right before I left to have my baby, some of the management changed. When we talked about me leaving for maternity leave, my boss literally said that she couldn't guarantee my spot once I returned. I later found out that that's completely illegal. You cannot lose your job just because of maternity leave. I was really sad at her comment, but thought I would still be able to get it back because hopefully nobody else would want it. 

I took my minimum 6 week leave, not even the full 12 weeks, and was excited to get back to my one-day-a-week job. So I email and call my manager. She completely ghosts me. I'm persistent, but she won't respond. I'm hurt by this, but felt pretty helpless. 

Cue a visit from the amazing Naomi Sitake. She came just to visit us and meet our new baby. Well she works for the same company, it's a very large company so she works somewhere totally different, but the same company. I tell her about my experience and she explains how it's illegal to do that. That makes me feel better, but I still feel stuck about what to do. Then she tells me about how they need help at the local Instacare and how it has great 'mom' hours too, working just late evening shifts, usually 8pm-midnight. I was super interested and asked for more info. So right then and there she gets me in contact with the Instacare supervisor who sets up an interview for the next week!

I go for the interview and he hired me that day! I immediately started working 8pm-midnight shifts just twice a week! 

This ended up being so amazing for our family. It allowed me to continue working in my field, getting out of the house, and was an even better schedule for our family so that I could still nurse my baby. My husband ended up changing jobs just a little while later and could no longer work from home one day a week and so my Friday job wouldn't have functioned anymore.

Now 4, almost 5 years later, I am still at that same Instacare!! What I thought was such a disaster of losing this great schedule of a job, turned out to be the best blessing. I have a job I love. I worked Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 3+ years. The last year or so those little hours became too much and I switched to just taking on-call shifts that pay more, but are only during really busy hours and only a few times a month.

I could have never created this plan for myself. That is definitely where Gods credit comes in to play. But definitely just want to emphasize the Chinese parable that sometimes things look really bad. Like losing a dream job set up. But be patient. God is involved. I think it all will turn out good if we give it enough time. 

I am grateful to have had my fourth child and just worked my first shift back this past week. That is what prompted this blog post.

When something seemingly bad happens to you, hold on. Pray for Gods will. Things will work out!